Delta chief harbors no grudge over bid

Delta Air Lines Inc. Chief Executive Officer Gerald Grinstein said he bears no grudge against US Airways Group Inc. CEO Doug Parker for mounting a hostile bid for bankrupt Delta.

"If I showed you an e-mail exchange we had today, it would show that it is not personal," Grinstein, 74, said Wednesday in an interview after US Airways, based in Tempe, Ariz., dropped its $9.75 billion takeover offer that would have created the world's largest airline.

Grinstein's comments contrasted with the two airlines' recent broadsides. Delta pilots union chief Lee Moak vowed last month to "kill this merger," while Parker, 45, said last week that failure in his bid for Atlanta-based Delta would doom any other industry tie-ups "until the next down cycle."

"Consolidations take place during downturns," Grinstein said in the interview, noting that some U.S. airlines had their first annual profits last year since 2000. "Doug was trying to take advantage of us during a time of weakness."

Earlier, addressing a rally of about 300 employees near the Atlanta airport, Grinstein said Delta's anti-merger defenses "drove a bunch of coyotes back to Arizona."

US Airways withdrew its bid after Delta's official unsecured creditors committee endorsed the airline's plan to leave bankruptcy by midyear as a stand-alone company. The panel's decision was pivotal because it will help set terms for Delta, which operates a hub at Salt Lake City International Airport, to exit court protection.

Grinstein, who has left open the possibility of a merger after leaving Chapter 11, said Wednesday he doesn't expect a new suitor to emerge as Delta completes its reorganization.

He also said he stressed to creditors that US Airways faced much work in improving operations at its own hubs in Philadelphia, Phoenix and Charlotte, N.C., without tackling Delta.

US Airways, the seventh-biggest U.S. carrier, emerged from its own bankruptcy in 2005 by merging with America West Holdings Corp. The airline won't fully merge its computer reservations systems until March.

Delta had fought the takeover offer since Parker announced it on Nov. 15. Grinstein rejected earlier private overtures.