I am not sure if this is already buried in a thread here, so here it goes. There was an article on WSJ today regarding the next CEo at Delta and why it has taken longer than the expected by the end of June selection.

One of the Directors of Delta is Ex-NWA CEO Anderson. But he did not interview the other two CEO candidates, and Delta looks like it is looking "outside" for the next CEO as it is taking longer (now by end of Summer). So it IS possible Anderson could become the next CEO as Grinstein has indicated how good he is in the past.

Anyone has any insight to this story.

Here is the link on WSJ (It might require you to be a subscriber)

Excerpt:
When Delta emerged from bankruptcy protection in April, Mr. Grinstein said he would retire as soon as a successor was chosen. He said then that Delta's new board could select a successor by the end of June. In a conference call last week, Mr. Grinstein said it may now take until the end of summer. Four of Delta's 11 directors served on the board before the company's reorganization.

During meetings in Atlanta on July 11 and 12, the board interviewed both internal candidates: Ed Bastian, 50 years old, Delta's chief financial officer, and Chief Operating Officer Jim Whitehurst, 39. Senior executives, according to people familiar with the proceedings, were left "scratching our heads" about the board's intentions. Directors established no timetable for their decision and aren't scheduled to meet again until late August.

Richard Anderson, 52, former chief executive of Northwest Airlines Corp. and the sole outside director with previous day-to-day experience as an airline manager, didn't participate in the interviews, according to people familiar with the board process. He is an executive vice president at UnitedHealth Group Inc.

Delta and Northwest, both of which filed for bankruptcy protection in September 2005 and emerged from those proceedings in the spring, have often been considered logical merger partners, should the U.S. airline industry begin consolidating.

Mr. Grinstein in the past has told acquaintances of his and Mr. Anderson's that he thinks highly of the former Northwest leader as an executive. But, in recent months, Mr. Grinstein has explicitly expressed his preference that one of the internal candidates get his job.

Mr. Grinstein declined to comment on Mr. Anderson yesterday. Mr. Grinstein has advised the executive-search firm that recruited Mr. Anderson and the company's other new directors, but hasn't actively pursued any external candidate to succeed him at Delta's helm, according to people familiar with the search process. "Our best decision is internal," he said in an earnings conference call last week.

Mr. Anderson declined to comment. People familiar with his thinking said he isn't seeking the Delta chief-executive job and doesn't consider himself a candidate. A spokesman for Spencer Stuart, Delta's search firm, also declined to comment.