Delta, Air France - KLM, and Northwest

In this day and age, there are a lot airlines allinces, but none stronger than one existing within SkyTeam. Delta and Air France have, for years, had very strong ties. Northwest and KLM are considered, by many, to be one airline, especially with their profit sharing. Now that Air France and KLM are one airline, the image has almost come full circle. The one missing peice is the joining of Delta and Northwest, to create the biggest airline, ever. Together, could emerge from Chapter 11, and be the face of the all new American aviation industry. One of the main barriers is that there are no aircraft that the two airlines have in common, except for the 757-200, but even those have different engines! One of the best things that the two airlines have that is different is their route structure. Northwest has a very extensive Pacific route network, and Delta has a pretty large European route structure, which has expansion in store. The presence over the Atlantic could be incresed using the Northwest 757-200's, like Continental (The Delta 757-200's have non-ETOPS engines). Sure, some aircraft would have to go, such as the DC-9, the DC-10, the 737-200, the 737-300, and the 747-200, but that is okay. The most important thing is to have most of the legacy carriers out of bankrupcy. It is possible that this new carrier may cause troubles for some of the other legacy carriers, but I do not think that we will see any of them going away any time soon.

Just my two cents...

~MD-11

Be sure to check back tomorrow for my opinions on today's aviation related stories.