Air France-KLM welcomes Delta and Northwest merger

Air France-KLM has welcomed the merger of Delta and Northwest, and said that it won't need to help finance the planned merger between its two partners.

The airline has said that it is "confident" that it can quickly build a global partnership between the four carriers "in the form of a joint venture offering a network with extremely attractive multiple hubs".

Attributing the recent granting of anti-trust immunity by the US Department of Transportation, which allows the airlines to combine their transatlantic routes, Air France-KLM said that it is "totally satisfied with the new framework which strengthens our North Atlantic partnership without the need for financial aid on our part".

Northwest has an existing alliance with KLM, while Delta has an existing alliance with Air France, which owns KLM.

The carrier went on to assert that the strong liquidity position of the combined airlines meant that there is no requirement to provide additional funding through a capital increase from Air France-KLM.

"We had agreed to offer financial aid under the previous terms, while reasserting that our objective was to facilitate the merger of Delta and Northwest and avoid all combinations which could have been in opposition to the existing alliance system," added the airline.

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