US Air confident it will acquire Delta

By Kyle Peterson and Chris Reiter

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - US Airways Group Inc. (LCC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is confident its proposed merger with bankrupt Delta Air Lines Inc. DALRQ.PK will win approval from Delta's creditors and be completed despite opposition from Delta management, the president of US Airways said on Tuesday.

"Because this transaction creates value that can only be created through a merger, and because the bankruptcy process is designed to elicit value, we're going to get this done," Scott Kirby said at the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit in Washington.

He said US Airways' could complete a merger about six months after starting due diligence. So far, Delta has not publicly said that it would open its books to US Airways.

On November 15, US Airways proposed a deal now worth $8.6 billion to acquire Delta, but met resistance from Delta management who said the company is focused on emerging from Chapter 11 as a stand-alone airline.

"Delta is making crucial progress toward becoming a strong, independent, stand-alone company based on a plan that is clearly working," said Delta Chief Executive Gerald Grinstein in a note to employees on Tuesday.

Delta will "soon" share its analysis of US Airways' offer with Delta's creditors' committee, "with whom we have a cooperative and productive relationship," said Grinstein in the memo that was sent to Reuters by the company.

In a separate statement later on Tuesday, Delta's pilots union denounced the takeover bid, saying its initial analysis revealed significant conflicts with the pilots' contract.

The union, which is on the nine-member official committee of unsecured creditors of Delta, is the first major creditor to publicly announce its position on the proposal after a US Airways presentation last week.

US AIRWAYS SINGS PRAISES OF MERGER

US Airways, the product of a merger between the former US Airways Group and America West Airlines, has said the merger would generate $1.65 billion in annual savings.

"Talking to Delta has helped clarify some uncertain issues," Kirby said.

The $1.65 billion savings target is "quite conservative" and a merger may produce more savings, Kirby said. US Airways beat the savings target it set when it embarked on the US Airways/America West merger, he added.

"We've been through this before. In that case, we started with a similar lack of information," Kirby said. "We feel like we will beat (the target) ... We feel very confident."

Kirby declined to discuss the nature of US Airways' talks with Delta or the creditor committee, saying only that he was optimistic about the prospects for a merger.

US Airways' goal is to have its proposal fairly evaluated and to win Delta's approval to conduct due diligence, a condition of the offer, he said.  Continued...