Thread: Merger Delta/NorthWest

I think they're expecting to get the joint operating certificate from the government sometime this quarter, and the Northwest name will probably vanish soon after. They have worked on repainting planes, but that's obviously something that takes a long time.

The airline will be called Delta Air Lines. All the NW planes are being painted into DL colors. The vast majority of those DL planes you see in NRT are NW planes. I think DL only has the 772ER from JFK and the 763ER from PDX and GUM. Jan 1st DL got approved for a single operating certificate, which will make DL/NW one entity to the FAA. For the next few days DL801 ATL-NRT is still "Northwest 801 Heavy, Delta Colors" to ATC. I beleive Feb 1st is the date that Northwest goes away and this flights call sign would then be "Delta 801 Heavy." Feb 1st should be the date that NWA.com goes away and NW res goes away and all folds into the DL res system.

Not sure exactly what is going on with representation for ACS/In flight. From what I've read, IAM/AFA put in their requests for representation, and lobbied the NMB to change the voting rules, and pulled their apps until the new rules kick in which will be alot better for IAM/AFA.

Not sure how the seniority worked out, but the pilots are all integrated and I beleive both sides are happy. Some NW 757 pilots are training on the 76', and I beleive some DL pilots are simming at least in 757-300.

From what I have seen locally, is that the Customer Service side seems to be all integrated and doing fine but the Ramp is still two companies.
NW Ramp Agents are still doing ramp work on NW aircraft and DGS is doing the ramp on DL flights.
Don't really know if or when this will change...

Customer Service is still seperate. DL and NW wear the same uniforms and it may appear integrated, but it can't be until representation issues are resolved. As of right now, DL801 ATL-NRT is a NW 744. The gate and ramp agents are all NW employees and no DL employee may touch the gate/aircraft. Not sure if they have NW gate agents working the DL planes in DTW like DTW-LHR/PVG.

I don't know what happens when NW goes away. I would think if IAM represents the NW employees, and NW goes away and there is no such thing as a NW employee, that IAM doesn't represent anybody and would be gone until they represent DL employees whether that be in a month or 20 years. I'm sure that's not what happens, but I honestly don't know.