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

[400A]

Akeem looks forward to sling'n some corndog gear!

Too funny!

 

[Noserider76]

I think this is going to be a win for everyone involved.
-SWA gets rid of a competitor and gets access to ATL and DCA.
- Airtran employees get to work for a stronger company with better compensation.
- Delta gets rids of a major competitor with business class service and gets it replaced with a one class service airline they compete very well with who now has much more debt.
- One less airline in this industry is good.

There may be hope for a profitable industry for all of us with recent mergers and acquisitions.

 

[Full of LUV]

Congrats to all involved.

I hate to rain on the "we will snuff the other one out" contest, but the truth is that the single carrier fantasy will never work in Atlanta. Delta did not snuff Airtran because the consumer will not allow it. I ride on both airlines and have always chosen Airtran when possible. Rates are always comparable on my routes, but the Airtran employees have always been more pleasant. I hear the same thing about Southwest so I am excited. I am however NOT looking forward to no seat selection. Hopefully this will give Delta a reality check on attitude an bag fee's. The removal of business class will send a percentage of business customers right back to Delta, so like I said, both will not only survive, but thrive.

Truth is SWA has to have a higher CSM than Airtran. There would never be allowed to "snuff" out a competing carrier in a city as large as ATL without a suit. Last one successful was AA with some LCC airline in the 90's out of DFW (name escapes me) and even though they put them out of business, they were sued for $1million by the feds and lost. Granted the competition going out of business was worth that price to AA.
Overall one less LCC competing to be the ultimate lowest fares cross country will be better for everyone. Besides with the press's "SWA effect" we should see a doubling of the O&D traffic out of ATL almost overnight.
LUV

 

[waveflyer]

Yeah MDW.

Gup

Go spend some time in the penalty box in ohare and those rampers in MDW will start to look pretty good-
Bad rampers at SW are better than most

 

[waveflyer]

Luv- AA snuffing out an Lcc in their hub fortress, is a lot different than Swa buying a lcc in an airport where the hub airline has used all their political will to keep us out.

 

[Full of LUV]

Luv- AA snuffing out an Lcc in their hub fortress, is a lot different than Swa buying a lcc in an airport where the hub airline has used all their political will to keep us out.

Wave,
I don't know what political will you refer too except to get the DCA/LGA slot swap done without benefiting SWA, but to have SWA and Airtran in ATL would have been more of a disaster for DAL than what has happened. In that case you would have had to LCC's slugging it out in your hub with unreasonably low airfares to any destination they compete on. Now, SWA can be practical in it's pricing, I don't believe they want to take all of DAL's business, just capture what AAI had and expand on it with the additional destinations.

The reference to AA in the 90's was to address the people asking why DAL hadn't "squeezed out" AAI earlier, and at first I believe it was to have another carrier instead of SWA at their hub. Had DAL made it a priority and squeezed out AAI (assuming it could be done a decade ago) that would have just left a gaping hole for SWA or some other LCC to fill.

AAI has grown to a size that it probably makes much less difference than a decade ago. In fact as I said, SWA's costs are probably higher than AAI's.

Who knows, many on here think that SWA is going to "eat DAL's lunch" and "push them out of ATL". I don't even believe that is in SWA's interest, even though their pilots will think so. All I can say is the competition you know is sometimes better than the alternative. All you need is an upstart skybus or VA well funded upstart with very low overhead to cause all kinds of headaches.
LUV

 

[Full of LUV]

Luv- AA snuffing out an Lcc in their hub fortress, is a lot different than Swa buying a lcc in an airport where the hub airline has used all their political will to keep us out.

I know you think DAL has used it's will to keep SWA out, but I doubt that AAI was waving the "lets bring the corndogs to town" flag any harder prior to this merger.

 

[scoreboardII]

Delta gets rids of a major competitor with business class service and gets it replaced with a one class service airline they compete very well with who now has much more debt.

Uhh, I think we are paying cash, trading stock, etc, end result, gain in value with similar debt ratios and a 20% larger company.

 

[Regul8r]

Looking forward to flying with you!

Best of all, you'll have your chance to tell the interview panel what you really think of SWAPA. Get ready to turn in your shiny new ALPA ID!

 

[Lear70]

Best of all, you'll have your chance to tell the interview panel what you really think of SWAPA. Get ready to turn in your shiny new ALPA ID!

What interview panel?

Did you miss the part of the press release where Gary Kelly said "If keeping their same job, no AirTran employee will have to re-interview"?

Or did you miss the part of Federal Law called Bond-McCaskill requiring EVERYONE being integrated?

Just curious...

 

[The Prussian]

Uhh, I think we are paying cash, trading stock, etc, end result, gain in value with similar debt ratios and a 20% larger company.

...and $2 billion more debt...

 

[Regul8r]

What interview panel?

The one you might get to meet in your preferential interview.

Did you miss the part of the press release where Gary Kelly said "If keeping their same job, no AirTran employee will have to re-interview"?

Or did you miss the part of Federal Law called Bond-McCaskill requiring EVERYONE being integrated?

Just curious...

Yeah...I read it. But I don't believe everything airline CEO's tell me. Do you???

 

[Whataburger]

What interview panel?

Did you miss the part of the press release where Gary Kelly said "If keeping their same job, no AirTran employee will have to re-interview"?

Or did you miss the part of Federal Law called Bond-McCaskill requiring EVERYONE being integrated?

Just curious...

Are the smarta$$ comments "Mod hat on" or "Mod hat off?"

 

[BoilerUP]

Are the smarta$$ comments "Mod hat on" or "Mod hat off?"

Those comments didn't look at all flippant or "smartass" to me, and I'm not even talking FI standards...

 

[spitfire1500]

Can someone clarify something for me. With the new laws, I don't think SWA can just staple us to the bottom. I believe there has to be some kind of integration, even if its not favorable to the AAI guys. Is that correct? I know the Frontier situation was a little different, but now that SWA and AAI have agreed to the merger, I believe things are a little different. Looks like SWA and AAI have learned their lessons from past failed mergers.. HOPEFULLY!

The catch though is...its not a merger..its a buy. I hope all the Air Tran guys do well with this deal..I have quite a few friends there.