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The bidness news is full of rumors, reports and SWAGs about the possibility of a Delta/NWA merger announcement as early as next week. The Wall Street Journal is in on the reports, so I’m paying attention.

You might remember that this was talked of big time in past months, but the two airlines backed off until their respective pilots could work out an acceptable plan to merge pilot-seniority lists. That hasn’t changed—the pilots still can’t get together.

However, Delta, as I understand it, says the merger might be necessary anyway. Jet fuel is as high as a young fellow after his first six beers, and some say it is a situation of merger or perish. Bankruptcy does seem to be—as AIRPORT BUSINESS editor John Infanger tells it—the fashionable thing to do in the airline industry right now.

Trying to get a nonbiased version of the story is harder than cracking Brazil nuts with a damp sponge. It’d be easier to find out which of the neighborhood kids really broke your window. In fact, the kids would do a more dignified way of stating their case.

Pilots point out that merging the seniority lists this way or that can change their lives forever. I have a friend who has flown for USAir for 21 years. He is not now a captain and never will be. He says this is because of the merger of USAir and America West. He can explain it so I can understand it, but not well enough for me to explain it to anyone else.

On the other hand, many say that pilots are holding up the entire merger which, they say, is absolutely necessary to avoid bankruptcy. Pilots come back saying that’s not really true, it’s just management’s way of abusing pilots.

It goes on and on. Who is right? I’m not at all sure, but I bet I’m fixin’ to hear from both sides of the argument after this posting.

WAIT: HOLD THE PRESSES–UH, I MEAN THE COMPUTER. JUST MINUTES AGO IT WAS ANNOUNCED THAT DELTA HAS CUT A DEAL WITH ITS PILOTS. GO HERE.

Now, if NWA can do the same with their pilots, there might really be a merger.

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