Republic wins the auction!!!

[stratus72]

Local news just announced Republic won the auction! SWA, you thought you had it in the bag. Wrong for a third time...since you arrived in Denver. Gladly see you out there in the battle field for Denver!

 

[roughneck]

Hang on tight, I promise its ON!

 

[luv2fly]

Local news just announced Republic won the auction! SWA, you thought you had it in the bag. Wrong for a third time...since you arrived in Denver. Gladly see you out there in the battle field for Denver!

Good luck with RAH!

 

[Dude]

Good luck with Republic. Maybe you'll have a better go than the Midwest guys.

We wish you the best.

 

[The Victors]

Local news just announced Republic won the auction! SWA, you thought you had it in the bag. Wrong for a third time...since you arrived in Denver. Gladly see you out there in the battle field for Denver!

I'm sure you'll be happier after you integrate with a commuter.

 

[FlyinPiker]

Local news just announced Republic won the auction! SWA, you thought you had it in the bag. Wrong for a third time...since you arrived in Denver. Gladly see you out there in the battle field for Denver!

I suppose now we read 10 pages worth of Southwest guys telling you your now officially doomed.

I've always been a fan of your pilot group.

I'm excited for your new future and regardless of what it holds hopefully some of these guys will GET OVER IT and support you as well.

 

[bladeusa]

SW Airlines bid to Acquire F9 not selected
Southwest Airlines' Bid to Acquire Frontier Not Selected at Auction

Carrier's Refusal to Remove Labor Requirement Key in Decision

• Press Release
• Source: Southwest Airlines
• On Thursday August 13, 2009, 7:45 pm EDT

• • Buzz up! 0
  • Print

• Companies:
  • Southwest Airlines Co.

DALLAS, Aug. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Southwest Airlines

"We said all along that we would only move forward on this deal if it proved to be the right decision for our Employees and financially prudent for our Company," said Gary Kelly, Southwest's Chairman of the Board, President, and CEO. "We have a mission to preserve and protect our Culture and the best interests of our Employees, Customers, and Shareholders. This was a great opportunity that required us to act fast. A lot of people worked very hard with every intention of making this work. We were fortunate to be in a position to examine the acquisition to see if it was the right decision for Southwest Airlines. We chose not to amend our bid to remove the labor requirement, a key reason our bid was not selected. Our congratulations to Republic Airways and Frontier Airlines."
As stated in its initial statement of interest on July 30, 2009, Southwest said there would be several contingencies to be resolved for a deal to go through. Key in its position, Southwest was not willing to remove the need for the two Pilot Unions to reach agreement. Southwest says its Culture and relationships with its Employees are too important to compromise.

"Southwest remains committed to serving the Denver market with our low fares and excellent Customer Service," Kelly said. "We began serving Denver in 2006 with just 13 flights and have grown to offer 112 nonstop daily flights today. We are very pleased with the response we have seen to our service and growth in Denver, and we will continue to compete vigorously in the market."
One of the contingencies in Southwest's proposal was that labor groups from the two airlines would need to reach an agreement on how the two Pilot Unions (SWAPA and FAPA) would work together. Despite a good faith and diligent effort by all involved, including the top leadership of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) and the Frontier Airlines Pilots Association (FAPA), who labored long into the night, the two unions were not able to come to an agreement before the auction deadline. As a result, Southwest's bid was deemed unacceptable.

Frontier filed for bankruptcy court protection in April 2008. Southwest submitted its initial indication of interest to acquire Frontier Airlines on July 30, 2009, which gave the carrier an opportunity to engage with Frontier in the due diligence required to determine the scope of a binding proposal. Southwest submitted a bid of more than $170 million to acquire Frontier on Monday, Aug. 10, 2009.

 

[stratus72]

"Hang on tight, I promise its On1" Good one..didn't see that coming. Enjoy your furloughs.... at the rate you're going they will be coming...give it 12-16 months...if Republic doesn't work out...then life goes on. SOOOOO glad to see your ego's crushed. I'll be just fine financially without your contract.... LOL. You will be shrinking in Denver...and the mighty always fall..remember that for the future. I'm off the lame website now....bash all you want. ;-)

 

[Cardinal]

Well SWAPA, so much for your furlough buffers, and so much for 300 new Captain seats. Get bent!

 

[ACL65PILOT]

If they bring the fight on the losers will be F9, WN and UAUA. All of the others will win from this. IMHO it is in WN's best interest not to fight them till they die. No need to weaken the castle.

 

[comrcap]

What were you thinking?

Frontier pilots. I know what it's like to be Delta's Bitch. I can't imagine what's instore being Republics Bitch! Good Luck!

 

[The Victors]

If they bring the fight on the losers will be F9, WN and UAUA. All of the others will win from this. IMHO it is in WN's best interest not to fight them till they die. No need to weaken the castle.

WN won't need to fight them. F9 already fired RAH because of terrible Customer service and now F9 is their b!tch.

 

[firstthird]

... Enjoy your furloughs.... at the rate you're going they will be coming...give it 12-16 months...if Republic doesn't work out...then life goes on. ...You will be shrinking in Denver...and the mighty always fall..remember that for the future. I'm off the lame website now....bash all you want. ;-)

wanting an integration that protected our pilots and that we thought was fair and equitable is not the same as wishing furloughs or failure.

 

[Heavy Set]

SWA Pilots = Unprofessional

Thank goodness I got out of the airline business... Personally, I was very disappointed with how the SWA pilots viewed and regarded the "lowly" F9 pilots. How magninimous of you to offer these F9 pilots a genuine career... Give me a break. First you trash the ATA pilots and now you completely disrespect the F9 pilots. Do you see a trend? I do. I wish the F9 pilots luck and hope that Republic can handle the transition professionally...

I am happy to fly my Challenger 300 right past you corn dogs. BTW, flying to Hawaii, Europe and the Caribbean is great! Enjoy your ELP-LAS-PHX-SJC-LAX patterns.

 

[say again]

Local news just announced Republic won the auction! SWA, you thought you had it in the bag. Wrong for a third time...since you arrived in Denver. Gladly see you out there in the battle field for Denver!

Yeah, Id much rather RAH over WN!?!?! Good luck, you're gonna need it.

 

[climb2slow]

Well, now that the decision is made, the real questions and deal making can start. Personally I am surprised that the two sides were unable to come to an agreement. Only time will tell if the RAH win was better for the Frontier Employees. Honestly I think the FAPA hard stance may have been in part due to the company as a whole. Dealing with Southwest would ahve at the very least meant the furlough of another 120 pilots. In addition to that would have been the entire tower road operation, and all the station agents, mechanics, etc. While this deal will not pay the pilots more money or give us any more job security, it does keep the Frontier family intact for now, or at least until Republic steps in and drops the hammer.

 

[CHQ Pilot]

Dealing with Southwest would ahve at the very least meant the furlough of another 120 pilots.

I couldn't predict what would happen, but SWAPA has some pride that we haven't furloughed. There was a lot of talk on the SWAPA board of making sure any pilot part of Frontier would not be furloughed up to and including taking system wide temporary line reductions to keep everyone employed. I can't recall any talk from SWAPA about immediately furloughing pilots if the deal had gone down. Granted the ultimate decision would have rested with SWA, I don't think they would have wanted to send pilots to the street as part of the plan of the transaction.

 

[gobyebye]

As a SWA pilot, let me just say that there has been a lot of "you morons" talk about the F9 position and I think it stems not from arrogance, well maybe for some it is, but from the most part the pilots here are shocked because we honestly thought it would be a good deal for the F9 pilots as well. Yes it would have been great for us, but we didn't want to gain something off the backs of others. 98% of the pilots I've talked to had the attitude of lets just wait and see what happens with this whole thing, not getting all ramped up about it like you see from the few on these boards. Just keep that in mind when you make accusations and start thread titles about "arrogant" this and that. We all have our vocal a-holes at every shop.

 

[say again]

Love the avatar CHQ pilot...awesome!!!

 

[freightdogfred]

For better or worse, ya gotta admire the pluck and spirit of the F9 group as a whole. Choosing to go their own way (with Republic) speaks volumes about the tenacity of the group as a whole. I think WN's in for a bit of a scrap in Denver but so is F9. You can't give a gorilla a bloody nose and not expect it to get mad. WN is a great company, but to ram a staple job down a group's throat while dangling a carrot in front of them is dirty pool at best. WN did it's level best to subvert mandated legislation on SLI, and then tried to rationalize it under the guise of "maintaining labor harmony".
It's a pretty weak argument, and it didn't work.

Best of luck to the F9 group.

 

[Hilarion]

Go clean the back of the 300 fat boy ! you need the exercise! Your soooo cool!

 

[firstthird]

WN did it's level best to subvert mandated legislation on SLI, and then tried to rationalize it under the guise of "maintaining labor harmony".
It's a pretty weak argument, and it didn't work.

actually it did work. SWA labor is still harmonious. it really isn't subverting the legislation since we didn't buy them. thus, no M/B to trigger.

maybe you don't think the SWA culture is valuable, Gary Kelly disagrees and good on him.

 

[walkthasky]

My ego is just fine dude. Our CEO said no labor agreement, no deal. Simple as that. My opinion (which i think im allowed to have) saw this as a good opportunity for both pilot groups. Obviously FAPA did not agree with SWAPA, and it's over. I don't think the majority thought it was in the bag at all. Most of us wanted to protect our entire seniority list and expected resistance to that. I know its hard to believe but after 3 years here, it seems they do care about us. Sure its a bit negative with negotiations going on, but that's typical. Wishing us the best with furloughs is out of line dude, so I wish you the best working for a regional, been there, done that, ill never do that again I'm sure the Midwest guys are so happy for you!

 

[Sedona16]

Thank goodness I got out of the airline business... Personally, I was very disappointed with how the SWA pilots viewed and regarded the "lowly" F9 pilots. How magninimous of you to offer these F9 pilots a genuine career... Give me a break. First you trash the ATA pilots and now you completely disrespect the F9 pilots. Do you see a trend? I do. I wish the F9 pilots luck and hope that Republic can handle the transition professionally...

I am happy to fly my Challenger 300 right past you corn dogs. BTW, flying to Hawaii, Europe and the Caribbean is great! Enjoy your ELP-LAS-PHX-SJC-LAX patterns.

Well said! The last time I saw this kind of arrogance was the United pilot group circa 1999 (OK part of the USairways group as well). Its one thing to look out for ones interests and yet another to want to totally reem another group of pilots then whistle dixie.

 

[joevollers]

Well said! The last time I saw this kind of arrogance was the United pilot group circa 1999 (OK part of the USairways group as well). Its one thing to look out for ones interests and yet another to want to totally reem another group of pilots then whistle dixie.

Actually, I think this shows what a great culture SWA has. Reem? It was merely an offer. F9 declined, no deal. What's the problem? A Reem would have been if this was forced down F9's throat. It was not.

The irony is that if F9 does not realize a rosy future with RAH, then there will be those who will still be blaming SWA for not offering the F9 pilots a better deal. All this was is a simple choice. Not a reem job.

 

[chjack]

My ego is just fine dude. Our CEO said no labor agreement, no deal. Simple as that. My opinion (which i think im allowed to have) saw this as a good opportunity for both pilot groups. Obviously FAPA did not agree with SWAPA, and it's over. I don't think the majority thought it was in the bag at all. Most of us wanted to protect our entire seniority list and expected resistance to that. I know its hard to believe but after 3 years here, it seems they do care about us. Sure its a bit negative with negotiations going on, but that's typical. Wishing us the best with furloughs is out of line dude, so I wish you the best working for a regional, been there, done that, ill never do that again I'm sure the Midwest guys are so happy for you!

A word of advice to the brothers at Southwest: At one time the pilots at Delta, American, and United were invincible also. Never say never in the airline biz. Being on top today, means nothing tomorrow.

 

[bravodude]

Well said! The last time I saw this kind of arrogance was the United pilot group circa 1999 (OK part of the USairways group as well). Its one thing to look out for ones interests and yet another to want to totally reem another group of pilots then whistle dixie.

You are going to base your assumption of 6000 swa pilots on the coments of about 10 folks. Good one.

 

[inflightboi175]

republic cant run frontier seperate it goes against the pilot and fas contract. it must be one seniority list. also curious whats gonna happen with the midwest/frontier codeshare.

 

[Quimby]

Thank goodness I got out of the airline business... Personally, I was very disappointed with how the SWA pilots viewed and regarded the "lowly" F9 pilots. How magninimous of you to offer these F9 pilots a genuine career... Give me a break. First you trash the ATA pilots and now you completely disrespect the F9 pilots. Do you see a trend? I do. I wish the F9 pilots luck and hope that Republic can handle the transition professionally...

I am happy to fly my Challenger 300 right past you corn dogs. BTW, flying to Hawaii, Europe and the Caribbean is great! Enjoy your ELP-LAS-PHX-SJC-LAX patterns.

Bragging about how cool you think you are because of the airframe your boss bought & the destinations they want to go to is really lame.

 

[Cornelius]

As a furloughed F9 guy who doesn't expect to be recalled for a long time, I have been in favor of the RAH deal eversince the initial LUV bid came in. Rah isn't the greatest deal but at least it preserves jobs (not just union workers) and could allow growth into different markets. Of course, F9 could get blindsided in this deal since Bedford is sneaky.

Frontier has been fighting the good fight against LUV for a couple years in Denver and has the numbers to prove it. From what I've seen and heard in the last week, it looks like the F9 pilots are more motivated than ever to put a big dent in LUVs operation in Denver with the help of RAH.

By the way, the only time I applied to LUV was after I got my furlough notice from F9. A staple with WN would have been completely unfair. Not everybody wants to work for LUV.

Rah guys, my previous posts may have been harsh against RAH so I will by ya all beers if ever get back to flying for F9/RAH.