LAX and airline merger

As we noted a few days back, the hookup of Delta and Northwest is not that big a deal for local travelers. Here's where Northwest now flies to from LAX:

--Tokyo
--Honolulu
--Indianapolis
--Detroit
--Minneapolis
--Las Vegas
--Memphis

Of those cities, Delta also flies to Tokyo, Honolulu and Vegas. I'm not sure about Vegas, but Tokyo and Honolulu are lucrative destinations, so the newly merged carrier won't be in any rush to cut back on those flights. Northwest has pretty much dominated the Detroit and Minneapolis routes (they're both hub cities), so there's no overlap there. Information about Indianapolis and Memphis is above my pay grade. Of course, all this is a little premature. The deal still has to be approved by shareholders and regulators. After that, the consolidation begins, probably sometime next year.