New York, June 7: AMR Corp's American Airlines and Delta Air Lines Inc. heldpreliminary talks on industry consolidation earlier this week evendiscussing the possibility of a merger, the Wall Street Journal reported onWednesday, citing people involved in the talks. The talks took place in NewYork on Monday between executives one notch below the chief executive level,plus investment bankers and lawyers, the paper said.Discussions were "wide-ranging", and will continue, the people told the WallStreet Journal. The two-to-three-hour meeting was described as introductoryand exploratory, the article said. At the same time, American is consideringa possible acquisition of Northwest Airlines Corp., people involved told thenewspaper. No discussions between American and Northwest are currently underway, however, according to the Wall Street Journal. The financial terms of apossible American-Delta deal have not been discussed, nor has the issue ofwhich company would be the surviving entity, the newspaper said.
A spokesman for American declined comment, except to repeat the carrier'sstandard response that "we talk about lots of things to lots of people," anda spokesman for Delta declined comment, the newspaper said.
People close to Delta have said that if American were to buy Northwest,Delta's move would be to acquire No 5 Continental Airlines Inc., an airlinethat Delta has tried to acquire twice before in recent years, according tothe article.
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