The surprise hostile bid for Delta Air Lines by US Airways, the former America West Airlines, has been withdrawn. Delta is currently trading under the American Chapter 11 rules but is expected to come out of administration in the second quarter of this year, according to the airline.
In a statement to staff, US Airways CEO Doug Parker said: ”We received word earlier today that Delta”s Official Unsecured Creditors” Committee would not be able to meet our demands by the 1 February 2007 deadline. As a result, we have withdrawn our offer to merge with Delta Air Lines. While we are disappointed that the Committee has chosen to ignore its fiduciary obligation to Delta's creditors, we are excited about our future and proud of our team's performance during this process.
"As a standalone carrier, we have a tremendous future ahead of us. As announced yesterday, we earned over $500m (”254m excluding special charges) in 2006 and will cut profit sharing cheques later this quarter. We expect an even better 2007 and I look forward to working with all of you to make US Airways an even better airline than it is today.
"We have the best team in the business, from our operations team to all of the support and administrative staff. We”re improving on customer service measures, bringing back furloughed employees and hiring new members to our team. Our future is bright.
"In closing, I couldn”t be more proud of the professionalism that US Airways employees showed since announcing our proposal over two months ago. Thanks for all your support and encouragement you gave our team during this process. Let”s focus on running the best airline we can and have a great 2007. As always, thanks, too, for taking care of our customers.”
The announcement came after Delta's creditors” committee said it will support Delta's standalone reorganization plan. Delta's committee said in a statement its decision was reached after a lengthy review of both Delta's proposal and US Airways' proposal, which the committee said it rejected.