US Air Goes After Delta

Additionally, US Airways has hubs in Phoenix and Las Vegas, and Delta has a hub in Salt Lake City. US Airways has a focus city in Pittsburgh, and Delta has a hub in Cincinnati. Delta also has an expanding international presence, while US Airways has minimal global routes outside of Caribbean service from its Charlotte hub.

Kirby said the new carrier would divest either the US Airways shuttle or the Delta shuttle, both of which serve LaGuardia and other key Northeast airports. But he said the other operations would be retained. The airline would maintain hubs in both Charlotte and Atlanta, he said, but would restructure so that more connecting traffic passes through Atlanta.

Because capacity is restrained in Atlanta, Charlotte would likely become even more focused on serving smaller markets with regional jets, although it wouldn't lose any destinations, he said.

The deal would have to be approved by the Justice Department, which must determine whether it would be anticompetitive. Regarding the DOJ, Parker said, "We don't anticipate any problems that cannot be resolved." He didn't directly answer an analyst's question about whether US Airways was prepared to divest any of its operations.

Kirby said he didn't envision being asked to divest the Charlotte hub. "I would be shocked if they said [that]," he said. "I don't think that is a realistic possibility."

US Airways said its proposal represents a 25% premium over the current trading price of Delta's prepetition unsecured claims, assuming $16 billion in unsecured claims, and a 40% premium over the average trading price of the claims during the last 30 days.

Although the merger proposal wasn't disclosed until Wednesday morning, trading in shares of Delta, which are now found on the "pink sheets," has been extremely active for the past several days. A US Airways spokesman said that even if the merger occurs, Delta's shares will have no value.

Should Delta continue as a standalone company, its existing shares will be worthless when it leaves Chapter 11. New stock will be issued, and the current shares will cease to trade. Holders of the common stock will likely get nothing, as is often the case in bankruptcies, because they are essentially last in line for claims.