well it appears that oft-discussed, oft-put off meger between atlanta’s own delta airlines and minneapolis-based northwest may actually be happening as the two airlines agreed to merger terms (ajc here.) while we can debate whether this is a good thing for the airline industry (this author thinks yes), one thing is very clear to me at least.

if the terms of delta’s memo to it’s employees are correct, namely, “the company is named Delta, headquartered in Atlanta;” then this merger is probably a good thing for atlanta and in particular atlanta based flyers.

a few reasons i see –

1) access to northwest’s asia routes. delta is a great carrier to europe but it’s asian routes blow. northwest has a booming hub at tokyo’s narita airport, and a whole slew of asia routes direct from the states out of it’s detroit and msp hubs. this merger will make getting from atlanta to asia a ton easier.

2) access to two more midwestern hubs and their associated regional jet routes. this will open up more destinations in the northern midwest along with more flights.

3) maybe northwest’s service culture will leave a mark on delta’s? just hoping on this one…

anyway, that’s how this (somewhat) frequent flyer sees it. you?