Originally Posted by
RWTH
I was difficult to justify the acquisition at $ 8 million, but the current amount is insane. DL, as a stand alone carrier, will face huge problems and will be subject to a merger or acquisition in the future, but no airline, not even the best of the industry ( balance sheet point of view ) could swallow an airline easily at this price. And we are not talking about a prime airline with a proven business model a la BA,SQ or Cathay, we are talking about Delta....
Why will DL face huge problems? They will emerge with a non-fuel CASM half a cent less (and getting smaller) than LCC with a better network.
That's often overlooked--DL will have better costs. And LCC has not had to face it's integration costs for the truly big ticket items yet.