(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-04-15 09:39

Many analysts predicted an eventual Delta-Northwest merger after Anderson, a former Northwest CEO, was named last August to be the chief executive officer of Delta.

Anderson, who was Northwest's CEO from 2001 to 2004, immediately sought to quiet those suggestions, telling Delta's pilots union chairman the morning his appointment was announced that he believed in Delta's standalone plan and that "he was not coming in as CEO to facilitate a merger with Northwest."

But eight months later, that's what Anderson is doing, and many analysts believe he didn't have a choice amid plummeting airline market values and soaring fuel prices.

Wall Street and some airline executives have pushed for consolidation for years, arguing that too many seats are chasing too few passengers. The resulting discounting has made it hard for airlines to cover their expenses.

However, Northwest and Delta overlap relatively little in the US -- which could actually help them gain antitrust approval. Delta's routes are strongest in the eastern US and to Latin America and Europe. Northwest would complement that with its near-lock in the Midwest along with flights to its Tokyo hub and other points in Asia.

Northwest's Asian routes have been one of its main appeals to other carriers. It and United are the only two US carriers with the rights to pick up new passengers in Japan and fly them farther into Asia. Delta and Northwest also complement each other internationally because they are both part of a marketing alliance that includes Air France-KLM.

US airlines get the majority of their revenue from domestic service, though that trend has shifted in recent years as more carriers, particularly Delta and Northwest, have sought to increase international service.

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