More SWA Govt. Help...

[BILL LUMBERG]

(Reuters) - United Airlines parent UAL Corp (UAUA.O) won U.S. antitrust approval on Friday to acquire Continental Airlines (CAL.N), a deal that will create the world's largest air carrier.

The Justice Department said it closed its investigation into the deal after the combining airlines agreed to give up some takeoff and landing rights at its Newark airport hub to low-fare carrier Southwest Airlines (LUV.N). (Reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky and James Vicini; Editing by Gary Hill)


I wonder how much of this "Agreement" the Airlines actually had a say in.......Looks like another Government attempt to help prop up Southwest.

Oh well, maybe the pizza parties extend to the DOT and Justice Department.......I'll bet they love the big screen!!

 

[JetMonkey]

Amazing.. All I got to say is Southwest can owe most of its sucess in the past 10 years to the US Government.

 

[Moon-dog]

Let the whining commence, that did not take long for the usual suspects to sound off like little girls.

 

[nimtz]

The fault lies entirely with Little Jeff 'Smigel' and Big Buck Glenn. Proof to me all these senior VP's are going to cash out and be on the first life boat when an iceberg lies dead ahead...

 

[GuppyWN]

Bill,

Seriously?

Dude. Let it go.

Gup

 

[Tanker Clown]

Lumberg is one to talk. Look at the Gub'ment help that Song got when they went through bankruptcy. Nothing like wiping out your debts, screwing your share holders, and raping the employees to get back on track. But I guess when it came to the pilots, you can't rape the willing. You boys love them pay cuts!

 

[ualdriver]

Better that it go to SWA then some non-union, undercutting outfit that is going to dump a bunch of capacity into/out of EWR at ridiculously low fares. I wonder if SWA won some sort of bid for the slots or if UAL/CAL got to choose who got the slots. Out of all the low cost carriers, I would think that they'd rather compete against SWA.

 

[labbats]

I don't know about you, but I'd prefer those slots went to the airline with the highest pay and best workrules. If that happens to be Southwest then good on them.

 

[B727Driver]

Tanker, ouch!! I wonder what Lumberg would have said if they awarded the slots to Mesa, or better yet, a Skybus-type carrier. Undercutting? Non-union pay?
Only because Scope is on 7 day leave did we hear from Lumberg first. The General is probably enjoying a warm beer is Europe. Cheers!

 

[Jetjockey]

I don't see how EWR is a gift. Jetblue has been there for years. It's a damn circus. We welcome the new clowns to the show. At least their planes airplanes are painted accordingly.