Could latest airline deal spur others?

0 Comments | USA TODAY, April, 2008 | by Dan Reed

A marriage of Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines might be only the starting gun for a final round of consolidation 30 years after deregulation.

"There's no doubt that all their big competitors will have to respond" with deals of their own, says Darryl Jenkins, who worked on the Delta-Northwest merger as a consultant to a third party involved in the negotiations.

Delta-Northwest "will have such a huge global reach that all the other guys will have to do something to match them, and do it pretty quickly," says Jenkins, author of the Handbook of Airline Economics. "The merged Delta will have such reach, from Asia to Europe, and all over the USA, that they will be very close to being the first truly global airline."

Northwest CEO Doug Steenland said...