Another bid to buy Midwest Airlines?

[EX_CV580FR8Dawg]

Simmer Down MYF! Or Airtran is gonna paint the Violent Femmes on A/C 79 and make you fly it on the last SYX flt ever.

Isn't 79 gone?

 

[njcapt]

Halin' Texas, you're right, it would have been kind of a shoddy deal for an ATA pilot staple, but the Southwest deal didn't exactly work out well for them as I recall either. They lost a LOT of their flying, and exactly HOW many ATA pilots have been hired by SWA since that move? A pretty small fraction as far as my ATA buddies have to say.

Would you rather be stapled with a job and current growth ongoing or furloughed and looking at a regional again if you want to stay in the game? ukep.s. I'm talking about ATA, not MEH here).

Thanks for the analysis, Lear, but I want to straighten out any misconceptions about how the proposed AirTran/ATA deal was going to affect the pilots.

AirTran was going to get all ATA's MDW assets and have ATA fly code share flights until AirTran could add staff and equipment. The rest of ATA was supposed to retreat to IND and do it's little scheduled service/military charter thing. As ATA's MDW assets weren't needed, ATA pilots would have been furloughed. The staffing estimate for post-MDW ATA was about 550 pilots. At no time was any merging of pilots to occur. Seeing how Northwest immediately flooded the IND market with RJ's upon the announcement of the AirTran deal, ATA would have failed within months.

The SWA deal allowed ATA to remain in MDW (in much reduced form) and ultimately produced a seniority list of, imagine that, 550 pillots. Approximately 50 of the 500 furloughed ATA pilots have ended up at SWA, about the same number that have landed at AirTran (me included).

The only deal for ATA assets that would have offered any pilot job protection would have been the America West deal. Furloughs would have been the same but AWA was willing to capture the furloughed pilots, with longevity protection, and recall them to the AWA side of the fence as aircraft deliveries allowed. It would be interesting to see what would have happened if the AWA deal had gone down.

 

[Lear70]

NJ, you're absolutely correct.

However,,,

I wasn't speaking in terms of whether ATA would have been better off with an AirTran acquisition of the MDW flying, I was responding to Halin' Texas' comparison of the AirTran/Midwest acquisition to the SWA/ATA deal.

In other words, they're two completely different animals, and Midwest employees stand a LOT more to gain than the ATA pilots did with Southwest.

Hope that clears up any confusion my original post might have had in it.

c-ya

 

[Eagle757shark]

AAI offer to buy Midwest was $6.625 plus .5884 of AAI stock price

AAI today closed at $12.88

So 12.88 X .5884 = 7.578

7.578 + 6.625 = $ 14.20 which is higher than $13.25, anotherword the offer is in excess of 400 Million as of today closing prices.


hmmmm.....I wonder what the BOD recommendation will be (even though I kinda have an idea) and how will the share holders react.

What is the talk around Midwest now? What do you think your BOD will decide? Just curious. Thanks

 

[Flydaplane]

Posted this on another thread, but to answer your question, here is what I think...

Me thinks the AirTran MEH merger is a done deal
If I reflected on my career I would definately say I was not good at predicting the future...however, I think that AirTran has MEH wrapped up.

Why? Well I think Timmy hired Goldman Sachs to make himself look good by saying that they were trying to get a true value of the company. I'm sure Timmy knew at the time that Goldman Sachs was a significant shareholder in AirTran stock. They own over $22 Million dollars worth, something like 2,249,000 shares of Air Tran, according to Yahoo's finance page.
The conspiracy theorist in me thinks that he hired them to make himself look good to the people of MKE and the shareholders, but also so he could tell them the price he'd sell for (everyone knows that he basically tells the board what to do). So he walks away with more cash and at the same time makes it look like he put up a good fight.

Funny how in the press releases he put out he didn't disclose that Goldman Sachs was a major shareholder in the company trying to acquire MEH.

Anyway, I hope the additional $ doesn't hurt the future of AirTran too much. Hopefully, they'll still have cash to operate well and pursue other merger opportunities as well (Alaska?).

 

[njcapt]

NJ, you're absolutely correct.

However,,,

I wasn't speaking in terms of whether ATA would have been better off with an AirTran acquisition of the MDW flying, I was responding to Halin' Texas' comparison of the AirTran/Midwest acquisition to the SWA/ATA deal.

In other words, they're two completely different animals, and Midwest employees stand a LOT more to gain than the ATA pilots did with Southwest.

Hope that clears up any confusion my original post might have had in it.

c-ya

Gotcha. I agree. Ultimately, the AirTran/MidEx deal will greatly benefit both groups. In the short term, though, there will be significant heartburn. As I posted on our bitch-board, you know you have a fair merger when everybody is equally pissed off.

 

[gt1900]

Flydaplane... Im sure many at AAI would love to see Alaska next, it makes the most sense out of all the merger rumors.. However, ALA doesn't need AAI, and there is no way in hell that AAI is gonna buy Alaska.. However, I would love it if Alaska decided to buy AAI...

 

[TV9Driver]

i think Frontier makes sense. It's hard to merge LCC and non-LCC airlines. Even though Frontier and AAI have different fleet types, their corporate philosophy and their infrastructure is very compatible.

But then again, what the hell do I know.....

 

[USARET]

i think Frontier makes sense. It's hard to merge LCC and non-LCC airlines. Even though Frontier and AAI have different fleet types, their corporate philosophy and their infrastructure is very compatible.

But then again, what the hell do I know.....

I don't believe the fleet mix will make any difference. Airtran whipsawed Boeing and Airbus last time to get the sweetheart deal on the 717's and they will do it again when it's time to start replacing the 717's. So, when you eliminate the fleet mix argument an Airtran/Frontier merger makes perfect sense. But since Joe and Bob have not included me in the strategic planning for the company I don't know much either!

 

[Citrusflyer]

The "propaganda" against FL is now in full force.....

http://youtube.com/watch?v=biO8MgsteiI

 

[Kharma Police]

The "propaganda" against FL is now in full force.....

http://youtube.com/watch?v=biO8MgsteiI

Jermaine Dupri and SoSo Def Records should sign them.

 

[Steeler Fan]

The "propaganda" against FL is now in full force.....

http://youtube.com/watch?v=biO8MgsteiI

I think I saw both of those performers on American Idol last night. Randy Jackson loved them, but Simon Cowell was not impressed and sent them packing. I heard that Paula wants the merger to happen.

 

[717capt]

gt1900, just wonderin? Why is there "no way in hell" that AAI is gonna buy Alaska. Is your statement insinuating that AAI is not interested in aquiring Alaska. If, on the other hand you are stating that little old AAI can't afford Alaska, then I think you may not be properly schooled in the first two rules of business.

1. Everything is for sale

2. never use your own money.

Look at HP and US. HP got the money from citibank and airbus. Look at US and DL. Again US got the money from citibank and airbus. if it is a sound business plan and you can get enough financing, you yourself could buy alaska, and AAI and frontier and whoever else. The point you should be making is how much money will the current management of Alaska, or AAI or midwest or any other airline/company be willing to take to step down as ceo, cfo, coo, whatever. Thats what it really comes down to.

 

[Eagle757shark]

Flydaplane... Im sure many at AAI would love to see Alaska next, it makes the most sense out of all the merger rumors.. However, ALA doesn't need AAI, and there is no way in hell that AAI is gonna buy Alaska.. However, I would love it if Alaska decided to buy AAI...

What makes you think AirTran or Alaska would try to buy one or the other. Both players could find an outside investor to put up the money to merge both carriers together. (Similar to US Air and America West) Then the question would be which management teams stay around to run the newly merged airline. No one uses their own money any longer for these things, it is all financed......The American Way!

 

[Lear70]

My vote in that would be for Alaska to be the acquiring airline.

Their F/O rates are higher than our own MEC is shooting for with our PROPOSED rates for our new contract.