7 replies to this topic

[airline55]

Well, one of the national newspapers (USA Today I think) got ahold of the NW/DL merger rumor and said that there has been some work going on with the name Delta Orient. Taking the "Delta" name and using the old NW "Orient".

I dunno, this is a strange name for a US airline.

[a]

Yeah it sounds asian. Lol.

[RmTrice]

Not going to happen. Northwest Airlines has to remain under the name "Northwest Airlines" in order to operate its US-Asia routes. If they change their name, they will not be allowed to operate on those routes anymore. The deal was made a long time ago with the Asian governments (Japan, China, etc...) and as long as NW stays NW, they can keep those routes.

[airline55]

goo, now what about Delta's europe routes?

[RmTrice]

As far as I know, Northwest will assume control of Delta's Europe routes.

By the way, I am willing to bet on NW and DAL merging. My reasons are:

1. NW has told my father to begin looking for hangar space and/or an actual hangar building for Northwest to purchase and move into in the near future at MCO. (Note that DAL is the 2nd largest carrier at MCO and NWA isn't nearly that big...yet)
2. NW/DL are drastically changing almost identically to eachother.
3. My father who is a ranking official in the Maintaniance Management area of NWA, strongly believes in the merger taking place for obvious reasons.
4. It's a perfect match. NW's Asian routes and DAL's European routes fit nearly perfectly togeather. All that needs work is the domestic routes which u see both airlines drastically changing within days of eachother.

[Edited on 9/24/2005 by RmTrice]

[airline55]

What will happen to DTW?

[StephenM]

It would be interesting to see what DAL and NWA would do with the DUB-ATL route, they operate a 777 into DUB during the summer, the old MD-11 skidded off the runway and destroyed the engine, on a typical day at Dub (ie Lashing rain). They are the only carrier to bring that type of capacity in on a daily basis.

[RmTrice]

I wish I knew for sure what would happen to DTW. What I do know is that NWA has had a 30-year lease on the Midfield Terminal in Detroit, not to mention those extremely profitable Asian routes and the flights to Amsterdam. NW isn't going to leave Detroit in my opinion, it'd be suicide to downsize an airport known as Northwest's World Gateway. DTW has plenty of room for new terminals as well, so if it comes down to moving leftover DAL flights from Cincinnati to DTW, I can imagine that NW wouldn't have much of a problem doing so.

Then again, this is all speculation based on logic and what I (as well as my dad and his bosses) think would make sence. NW is good at shocking the aviation community so for all I know they may end up not buying out DAL. But so far, all signs point to YES.