On 11th August, the pilots of Delta and Northwest agreed to the proposed merger between the two airlines, smoothing out the way for a new world’s largest airline to emerge. What does this mean for American and international commercial aviation world? A peek into history may give us some insights.

The glory of Pan-Am
The decline and demise of Pan-American World Airways in 1991 marked the end of an era in United States. Pan-Am was, for many decades, the de-facto flag carrier of the United States with an extensive international work. It was arguably the creation of American politics in the pre-deregulated industry before the early 1980s, as the airline flew international routes while other airlines were largely restricted to domestic routes.

For over three decades after the Second World War, Pan-Am held the stature as the leading international airline in terms of innovative products, as well as opulence in luxury travel, ushering in the jet age by launching the Boeing 707 in 1959, the iconic Boeing 747 in 1969 and record-breaking non-stops between New York and Tokyo, and Los Angeles and Sydney with the Boeing 747SP in 1976. Pan-Am also …

I wonder what it would be like to take a flight on the new Northwelta from Boston to Singapore via Detroit and Tokyo on a Boeing 747, once the US$17 billion merger between Northwest and Delta comes through. Will I get the Northwest experience or a predominantly Delta one, a mish-mash or none?
There’s been a lot of chatter around the merger, though more negative than positive (check out the one by Center for Asia Pacific Aviation for a different view). But I’ve hardly read anything about how the merger would affect the brand. Even though the new airline (largest in the US with over 70,000 employees) will be operated under the Delta name, which currently doesn’t have any 747s and also doesn’t fly to Asia Pacific, the brand experience can certainly be enhanced to make the sum greater than the parts combined.
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