OK, I lied.  I have a few more notes on the merger.  Today I wanted to mention what I call the Fallacy of the Larger Route Map.  One of the key benefits that Delta is mentioning in the merger talk is that there is little overlap in the Delta and Northwest route maps.  This would [...]

I’m not going to write much about the Delta – Northwest merger because you’ll find plenty about it elsewhere, but there are 2 points I’d like to make:
- This is not a done deal. There will be significant pilot opposition to this, and that should not be discounted.
- In theory – theory – I [...]

You’ll read about this everywhere else, so I just wanted to make sure you saw that Delta and Northwest could announce a merger as soon as Tuesday.  Blah blah blah pilots seniority, blah blah blah consolidation, blah blah blah crazy idea, blah blah blah two wrongs don’t make a multi-billion dollar right.

The modern-day US airline industry, which allowed people to fly all over the country for roughly the same price as a couple of steaks at Morton’s, died last week after a long illness. It was 30 years old.
The cause of death was oil. And irrational pricing. And low fare carriers. And [...]

How bad is the fuel situation? Delta just announced that it will offer buyouts to 30,000 staff, or roughly half its workforce, and shrink domestic capacity by an additional 5% this year. They hope to layoff about 2,000 people through this program.
This week they’ve already announced that they’re discontinuing service to a number [...]

Delta and American Express just announced their Pay with Miles program, and it’s actually quite good (assuming you have a Gold or Platinum American Express SkyMiles credit card*). In short: You can pay with flights using miles, with 10,000 miles knocking $100 off the flight’s cost. This isn’t great for business class [...]

Delta announced that it will launch nonstop flights from JFK to Georgetown, Guyana, beginning in July – fares are about $600 round trip for the 4x weekly service.  Much has been made of Delta’s international expansion, and I’ll give them a ton of credit for trying some of the more obscure visiting-friends-and-relatives (ie, VFR) markets [...]

The NY Times is reporting that Delta and Northwest are close to announcing a merger, an announcement of which will supposedly be shortly followed by Continental and United joining forces.
You’ll read plenty of commentary about these mergers elsewhere, so you don’t need me to analyze the minutia, but let me say this:  if you thought [...]

Ah the good old days. Remember back in 2005 when Delta introduced SimpliFares and they were going to cap fares at $599 each way and end Saturday night stays? Those days are looooooong gone.
This article notes that a number of airlines (including Continental, American, United and Northwest) have re-introduced Saturday night [...]

The AP is reporting that Delta Air Lines is insisting that, should it merge, the new airline will have the Delta name and be headquartered in Atlanta.
I’ve often said that there’s some truth in every rumor, so I don’t doubt that this issue has come up, but do you really think they’d kill a multi-billion [...]