Wall Street is expecting news of a merger soon from the airlines, with some analysts predicting that we could get the news as early as this week. Delta's board of directors is planning to meet on Wednesday and will discuss the merger at that time.

However, even if we do get the news this week, any joining of the two companies will be far from a sealed deal. Once the two companies publicly state their intentions (assuming they do), the Department of Justice will have to look into possible anti-trust issues and the Transportation Department will have to do its analysis to make sure that a merger does not negatively impact international routes.

Congress will also get its chance to assert pressure one way or the other, probably against a merger. Fearing that any merger could result in a massive consolidations in the industry, Congress is likely to repeat the negative pressure that was applied last year when US Airways launched a hostile takeover bid of Delta. The merger eventually failed.

The House Transportation Committee Chairman James Oberstar, who is a Democrat from Minnesota (the same state where Northwest is headquartered) was fairly blunt when asked about his views on a possible merger. When asked what his position is on any airline merger, Oberstar had a blunt "hell no" response to the possibility.

So, while news of a merger may be coming later this week, just be aware that any consolidation deals that you hear will still have many more hurdles to overcome, but today's pilot agreement is definitely a step in that direction.

What are your thoughts on a possible merger of the two airlines? Would you like to see the two consolidate or not? And why? Let us hear what you thoughts are on the issue.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.