Which airlines merged with Delta?

Delta Air Lines: Organization as the History of Mergers and Acquisitions

Delta Air Lines is one of the largest major American airline companies that has expanded significantly during the last twenty years, mainly through acquisitions. To sum up, it is worth noting that through the process of acquisitions of other airlines or merging with them, Delta has been able to increase the number of routes that it covers together with its fleet size, which has put it in a better position to counter other large domestic and international airlines.

Here is an overview of the various airlines that have merged with Delta over the years:

Pan Am's Transatlantic Routes Delta Airlines was able to acquire certain Transatlantic routes and planes from Pan Am when the latter was shut down due to bankruptcy in 1991. Particularly, the acquisition of routes included former Pan Am hubs such as Frankfurt as well as London Heathrow. While not a large acquisition compared to the megamergers that would follow these routes, it bolstered Delta’s position as a competitor in the fiercely contested transatlantic market.

Western Airlines Also in 1987, another merger was set when Delta acquired Western Airlines, which was one of the earliest and longest-running airline brands in the United States. Some of the impacts of this merger include Delta acquiring Western Airlines’ Boeing 737 and McDonnell Douglas MD-80 aircraft and operations on many of the domestic markets, especially along the West. To achieve this, Delta expanded massively, thus becoming one of the three biggest airline companies in the United States, together with American and United.

Pan Am's Remaining Assets The same fate was met with Pan Am in 1991, when Delta was quick to purchase some of its remaining assets at very low prices. Other assets that Delta acquired from Pan Am include some of its aircraft and some of the routes it operated that were to Europe, as well as the airliner maintenance facilities at New York JFK airport. These facilities offered Delta its jet engine overhaul capabilities. Thus, Delta also inherited Pan Am’s domestic shuttle routes, which included the New York-LaGuardia service to Boston, Washington, D. C., and Chicago with flights on the hour.

Comair is a regional airline that was bought by Delta in 1999 and serves Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Comair offered Delta several regional jets and turboprops to feed Delta’s flights and a hub in Cincinnati to link Midwestern travelers to other domestic and, increasingly, international locations. Comair has reached its prime period, where this airline contributed with more than 75% of all the flights at Cincinnati airport. Comair was later divested in 2012 due to strategic developments.

however, it was developed by Delta into one of the largest regional airlines in the world over the past decade, leading to its divestiture

Atlantic Southeast Airlines Until its acquisition by Delta Air Lines in late 2010, ASA was one of Delta’s most strategic regional airline partners and had been flying Delta Connection flights on behalf of Delta since 1984. It was not until 2000 that Delta bought out ASA and started painting Embraer and Bombardier regional planes in their colors. Like Comair, ASA allowed Delta to provide network access to many other underserved domestic secondary points in the Southeast and Midwest at a lower unit cost. ASA was integrated into Delta’s mainline in 2011, and I will briefly discuss this and its implications in chapter 4.

Song Low-Cost Carrier Delta also started a LCC in 2003 known as Song, which was a separate LCC with a fleet of exclusively Boeing 757 aircraft. Song was running point-to-point or city center-to-city center flights and was in a similar business model as that of Southwest and JetBlue, focusing mainly on Florida and Las Vegas. Airlines such as UAL, which operates United Airlines, were able to slash ticket prices by removing a range of complimentary services like entertainment systems and food. Although Song experienced initial success, increased fuel costs forced Delta to reabsorb Song back into mainline operations in 2006, only three years later.

Northwest Airlines Merger Specifically, Delta and Northwest Airlines revealed plans for a merger in 2008, which was effectively realized in 2009. Northwest included with it a major overseas hub in Detroit and domestic hubs in Minneapolis and St. Paul, the two major airline companies, namely Paul and Memphis, and a large network of transpacific routes. As the merger was completed, the new company, formed by Delta and Northwest, owned 1,435 aircraft altogether and became the largest airline company in the world in terms of the number of destinations, with the network exceeding 390 worldwide.

This was also Delta’s first major merger following its inclusion into the SkyTeam alliance of airlines. Northwest was already partially owned by Air France-KLM, which was bought by Delta in the early part of the decade, which added another layer of strengthening Delta’s ties to its European SkyTeam partners.

Virgin Atlantic Partnership Delta purchased Singapore Airlines’ share, that was valued at 49 percent in Virgin Atlantic in 2012, making it the second largest partner to Virgin Group. In a codeshare and revenue-sharing transatlantic joint venture starting in 2014, the two airlines integrate their flight schedules, synchronize their loyalty programs, and sell each other’s seats and revenues on over 200 daily flights between North America and the UK, with Delta gaining a stronger position at Heathrow and Gatwick airports to challenge American and British Airways.

Aeroméxico Partnership Delta owns 49% of the Mexican SkyTeam partner Aeroméxico, which Delta bought from for 620 Million US dollars in 2015. Together with their transborder joint venture that began in 2017 with over 175 daily flights, this investment connects Delta’s extensive network of routes across the United States and Aeroméxico’s large portfolio of routes across Mexico. Delta also has strong strategic physical resource interdependence with Aeroméxico by sharing facilities within airports in many places, such as Mexico City, Los Angeles, and New York.

Alaska Airlines Partnership Although the agreement that was signed in 2017 between Delta and Alaska Airlines is not a kind of merger, it was expanded in 2020. Through this strategic cooperation, linking their domestic networks on the West Coast and important Alaska and Hawaii routes, Delta and Alaska intend to offer a more comprehensive offering compared to their competitors across the western United States On this basis, the two airlines interline and operate codesharing on some flights, as well as provide reciprocal frequent flyer programs and lounge access.

Originally, it had experienced several bankruptcies in its early years but through mergers, it has become one of the most financially sound legacy airline organizations in the global landscape. Through the systematic consolidation, localization, and diversification of aircraft, routes, and airport slots, Delta currently serves more than 5,400 flights daily to over 325 destinations globally. And it continues to actively search for additional partnership opportunities to expand the company’s presence worldwide. Thus, it would be impossible to predict further future mergers or acquisitions involving Delta as the industry grows and evolves further.

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