List of airline mergers and acquisitions

This article lists airline mergers and acquisitions, with a brief history of each:

# Air West
#*1968 - Pacific Air Lines (originally Southwest Airways), Bonanza Air Lines, and West Coast Airlines merged to form Air West
#*1970 - Howard Hughes purchased Air West and renamed it Hughes Airwest
# Delta Air Lines
#*1924 - Started as Huff Daland Dusters
#*1928 - Huff Daland Dusters was purchased by C.E. Woolman and renamed Delta Air Service after the Mississippi Delta
#*1972 - Delta purchased Northeast Airlines
#*1984 - Established the Delta Connection (ASA, Comair, Skywest, ...)
#*1987 - Delta merged with Western Airlines
#*1991 - Purchase of Pan Am's European routes, and acquired Pan Am's shuttle, forming what is today Delta Shuttle
#*1996 - Delta Express began service, ended November 2003
#*2003 - Song began service, ended May 2006
#*2008 - Announced merger with Northwest Airlines. If approved Delta would become the world's largest carrier by passenger traffic
# Hughes Airwest
#*1970 - Howard Hughes purchased Air West and renamed it Hughes Airwest
#*1980 - Republic Airlines bought out Hughes Airwest
# Northeast Airlines
#*1972 - Delta purchased Northeast Airlines
# Northwest Airlines
#*1916 - Founded by Col. Lewis Patenaude, under the name Northwest Airways
#*1927 - Began flying passengers
#*1949 - With its new routes to the far east, re-branded itself as Northwest Orient Airlines
#*1986 - Purchased Republic Airlines, and dropped the word Orient from its brand name
# Pan Am
#*1991 - Delta Air Lines purchased Pan Am's European routes, and acquired Pan Am's Shuttle
#Republic Airlines
#*1979 - Formed by the merger of North Central Airlines and Southern Airways
#*1980 - Bought out Hughes Airwest
#*1986 - Northwest purchased Republic Airlines
#Western Airlines
#*1925 - First incorporated as Western Air Express by Harris Hanshue
#*1926 - Western's first flight took place
#*1928 - Reincorporated as Western Air Express Corp.
#*1930 - Purchased Standard Airlines (subsidiary of Aero Corp. of Ca. founded in 1926). WAE with Fokker aircraft merged with Transcontinental Air Transport to form TWA.
#*1934 - Western Air Express broke off from TWA and briefly changed its name to General Air Lines, returning to the name Western Air Express after several months
#*1941 - Western Air Express changed its name to Western Air Lines, which was later altered to Western Airlines
#*1967 - merged with Pacific Northern Airlines
#*1987 - Delta merged with Western Airlines (kept Delta name)