The airline industry is shakin’n bakin lately. With American Airlines having so many flights grounded for inspections, fuel prices rocketing and not showing any mercy signals of slowing down, airlines going bankrupt is just the icing on the cake. Four other small airlines have filed for Chapter 11 in the last few weeks. Delta and Northwest didn’t let that stop them though; they came through bankruptcy protection a year ago, and although they’re still losing money, have decided to merge. The decision was made yesterday by both companies’ boards, although federal officials still have to approve it. This news clip talks about a few key points.
This union will make the world’s largest airline, beating out American Airlines for that title, and a combined workforce of 80,000…for now. Of course it’s not all roses – any merger means ‘restructuring’, or for the layman, cutting a lot of jobs and probably a number of other growing pains. Delta’s getting the upper hand here, since the new company will retain their name and chairman, although Northwest’s chairman will come on the new board as vice-chair.
