NEW YORK —

Northwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines shareholders on Thursday voted overwhelmingly for a merger of the companies to create one of the world’s biggest global carriers.

Northwest said in a statement that more than 98% of the shares voted supported adopting the merger agreement.

“This is a resounding vote of confidence by shareholders for our merger with Delta Air Lines and a great day for our employees, who will receive equity in the combined company and more stable, long-term employment opportunities,” said Doug Steenland, Northwest Airlines president and chief executive.

“The $2 billion in annual synergies achievable through this merger are something neither carrier could have achieved as a stand-alone carrier,” e said.

Delta said later that about 99% of its shareholders approved the deal announced in April.

The merger still needs antitrust clearance from the U.S. Justice Department.

The merger of Delta, the nation’s third-largest airline, with number-five Northwest, would create a new mammoth airline that keeps the Delta name and, like its namesake, will be headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

The planned merger comes amid consolidation in the aviation sector as airlines struggle to survive amid spiking fuel prices, which have more than doubled in a year.

The new Delta would be the world’s leading passenger carrier, with an estimated 285.5 billion revenue passenger miles, a measure of the number of passengers and the distance flown, according to 2007 data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

American Airlines was the largest last year, at 222.7 billion revenue passenger miles.

The combined airline would serve 390 destinations in 67 countries, with annual revenue of $35 billion. It would have nearly 800 planes and a global workforce of 75,000.

The new Delta would remain a member of the SkyTeam airline alliance, which includes AirFrance-KLM, China Southern Airlines and Korean Air. Delta and Northwest currently are members of the 11-airline alliance.

Delta and Northwest estimated the combined airline would reap $500 million in cost savings in its first year.

Both airlines are in the throes of restructuring amid a credit crunch and painfully high jet fuel costs that have thrown U.S. airlines into a tailspin.

“The situation remains bleak. The toxic combination of high oil prices and falling demand continues to poison the industry’s profitability,” IATA’s director general and CEO said in early September.

Northwest announced in July it would eliminate 2,500 jobs and begin charging new fees, a month after it said it would slash between 8.5% and 9.5% of its domestic flight capacity.

Delta, which was in the vanguard of airlines imposing new fees, notably surcharges for checked baggage, said in July it was taking the steps to offset a 70-80% rise in fuel costs in the past year.

The proposed tie-up earlier overcame a major hurdle raised by Northwest’s pilots, who initially fought the merger.

But the deal still faces opposition from the International Association of Machinists union, which represents 12,500 Northwest workers.

“The Machinists Union believes Northwest and Delta will be unable to successfully combine their businesses without adversely impacting customers, suppliers, employees and shareholders because of the two airlines’ vastly different corporate cultures and mismatched aircraft fleets,” Robert Roach, IAM general vice president, said in a statement after the Northwest shareholder vote.

Wire reports

5 Comments

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  Nippon5 at 05:38 PM JST - 26th September

  Bad news for those in Minnesota.. NWA is going to pull out its headquarters in Minneapolis and will effect the area in a real bad way...

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  wanderlust at 06:34 PM JST - 26th September

  Will Delta improve NorthWorst, or will they drag Delta down to their level of curvice?

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  Nippon5 at 06:40 PM JST - 26th September

  Actually NWA is better in service then Delta in most areas I have flown, the problem with the flight to Japan was they had basically a Monopoly on that route and the service paid for it. As far as the other flights I took around the US they had very good service.

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  Kwaabish at 10:32 PM JST - 27th September

  Still 2 piles of crap joining to form a bigger pile of crap, service wise they still stink.

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  Sarge at 06:13 PM JST - 29th September

  Delta has some seriously old flight attendants.

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