Southwest submits proposal to acquire Frontier Airlines

[shearedshaft]

Ok, I guess you're right, I should have looked it up.

I still have a strong suspicion that SL32 won't be an issue, they'll settle a contract far before January.

Interestingly, there has been no mention so far of codesharing with Frontier. I wonder how that is going to go.

 

[njcapt]

I understand your pessimism. I think you will not see FAPA fighting SWAPA as much as ALPA did. FAPA and F9 management had a very strong relationship, not saying your union didn't, but they are just going to be looking to keep their jobs somehow more than anything. They don't have much to bargain with if this goes through. Hopefully it works out, I am cautiously optimistic for F9.

The Union at ATA was essentially NEVER consulted about ANYTHING related to our fate. We were held at arm's length by the SWA moles installed as executives and loaded with BS and false promises. Your claim that the Frontier pilots are better off since they had a good relationship with their management before any potential SWA acquisition is naive in the extreme and without basis in fact.

 

[Indy319FA]

Had F9 failed to obtain exit financing, and subsequently liquidated, SWA or anyone else could sweep in and purchase individual assets just as they did at ATA.

If no one else had bid for F9, you can bet that SWA would have been waiting to pounce on the assets. Now that F9 has at least one offer, SWA is executing plan B. By acquiring F9, SWA is preventing RAH from coming in and expanding F9 market share with E190's. SWA wants denver, and this is the only way they can get it due to the fact that F9 is not going to completely disappear.

Still a long way before SWA or anyone else owns us.

Exactly. Bedford wants to get his investment out of F9. By making a bid he forced Southwest to show their cards. Either way this comes out he wins. Either he gets Frontier and makes them a part of whatever plan he has for Republic and Midwest, or he gets the money invested in F9 back. We'll find out how much he really wants to make F9 a part of the Republic "Family" on the 11th.

 

[Jack Mahogoff]

Exactly. Beford wants to get his investment out of F9. By making a bid he forced Southwest to show their cards. Either way this comes out he wins. Either he gets Frontier and makes them a part of whatever plan he has for Republic and Midwest, or he gets the money invested in F9 back. We'll find out how much he really wants to make F9 a part of the Republic "Family" on the 11th.

Indy,

You hit the nail squarely on the f##king head. Either way, BB wins. He'll get money or another certificate.

 

[runwayjockey]

Exactly. Beford wants to get his investment out of F9. By making a bid he forced Southwest to show their cards. Either way this comes out he wins. Either he gets Frontier and makes them a part of whatever plan he has for Republic and Midwest, or he gets the money invested in F9 back. We'll find out how much he really wants to make F9 a part of the Republic "Family" on the 11th.

Or he can use the profits from the F9 sale to cover his losses when he gets his A$$ handed to him by AAI and LUV in MKE.......

 

[texman]

So how many 737's will we take total after it is all said and done? 1 for 1!

 

[Indy319FA]

Or he can use the profits from the F9 sale to cover his losses when he gets his A$$ handed to him by AAI and LUV in MKE.......

Too soon to say if it will succeed or not. I think you can say it wont be successful unless there are major changes in the way Republic is managed. Here is where I discussed this on another thread:
http://forums.flightinfo.com/showthread.php?t=124692&page=2

 

[StopNTSing]

Ok, I guess you're right, I should have looked it up.

I still have a strong suspicion that SL32 won't be an issue, they'll settle a contract far before January.

Interestingly, there has been no mention so far of codesharing with Frontier. I wonder how that is going to go.

Pssst.....don't look now chief, but this one has gone straight past the flirtatious codeshare stage and on to the chapel of M&A. SL32 has NOTHING to do with this pending deal! Had we voted in that turd of a TA, SWAPA would have been simply along for the ride as the target "transaction" alluded to in TA section 1 was clearly F9, and that process was spelled out for us with a merged list scenario ala Bond-McCaskill.....and with a specific allowance to codeshare with a regional operator (Lynx) involved in any acquistion. As it stands right now, our current contract Section 1 language doesn't allow any alter-ego carriers, so they gotta "meet & discuss" big-time on this one; i.e. SWAPA now gets a seat at the table on how this whole deal gets done. It's apparent now that F9 has been in Gary's sights for some time, and since no one from the company thought the TA would actually be voted down (how's it feel to be taken completely for granted?), they now find themselves scrambling to still make it happen and keep the pilots on board. IOW, we suddenly have a HUGE amount of leverage....I hope SWAPA has learned from recent events and uses it wisely. :smash:

 

[StaySeated]

OK, you need to stop saying this. ATA was in Chapter 11 while all the SWA involvement was going on. SWA trumped the AirTran bid during the initial process, then pulled strings with Boeing to kill the potential deal with America West. SWA got 100% of their investment paid off when Matlin Patterson provided exit financing. In return, SWA got a bunch of gates in MDW, eliminated competition in a dozen markets and got the benefit of codeshare to Hawaii out of four west coast cities.

Southwest gets what they want when their turf is threatened. Always. This is an opportunity to fend off an up and coming threat in Republic and to poke a stick in the eye of United in DEN.

You are correct, SWA was involved prior to the lights being turned off at ATA. I have referred to the '08 filing as a Ch 7 when it actually was a Ch 11 that include the cessation of all operations.

I think you and I have flown together at another "no longer existent airline".

 

[FDJ2]

Is this a merger or SWA buying Frontier?

It doesn't matter for seniority purposes.