Airline Tizzy
Hedge fund managers managed to put Delta and Wall Street into a tizzy today with the suggestion that Delta merge with another airline. A letter, sent from Pardus Capital Management to Delta, urged the airline to "enter into a merger transaction with another carrier." The letter goes on to suggest that United would be a suitable consolidation partner. Then the Associated Press ran a story saying that it had "learned" that United and Delta were in consolidation talks. Wall Street reacted by sending Delta and United stocks soaring. Delta responded this afternoon with a press release that says in part, "Delta Chief Executive Officer Richard Anderson said: “There have been no talks with United regarding any type of consolidation transaction and there are no such ongoing discussions."
If oil prices continue to climb, we'll see more of this sort of news. A consolidation of United and Delta? I shudder to think what the implications might be for this airport. Between the two of them, they provide us with service to four of our 12 destinations.
Kent
Marks follows-up on this posting: "I don't see a United/Delta merger actually happening. But with nearly every major airline CEO calling for consolidation, what do you think is the best combination for SGF and the industry as a whole? And do you think a consolidation involving Delta would increase or decrease their service to SGF? Thanks a lot for any answers."
What's the best combination for us? Honestly, that's a hard question to answer. Trying to predict what will happen is mostly pure speculation. Consider what happened when American bought out TWA in 2001. St. Louis lost its TWA hub status and we stopped flying several hundred people a day to St. Louis. Now they fly to Dallas on American. That was a fundamental shift in our "traffic pattern." Did it hurt us? Did it help us? Depends on who you ask!
Will consolidation involving Delta increase or decrease our service? I won't even hazard a guess!
1 Comment
Reader Comments (1)
I dont see a United/Delta merger actually happening. But with nearly every major airline CEO calling for consolidation, what do you think is the best combination for SGF and the industry as a whole? And do you think a consolidation involving Delta would increase or decrease their service to SGF? Thanks alot for any answers.