Pilots clear way for Northwest-Delta deal - report

Newspaper: Deal by union leaders to consolidate Northwest, Delta workers removes major hurdle for the airlines' merger plans.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Leaders of the union representing pilots at Northwest Airlines Corp. and Delta Air Lines Inc. have reached an agreement on uniting membership under a merged carrier, the Detroit News reported Tuesday.

The plan will be presented Wednesday at a scheduled meeting of Delta's board in New York, the newspaper said, citing sources close to the matter.

The agreement helps clear the way for Delta (DAL, Fortune 500) and Northwest (NWA, Fortune 500) to merge, the report said. A deal between the two airlines would create the nation's largest carrier.

An announcement was expected late last week, but was delayed by discussions between pilots union chapters, the paper reported.

Terms of the agreement include a plan for aligning the seniority lists of the more than 11,000 pilots at Delta and Northwest, a voting seat on the board of a new carrier and a 7 percent equity stake in the combined company, according to the News.

Delta and Northwest face the industry-wide epidemic of high fuel prices and overcapacity and have reportedly been in merger talks.

Just last week, Northwest chief Doug Steenland told employees that consolidation is "highly likely at some point" and said that doing nothing "could be our worst alternative." To top of page

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.