Land and sea travel:
From January 1, 2008 to summer 2008, U.S. citizens traveling to or from the Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, the Caribbean, and Mexico via land or sea ports must present a government-issued photo ID in addition to proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate. (A voter’s registration card and social security card are not considered to be proof of citizenship.) Children under the age of 16 do not require a government-issued photo ID.

Summer 2008 rules:
Beginning as early as summer 2008, passports will be required for all U.S. citizens traveling to or from the United States via land, sea, and air—regardless of destination.

With a new CEO and a clean balance sheet, Delta is pondering expansion. Here's why Northwest is the logical choice.

Northwest Airlines (NWA) Chief Executive Doug Steenland calls the U.S. airline industry's consolidation "inevitable." Richard Anderson, the new chief executive at Delta Air Lines (DAL), says his company would do a deal provided Delta is the acquirer and it helps the airline.

If Delta and Northwest executives really are committed to consolidating the field and tackling some of the industry's financial problems, they need look no farther than each other. From route networks and planes to workers and investors, the third- and fifth-biggest U.S. airlines face compelling reasons to merge.

"The strategic combination of Northwest and Delta might make a lot of economic sense, and we'd like to see both companies explore that potential," says Matthew Philo, a senior managing director at MacKay Shields, a private investment firm that holds a 3.1% stake in Northwest and 1.8% of Delta. "It might be a win for all constituents…including labor."

Consensus
Now may be the time. After the two companies filed for bankruptcy in 2005, they scrubbed their balance sheets back to respectability, converting heavy loads of debt to equity before emerging earlier this year. Today, many of the airlines' biggest holders are hedge funds and other strategic investors anxious for a profitable exit. At Northwest, half of the 20 largest institutional shareholders are hedge funds or private equity firms, with a nearly 31% stake in the airline. "The best target out there just sitting around saying, 'Hey, buy me' is Northwest," says Roger King, a senior airline analyst with CreditSights in New York.

Both airlines surprised some analysts in the past two weeks by raising the prospect of consolidation. In an Oct. 29 conference call with analysts, Steenland noted that Northwest and its hub-and-spoke peers were created from earlier mergers. "We believe that this trend will continue and that further consolidation of the industry is inevitable," he said, adding that "six major domestic network carriers are too many."

That's one point airline chief executives agree on (BusinessWeek.com, 12/4/06). It's been made for more than a year by United Airlines' (UAUA) CEO Glenn Tilton and US Airways' (LCC) CEO Doug Parker. "We're encouraged that others seem to be coming around to the conclusions that we made long ago, that this industry still isn't fixed," says Parker, who made a failed bid for Delta earlier this year. "While we're making money, we're not making the kind of money that most other mature businesses make."

Delta declined to comment beyond Anderson's previous statements, and a Northwest spokesman said the company had no immediate comment.

Pilots on Board
Northwest is one of only two U.S. carriers—United is the other—with a sizable route network in Asia, a prized growth destination where all the major airlines have been scrambling to expand. The airlines do not have significant route overlap and most of Delta's workforce isn't unionized, two key factors that would smooth an integration.

Moreover, Northwest's rank and file is no fan of their leaders. Northwest chopped $2.4 billion in costs during its bankruptcy, with much of the burden falling on workers. When the court approved its plan, Steenland received nearly $27 million in stock in the new company—an award that infuriated workers and added to years of rancor between labor and management. Northwest is also alone among U.S. carriers in operating a separate air-freight service to Asia, an asset that could realize significant revenue growth as business ties to China expand.

The other historic hurdle to airline deals has been pilots, leery of losing their spot on merged seniority lists. But Delta's 6,200 pilots now appear to be open to the prospect. Last winter, amid the fight with US Airways, they ponied up $1 million to fund their own analysis of any proposals and their union chairman, Captain Lee Moak, told Congress that Delta pilots would assist "the 'right' consolidation effort, a consensual merger with a rational mix of routes, employees, and resources, and with the absence of major antitrust and other detrimental issues." He wasn't describing Delta's acquisition of Northwest, but he could have been.

Complementary Hubs and Fleets
Geographically, the two airlines could combine operations fairly easily: Northwest's Memphis hub is near Delta's main Atlanta hub and could be scrapped, just as Delta's Cincinnati hub could give way to a larger Northwest operation in Detroit. Internationally, Delta has built deep European networks from Atlanta and New York, but flies to only two cities in Asia. Northwest, in turn, has a hub at Tokyo's Narita airport and has been flying in Asia for more than 60 years.

In terms of aircraft, the two also fit well. On their most lucrative business-class routes to Asia and Europe, Delta and Northwest don't even fly the same models. That difference makes it slightly easier to meld pilot seniority lists, since it is unlikely Delta would scrap the long-haul fleet Northwest has assembled. The carriers' combined 11,200 pilots are a constituency that must be placated for any combination to yield the expected benefits.

Of course, no deal is inevitable. Whatever the financial benefits, Delta and Northwest executives also will have to give ground personally. Cutting planes, low-yield routes, and excess workers is one thing, but consolidation also means shedding executive teams. "It's ego. For all of us," says US Airways' Parker. "There is a certain level of 'Yeah, I know this makes sense. But we're the ones who can run it better.'"

Note: This is speculation on the part of the writer. Passageways neither advocates or anticipates who may acquire whom.

In a move that could save air travelers time, more U.S. airports are installing common-use kiosks that enable self-check-in for multiple airlines.

Nine U.S. airports now have the devices to supplement or replace the airlines' own self-check-in kiosks. That's up from two airports five years ago. Among the places they can be found: Seattle-Tacoma, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Washington Dulles.

Airports own the common-use kiosks and often place them in terminal areas not occupied by an airline. This spreads out travelers away from airline counters, improving the flow of people, says Byford Treanor, an executive at Dallas/Fort Worth. That airport has 51 common-use kiosks. It plans to buy more.

They can be a benefit to travelers who want to avoid congestion around airlines' counters, or who may have been dropped off at the wrong place, far from their airline's ticketing operations.

The move by airports comes as more air travelers, particularly those traveling without checked baggage, are seeking out self-serve electronic check-in.

Self-service kiosks have been around since the late 1990s and dramatically increased after 9/11 as airlines turned to automation to pare their workforces. Nearly 70% of business travelers use airport kiosks, Forrester Research says.

Common-use kiosks are common in Europe, Asia and Canada. They have been slow to take off in the USA because airlines are reluctant to give up the branding benefits of their machines, aviation consultant Manik Arora says.

Note: You can find links to all the airlines checkin sites right from PassagewaysTravel.com with the Online Airport Check-In link. On the road, more and more hotels are offering airline checkin kiosks right at the hotel. Systems that can tie together the entire travel itinerary from hotel, rental car and airline check in will provide added benefits to the traveler that can help ease the travel experience and improve communication among travel partners.

The proposed acquisition of Midwest Air Group by Midwest Air Partners, with Northwest holding a 47% stake, took a step closer towards final approval Oct. 30 as Midwest Air Group shareholders approved the deal. The deal still needs to clear a Justice Department antitrust review, however.

Midwest Air Partners, an affiliate of TPG Capital, would be the majority investor with 53% of the company. TPG, formerly known as Texas Pacific Group, is a global private equity group known in aviation circles for its investments in Continental, America West, Hotwire, Sabre and Ryanair.

Midwest shareholders are being offered $17 per share in the $451.4 million deal. On Dec. 12, 2006, the last trading day before the public announcement of AirTran's initial indication of interest in acquiring Midwest, which pushed up the stock's value, the price per share was $9.08.

Under the terms of Northwest's arrangement with TPG, Northwest will be a passive, minority investor that will have no participation in Midwest management, no control of the airline and no right to designate any members of Midwest's board of directors. But the deal does include an option for Northwest to acquire Midwest outright within the next few years.

This is the final week of the Apple Vacations Super Sale! The savings are excellent- and with limited air seats and charter departures this year, peak dates are already filling up. Truly, there is no better time to buy, and Apple Vacations enjoys Passageways highest recommendation.
Whether your dream is Cancun and the Mayan Riviera, Cozumel, Aruba, Vallarta, Punta Cana or Jamaica...they have the value-priced package and the best properties.
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Call your nearest Passageways office today. This pricing is good through Saturday!

Runway Construction Complete at MSP
Runway 12R/30L at the MSP International Airport was reopened on October 18. With the additional runway available for use, Northwest should see a significant reduction to MSP airport delays.

New Routes:
Portland-Amsterdam
Northwest Airlines, in cooperation with its joint venture partner, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, has announced an expansion of its trans-Atlantic route network with the new daily nonstop service from Portland, Ore. to Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Scheduled to begin March 29, 2008, Northwest’s nonstop Portland-Amsterdam service will conveniently connect Portland and the Pacific Northwest to more than 80 destinations throughout Europe, Africa, India and the Middle East via the Northwest/KLM hub at Amsterdam’s award winning Schiphol Airport.

Dallas/FT. Worth-Amsterdam
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, in cooperation with its joint venture partner Northwest Airlines, has announced it will begin daily nonstop service between Dallas-FT. Worth and Amsterdam beginning March 30, 2008.
Dallas-FT. Worth will be the 19th North American destination served by the combined KLM-Northwest Airlines joint venture via Schiphol Airport. KLM and Northwest offer convenient daily nonstop service between Amsterdam and Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Detroit, Hartford, Conn., Houston (Intercontinental), Los Angeles, Memphis, Tenn., Mexico City, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Montreal, New York (JFK), Newark,San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver, British Columbia, and Washington, D.C.

Minneapolis/St. Paul-Paris
Northwest Airlines has announced it will offer new daily nonstop service from Minneapolis/St. Paul to Paris, France starting April 8, 2008. The new flight will be offered in cooperation with its joint venture partner, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

The A330-300 offers 34 seats in World Business Class and 264 economy class seats. The aircraft are equipped with the airlines' World Business Class 176-degree, lie-flat seats, and an on demand in-flight entertainment system in both cabins.