When Delta and Northwest officials pitched their merger plan to investors and regulators last spring, they vowed the combination would be "a merger of addition, not of subtraction," one that would help the airlines "weather the impact of fuel prices and the volatility of the domestic and world economies."

A little over a year later, the new airline has seen fewer passengers, reduced capacity and declining revenues. Today, the company said negative impacts from the recession and rising oil prices will wipe out $6 billion in savings it expected from merger synergies, lower fuel prices and capacity cuts.

So were the companies' leaders wrong about a merger helping the airlines to weather the economy?

It's not too early to ask the question, says Myles Shaver, a Carlson School of Management professor who specializes in mergers and acquisitions, but it's probably to soon to reach any definitive answer.

Shaver tells Business Agenda that today's disclosure "lends credence to those who questioned whether the merger would be the tonic -- especially a fast-acting one -- to the industry's woes." Shaver was a skeptic leading up to the merger. He's still withholding final judgement about whether the merger will be considered a success.

The airlines will argue the integration process is still ongoing. The company is encountering one-time costs, things like re-painting Northwest planes and training employees, that it will not incur in the future, Shaver said. That might mean more synergy later.

But many of the challenges facing the industry -- rising fuel costs, fewer passengers, swine flu fears -- are beyond any airline's control, regardless of size. "We're talking about the same things they would have been talking about had they not merged."

It's not surprising that the airline is scaling back its footprint, and the two airlines separately would have been doing the same today if they stayed independent. The airline has attempted to make good on some of its claims, adding or maintaining key routes in certain markets. It's up in the air whether the changes will prove beneficial, though.

"I'm sort of in the wait-and-see mode," Shaver said. "It certainly hasn't solved all the problems so far."