Business as usual for NWA

Northwest Airlines Corp.’s $17.7-billion mega merger with Delta Air Lines Inc. will not have an immediate impact in the company’s operations in the region.

This was according to the carrier’s Guam and Saipan general manager Richard A. Parsons in an e-mail to the Saipan Tribune.

“Northwest and Delta will not begin integrating until after the transaction closes. During the regulatory review process, Northwest and Delta will continue to conduct operations as independent carriers,” he said.

Parsons, however, admitted that Northwest employees on the two islands are looking forward for the merger to happen but that for the meantime, the carrier will conduct its day-to-day operations in the same manner as before the merger plans went out.

“As you might imagine, all of us at Northwest here in the CNMI are really excited about the news and we appreciate your interest. As NWA’s local office, it is not for us to talk about this global announcement except to say that for now it’s business as usual…For now, our world headquarters will continue to be the single source of information about our company’s overall business plans for the future.”

Squeezed by record high fuel prices and a slowing economy, Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines last Monday agreed to a stock-swap merger that would create the world’s biggest carrier.

Under the terms of the Delta transaction, Northwest shareholders will receive 1.25 Delta shares for each Northwest share they own. The exchange ratio represents a premium to Northwest shareholders of 16.8 percent based on Monday’s closing stock prices.

That currently values Northwest at almost $3.63 billion based on 277 million Northwest shares that the companies said are outstanding.

Delta said the combined airline, which will be called Delta, will have an enterprise value of $17.7 billion, which includes the combined market values of the two companies and combined net debt. It will be based in Atlanta, and Delta CEO Richard Anderson will head the combined company.

Delta Chairman Daniel Carp will become chairman of the new board of directors and Northwest Chairman Roy Bostock will become vice chairman. Delta President and Chief Financial Officer Ed Bastian will retain his titles.

The new board will be made up of 13 members, seven of whom will come from Delta’s board, including Anderson, and five of whom will come from Northwest’s board, including Bostock and Doug Steenland, the current Northwest CEO. One director will come from the Air Line Pilots Association, the union that represents pilots from both carriers. Anderson told reporters on a conference call it will be a Delta pilot holding the voting seat.

There will be an unspecified number of job cuts or transfers through the consolidation of overlapping corporate and administrative functions, Delta said. The two airlines employ more than 80,000 people combined. The company expects no involuntary furloughs of front-line employees and said the existing pension plans for both companies’ employees will be protected. Delta doesn’t plan to close any of the two airlines’ hubs.

Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Northwest Airlines is one of the world’s largest airlines with hubs at Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis, Tokyo and Amsterdam, and approximately 1,400 daily departures. Northwest is a member of SkyTeam, an airline alliance that offers customers one of the world’s most extensive global networks. Northwest and its travel partners serve more than 900 cities in excess of 160 countries on six continents.

Delta Air Lines, for its part, operates an expansive domestic and international network, spanning North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean. It flies to over 332 destinations in 57 countries (excluding codeshare), across five continents. Delta Air Lines is also the only major U.S. carrier that flies to Africa. [B][I](With reports from AP)[/I][/B]