Now Says Pilots Don't Have To Agree On Terms

According to reports coming out of Atlanta and Minneapolis, officials at Northwest Airlines -- motivated to see an oft-reported joining with Delta Air Lines come to fruition, as fuel prices continue to climb -- now say pilots at both carriers don't necessarily need to come to terms on seniority agreements ahead of such a merger.

That's quite a reversal from earlier positions held by both carriers... that pilots would need to come to at least preliminary terms ahead of a merger, in order to avoid labor entanglements down the road.

As ANN has reported, merger talks broke down after executives with both the Delta and Northwest chapters of the Air Line Pilots Association failed to agree on such terms... but Northwest appears willing to deal with those (likely inevitable) problems later, in the interest of seeing a Delta/Northwest merger happen now.

An anonymous source told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday that Delta will consider Northwest's latest overture... but may not respond for as long as a week. Officially, Delta will not comment on whether such an overture was even made.

"We can't confirm any details of our board's process," said Delta spokesman Kent Landers. "We support industry consolidation as a vehicle to ensure Delta remains an industry leader."

There are signs, however, that Delta management is at least looking at such an offer closely. On Friday, Delta CEO Richard Anderson and CFO Ed Bastian cancelled weekend press junkets celebrating Delta's first flight to London's Heathrow airport and Shanghai, China, respectively.

While rumors of progress towards a Delta/Northwest deal will brighten the moods of investors in the carriers, the report was met with disapproval from the leader of Northwest's pilots union.

"In order for any airline merger to be successful, the pilots of both groups must be involved and agree to the terms," said Northwest ALPA Chairman Dave Stevens said in a statement. "We will reserve our judgement and support until the economic and contractual elements of an agreement have been negotiated."

Stevens added any merger also must be in the interests of customers and employees, "not just the shareholders."

There's nothing legally stopping Delta and Northwest from proceeding with merger plans without agreements between pilots on how to integrate seniority lists... but history shows such a move would be ill-advised, at best. Pilots at the former America West and US Airways are still grappling with just such issues, nearly three years after those two carriers merged.

Airline consultant Mike Boyd noted failure to come to terms early on how to integrate pilot ranks at both Delta and Northwest would have consequences down the line. "You could end up with Hatfields and McCoys in the cockpit," Boyd said. "The question is: Just how much warfare will there be?"

A senior Delta pilot also weighed in, telling the AJC a shotgun merger between Delta and Northwest would almost certainly spell trouble down the line. "You get people in the cockpit trying to work together, and you find out they have filed a lawsuit against your parent company," the unnamed pilot said. "It's not the best of situations."

That same pilot also echoed his company's line -- that Delta is ready to proceed as a stand-alone carrier, even if Northwest isn't.

"If they can work it out, fine. If they can't, fine," he said.

FMI: www.delta.com, www.nwa.com