With their pilots union leaders locked in a weeks-long struggle over how to integrate their ranks, what is keeping executives at Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines from pulling the plug on merger plans? Try $105-a-barrel oil for starters. Oil's surge through the $100-a-barrel level, combined with a growing industry consensus that foreign carriers and low-fare domestic competitors are only getting stronger, is making the prospect of soldiering on alone less attractive. Ben Hirst, a Northwest senior vice president, said in an interview late this week that carriers are favorably disposed...
photo: WN
