It's Over. Northwest Airlines is no more

A bittersweet New Year dawns as Northwest Airlines is fully absorbed into Delta Air Lines effective today. The FAA has determined that Delta has fully complied with all conditions it placed on the acquisition and issued a "single operating certificate" effective January 1, 2010. A few terse lines from Investors Business Daily tell the story.

A glance at a time line of the merger illustrates how quickly this all happened. Step by irretrievable step, an 84 year old airline with a rich history has disappeared.

But has it really?

The volunteers who operate the NWA History Centre don't think so, as they continue their work to archive and display Northwest Airlines artifacts at their museum in Bloomington, Minnesota and tell fascinating stories of the venerable old airline in their quarterly newsletter, Reflections.

Lady Skywriter doesn't think so, as she continues to blog about the golden era of passenger flight and Northwest Orient Airlines lore.

And I'll bet there are thousands of people out there with ties to their "hometown airline" who will miss seeing the signature red tail flying overhead.

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