Local air travelers will notice one fewer ticket counter, but no reduction in flights, after a merger between Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines closed Wednesday.

The Northwest ticket counter and the Skywest counter likely will become a Delta counter under the merger, according to Rapid City Regional Airport manager Cameron Humphries. Skywest is a contract carrier for Delta to its hub in Salt Lake City.

Those changes likely will occur sometime in the first half of next year, Humphries said.

Delta executive Ed Bastian reassured travelers at the Minneapolis airport on Thursday that little would change in the merger. Hubs will all stay the same. No outright cuts in flights are planned, but perhaps there will be fewer seats on some. Frequent fliers will keep all their miles earned.

The two companies have been working together for months toward the integration, but some items have yet to be decided, Bastian said. That includes whether Delta will continue to allow a single checked bag for free (Northwest charges a fee) and which planes will go on which routes.

Bastian did not rule out the possibility that Delta would add a checked-bag fee. In any case, both airlines will have the same fee structure soon, he said.

He said Delta would arrange its fleet and schedule in the spring. Only one airplane, the 757, is common to both carriers.

Delta recently put out a request for proposals from other carriers that want to provide contract service to smaller airports such as Rapid City, Humphries said. He does not anticipate any reduction in the number of flights or seating capacity in or out of the Rapid City airport because of the merger.

"It's difficult to forecast, but I don't at this point anticipate any loss of air service, or even a reduction in capacity," he said.

Because Rapid City's boarding numbers are growing, airlines are making money in this market, Humphries said. If anything, he expects to see more flights, not fewer. That said, the airline industry is "highly volatile" now, and air travelers here will have to "wait and see how it all shakes out," he said.

Northwest flies to Minnesota and Chicago, and Skywest flies to Salt Lake City.