One Year Ago Today The World’s Largest Airline Was Created

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29/10/2009 – One Year Ago Today The World’s Largest Airline Was Created

This week the landscape of US airlines changed, as did international airline alliances, and this change was cemented a year ago today.  One year ago today the United States Department of Justice approved the purchase of Northwest Airlines by Delta Air Lines.

With the merger of Delta and Northwest the world’s largest airline was created, Delta’s new route map was being formed and Continental Airlines was being squeezed out of its long time relationship with Delta and the SkyTeam alliance member airlines.

In the past year we’ve seen former Northwest Airlines 747-400s, A330s, A320s and DC-9s take on Delta paint schemes, watched Pepsi be switched to Coke on former Northwest routes and in one day saw virtually all the signs of Northwest Airlines disappear from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP)…oddly enough if you look around MSP you can still find signs of the former Republic Airlines whom Northwest Airlines bought out and merged with in 1986.

In this past we’ve watched Delta shift from simply a large global airline to working its way into the role of “The New Pan Am” (although no airline can replace the Pan Am).

Happy Flying!