Southwest Airlines to Acquire AirTran; Spreading Low Fares Farther 6:55 am - PR Newsw

[FlyingSig]

Never furloughed a pilot, top pay rates, unifited pilot group, smart management--all things sorely lacking at the other majors.

You just described Delta Air Lines between 1926-1990.

 

[freightdogfred]

Relax Francis, no sense in slinging mud yet...This is no Morris Air or ATA buyout. Call it an acquisition, a merger, whatever but both companies were viable, profitable brands prior and both mgmt and pilot groups know that. The SLI will be equitable, the last thing they want is a new group of pissed off employees. Both pilot groups are highly motivated and this will be one juggernaut of an airline you can be sure of that. FL's been goin toe to toe with SW for years now in BWI, they know this is a motivated group.

 

[glasspilot1]

I am going to be polite and say welcome aboard but I also going to tell you how ********************ing lucky you guys are.


we just handed you across the board raises of 40%.


You guys might be missing something here...it is an acquisition not a merger.


don't worry about a integration, you are going to a good company with a huge pay raise. get over it. it is an aquisation not merger.

To all you AirTran guys, this is what you hear before the stapler comes out!

 

[Anonymous2]

I've always said that SWA will be ACQUIRING Tran. And all I got was smart remarks for it. Well guess what.........it is happening. Good luck to all the Tran employees.

 

[IAHERJ]

As a former AAI pilot(March 2003 hire) who left in 2005 for CAL, I'll be watching this one closely. Good luck to all! Congrats to my old buds at AAI. I think this is going to be a good thing.

 

[chase]

AirTran Crews

Welcome aboard!! There will be a lot of shots fired from all sides and from within but if approved the two airlines together can grow and move forward.

The hope is for it to go as smoothly as possible....the two pilot groups have been talking already and with new hires in the pipeline and Mike's announcement earlier today about new hires for SWA beginning in 2011 there are many positives (definitely some negatives admittedly).

Congrats again!

 

[PreContact]

Any guesses to new cities? I would think the Mexico/Latin America would stay and probably some new Canada flying. Domestically this will give Southwest some new cities (notably Des Moines/Memphis/Harrisburg/Allentown/Charlie West/Lexington/Rochester/Akron/Dayton, etc). I was surprised that neither yet flies to Cincinnati, but I'm pretty sure that will change! Good luck!

 

[Whataburger]

Cool, I made $2,500 before I woke up this morning.

Hope you boys like LBB and 8 legs a day!!!!

Lets get 'er done. Welcome aboard. I wonder if the 717 folks will have to PFT??

 

[becket]

Wow. Here we go again! Congrats Airtran!

 

[johnsonrod]

So, will the AirTran pilots be flying all of the international routes to Mexico and the Caribbean? Just joking... :laugh::laugh::bawling::crying::laugh:

I guess all of the McBoeing 717 pilots can look forward to more training if this goes through... Too bad because I hear the 717 is fun to fly... If the merger integration happens and is fair (yeah, let's see if that happens), then all of you guys should get a decent pay raise. Good for you!