Tonight, City Council is expected to endorse a resolution supporting Delta, which received the surprise offer last month to merge with US Airways in a deal that would create the largest airline in the United States.
On another front, the Salt Lake Chamber is readying its own resolution that probably will be unveiled next month. The chamber is also asking its members to support Delta, which has 3,900 employees in the region.
If a merger happens, US Airways plans to keep Salt Lake City as a hub. But that doesn't allay fears of city leaders who worry the carrier may change its mind.
"As a council, we have some anti-competitive concerns because a larger airline [arising from a merger of Delta and US Airways] could diminish flights and reduce the availability of destinations, particularly when they [US Airways] have a hub so close to Salt Lake City. There is a concern about diminished air service to Salt Lake City, as well," Councilman Carlton Christensen said Monday.
Delta's creditors and a bankruptcy court judge in New York will have the final say on the merger. It is unclear whether resolutions from individual cities would have any bearing on their decision, but staying silent could send a negative message.
Tempe, Ariz.-based US Airways operates a hub in Phoenix. It also has a large airport operation in Las Vegas. When US Airways announced the merger offer last month, the carrier's president, Scott Kirby, said the hub in Salt Lake would continue.
The airline also said no frontline Delta or US Airways employees would be laid off. And the merged airline, which would be called Delta, would continue flying to cities now served by both carriers.
"I would reiterate just that fact," US Airways spokesman Philip Gee said Monday. "There is no plan at this point to reduce Salt Lake City to an origin-and-destination type of airport."
Gee's certainty doesn't ease the fears of City Council or the chamber, which counts Delta among its 2,000 members with substantial operations in Utah.
"This hostile takeover, at best it would be a question mark as to what the future would be," Councilman David Buhler said. "I know US Airways has contacted various people and said nothing would change. But that seems unlikely.
"You don't merge two companies and keep things that seem duplicative. It goes against common sense."
Lane Beattie, president of the chamber, said the Salt Lake hub probably would survive a merger, but in a different form.
"We certainly believe that it would, but remaining as strong as it is and what the future potential is is in question," Beattie said.
The council resolution was drafted after a meeting last week of Christensen, Buhler, Mayor Rocky Anderson and Andrew Segal, a public affairs manager who flew to Salt Lake from Delta's headquarters in Atlanta.
Anderson, who is out of town, already has signed the resolution, which is similar to one enacted by Atlanta's City Council after US Airways' surprise offer.
"We are very concerned about the potential effect that this merger could have on Delta, its presence in Salt Lake City, and also about the antitrust implications of this merger, were it in fact to go through," Anderson spokesman Patrick Thronson said.
Segal was in Salt Lake City on Wednesday and Thursday, Delta spokesman Anthony Black said.
"We are continuing to communicate aggressively with all of our constituencies to inform and educate them about our progress, as well as about our review of and our concerns regarding the unsolicited proposal from US Airways," Black said in an e-mail.
The deal US Airways presented Nov. 15 included $4 billion in cash and 78.5 million shares of US Airways worth about $4.6 billion based on the stock's closing price Monday.
pbeebe@sltrib.com
