...The April ## merger announcement by Delt a Air Lines, Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. occurred at a time when four sm aller airlines had either petitioned for bankruptcy protection, or announced plans to cease operation in the near term. Despite dramatic cost cutting during rece nt bankruptcies and several years of above-average profit growth, even the ma jor network airlines are forecasting losses for #### in the face of a weakening economic environment, sustained high fuel prices, and continued consumer re sistance to fare increases that would otherwise allow the airlines to recover some of their incremental costs. There have been many discussions of conso lidation in the airline industry during the past ## years, some of which have l ed to merger attempts or even actual combinations. Nonetheless, in the cu rrent environment the Delta-Northwest merger is the first of what could be seve ral combinations of legacy airlines which have large, complex route networks and substantial...

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