ATLANTA — The boards of directors of Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. were expected to vote today on a combination — provided their pilots unions can reach their own integration deal by then, people briefed on the discussions said Tuesday.
If the pilots agreement can’t be reached by the time of the meeting, the boards were expected to just get an update on the status of merger talks between the two airlines, according to three people familiar with the situation who asked not to be named because the talks were in a sensitive stage.
A fourth person familiar with the talks also confirmed that Delta’s board was expected to meet today, and the company is mulling a Thursday announcement if everything falls into place.
As of late afternoon Tuesday, the pilots unions had not reached an agreement, according to one of the people briefed on the talks.
Another person briefed on the talks said that if Delta and Northwest combined, there would be staff reductions at the senior level only. At the bottom levels, there would be very little, the person said.
Delta has said that if it combines with another carrier, it wants to keep the airline based in Atlanta and called Delta.
Officially, all it has said in recent weeks is that its board is considering strategic options, including a possible consolidation transaction.
A Delta spokeswoman declined to elaborate Tuesday on the company’s previous statements.
Talk of airline consolidation has heightened in recent months amid persistently high fuel prices, which are eating away at the industry’s bottom line.
A combination of Atlanta-based Delta and Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest would create the world’s largest airline in terms of traffic. That is before any divestitures that regulators might require them to make if they combine.
There also has been speculation about a possible combination of Chicago-based UAL Corp.’s United Airlines and Houston-based Continental Airlines Inc., which would be a bigger airline than Delta-Northwest in terms of traffic. United is the largest carrier at Denver International Airport.
