AirTran under Pressure from Delta

[qxdash8]

What Glen was getting at is that AAI has operated irrationally over the years which is why DL doen't like competing with them. These are his words not mine - I don't have any specifics but I thought it was an interesting comment.

 

[qxdash8]

As I understand - post BK DL has much fewer "VP's and Directors" than it use to. Virgina Ave is a much quiter place these days.

 

[ACL65PILOT]

That it is, and not many of the remaining ones are pilots.

 

[ACL65PILOT]

Airtran has the lowest ASM than any airline out there, that is why DL hates competeing with them !!!

Dl should have started when AAI had 40 airplanes not 150....

AAI has hundred or two running the airline=DL has 1,000s??? How many VPs and Directors does DL have?

The guys running the farm were too worried about bleeding the company that competing back then. Times are a lot different.

 

[scarlet]

Yeah try putting 2 50 seaters in a city for Airtrans one 717?

about 2800/hour for a 50 seat DL pays for RJ
Plus Fuel DL pays... ?? It is not cheap. Airtran tried RJs to those cities and it was better to just fly the 717.

 

[Secret Squirrel]

The guys running the farm were too worried about bleeding the company that competing back then. Times are a lot different.

What is different? The economy is tanking, lots of credit concerns, businesses cutting back on their budgets, a softening international demand because of a rising us dollar, and you guys are spending BILLIONS of dollars to try and merge your company? It is not a done deal by any stretch of the imagination and the benefits of the merger could be YEARS away if they ever do come true (look at US Air, they are still week even without the labor strife and they had the benefit of CH11). It is still the courting faze where they are putting on happy faces to get government approval. You might want to be careful laughing at somebodies burning house when smoke is coming out of your own.

 

[Eagle757shark]

If they come to ATL it will be after AAI's demise or it will be the demise of AAI. There is no way that two LLC can compete for that market share in and out of ATL.

Wrong, we do it in Philadephia. You speak as if this is some special turf here in Atlanta. By your post you have some hard on for the demise of AirTran. Atlanta is a city that someday may become apart of Southwest's route structure. Southwest and AirTran co-exist in many cities around the country and do just fine (BWI, MDW, MCO, TPA, FLL) to name a few. AirTran was hit hard this year by the fuel crisis. But now that fuel is below $90 dollars a barrel, AirTran is lean enough to be around a long time. By the way, as of 10/10/2008 at www.airtran.com investor relations and earnings, you will see that AirTran is projecting a profit of $37 million dollars for 2009.

 

[Ualexpress]

Glen H. came to my new hire class in March. He was asked if we (DAL) were worried about LUV coming to ATL. His response was that we would much rather have LUV in ATL than Airtran. He stated that SW was much more rational in how they ran their airline then Citrus. Personally I don't see SW in ATL unless Airtran in gone. Trying to compete angaints both DL and AAI in ATL is a whole different ball game compared to UA and F9 in DEN.

Funny, that is the same thing that AirTran management said about Delta pre bankruptcy and during bankruptcy.

 

[ACL65PILOT]

No AAI and LUV cannot compete together in ATL. It will be the death nail in AAI in ATL.
I believe that USA has international out of PHL. Different feed, O and D and markets. Kind of like F9, LUV, and UAL out of DEN.
DAL and AAI can compete. DAL and LUV can compete, but putting LUV in ATL with DAL and AAI, will lead to one being thinned out.

 

[Murphy]

Glen H. came to my new hire class in March. He was asked if we (DAL) were worried about LUV coming to ATL. His response was that we would much rather have LUV in ATL than Airtran. He stated that SW was much more rational in how they ran their airline then Citrus. Personally I don't see SW in ATL unless Airtran in gone. Trying to compete angaints both DL and AAI in ATL is a whole different ball game compared to UA and F9 in DEN.

Aren't you guys trying to get rid of Glen?