Delta Air Lines executives are set to request their board Thursday to authorize them to hold conclusive and detailed discussions with two other airlines, Chicago-based United Airlines and Minneapolis-based Northwest Airlines.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, sources within Delta who knew about the proposal said there was confirmation from the board about CEO Richard Anderson asking for approval to organize talks with the two airlines as they shared complementary routes with Delta.

On the air travel grid, Atlanta-based Delta has a strong presence in the East and across the Atlantic. United and Northwest have a strong presence in the Midwest, West, and across the Pacific. Delta ranks third among carriers in the USA, with United at #2 and Northwest at #5.

In the event of a merger going through, together the three would emerge as a formidable giant, the biggest airline in the USA, beating handsomely Fort Worth-based American. At another level, the merger could trigger a chain reaction, with USA’s biggest carriers scrambling to consolidate their positions.

News of the Delta proposal first hit cyberspace Thursday afternoon, after the Wall Street Journal’s online version carried the story. The news triggered a jump in share prices of the three airlines. United shares jumped up by 23.7 percent, while Delta shares jumped up by 18.2 percent. Northwest shares registered a jump of 32.0 percent.

The three airlines have not come out with any comments about the proposed Delta move or the likelihood of a merger. However, a spokeswoman for Delta, Betsy Talton, said Delta’s board had got advisors on board and also organized a special committee to look at the strategic options available to the company, which included the possibility of a merger.

Jean Medina, a spokeswoman for United merely said that her company’s stand on the ‘need for consolidation’ was quite clear.

Ever since 9/11, big American carriers have combined their operations just once: when the America West-US Airways merger came through in 2005. This is despite the supposed advantages of merging, in the face of adverse conditions like rising oil prices and increasing competition from low cost carriers.

Even now, though the news about Delta’s proposal to its board is out, the possibility of a merger is still quite distant. As analysts rightly point out, the granting of approval is merely the company board giving permission to explore possibilities, nothing more. It would merely mark the possible beginning of the actual process of the merger talks.

Besides, there are a large number of significant hurdles to overcome whenever there is an airliner merger in the offing. Possible obstacles usually include getting federal approval, handling possible trouble from the labor unions, and also being in sync with the volatile nature of the industry.

Last year, Delta brushed aside a hostile takeover bid from US Airways worth $10 billion and managed to come out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. That merger received stiff opposition from Gerald Grinstein, a former Delta CEO who launched a ‘Keep Delta My Delta’ campaign to gather the employees together and also get the company’s bankruptcy creditors to negate the deal.