When you read and re-read the details about the 2008 merger between Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines, it becomes a fascinating case study in how to meld - and in some cases, build from scratch - symmetries from two longtime existing companies.
Case in point: one of the things discussed during the complex merger talks was whether one airline's practice of flight attendants pouring a beverage into a cup for a passenger would take precedence over the other's simply handing the can over to the customer.
Now that's attention to detail.
It's important to note that because of the issues that companies often face during mergers - particularly the airline industry. Look at the issues that United faced when merging with Continental and those that American and US Airways will likely face in integrating their respective companies.
Simply put, Delta Air Lines has become the airlines' version of the financial industry's E.F. Hutton - when it talks, others should listen. And at the recent Global Business Travel Association annual convention, not only did Delta CEO Richard Anderson have some interesting things to say, but he had some things to say that bear introspection.
For instance, Anderson said Delta didn't need to wait for the Federal Aviation Administration to issue NOTAMs (Notice to Airmen) regarding hot-spot regions across the world.
"We establish our own no-fly zones," he said. "At Delta, we have a prohibition on dispatching airplanes across Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria and North Korea, and that's a dynamic process. We have security offices in every region around the world that make those decisions very conservatively."
Delta also made an aggressive move to turn Seattle-Tacoma International into a west coast hub when all industry signs pointed to Los Angeles. Some say Delta is invading Sea-Tac to eventually force the hand of the airport's primary tenant - Alaska Airlines - into another merger situation, but Anderson insists that is not the case. Nonetheless, Delta is turning Seattle into Atlanta West with growing daily departures, not only to other cities in the west coast but to destinations including Hawaii.
And if the industry was slack-jawed when Delta announced it was purchasing its own oil refinery, it isn't anymore.
"If you look in the last quarter, the second quarter of 2014, the industry average fuel price per gallon was $3.08, excluding Delta. Our fuel price was $2.93 per gallon," Anderson said.
Then he threw out a staggering correlation.
"One penny per gallon is worth $10 million a quarter," Anderson said, "so the advantage we've been able to build on fuel costs is large and sustainable."
Delta has turned into a Wall Street darling along the way, with earnings that met analysts' expectations in the second quarter and surpassed them in the first quarter.
If there's a leader of the U.S. airline industry, however tacit or unofficial it might be, it's Delta.
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