Delta Pondering Sneaky Takeover of Virgin Atlantic

London's Heathrow airport is one of the world's main hubs, and it's an especially frequent destination for travlers to the United States. Delta doesn't have many landing slots there, and neither do its European partners in the SkyTeam. And that's what's driving Delta's interest in purchasing Singapore Airlines' share of Virgin Atlantic. Virgin Atlantic, you see, is 49 percent owned by Singapore Airlines and 51 percent owned by Richard Branson. And Virgin Atlantic obviously has plenty of slots at Heathrow. Now the clever angle here is that there's a reason Singapore Airlines only owns a 49 percent stake in the airline, namely that European Union rules prohibit a non-EU firm from owning a majority stake in a European airline. But there's a bigger angle here. Branson has indicated that he's also willing to sell some of his shares. So if Delta buys up Singapore Airlines' 49 percent and the...