Southwest won.

[enigma]

I Heard they were going to merge sen. lists by date of hire!

Gentlemen, you have a battle.

With apologies to Bob Hoover.

enigma

 

[lowecur]

Low,
Tell us again about how those B6 190s are going to kick Luvs butt, Okay! I love fairy tales. Go talk to Boing, and he'll let you know when you can come by his crashpad.

.....

 

[-9Capt]

"CAPTAIN" Seth. When pilots feel the need to put "Capt" in front of their name it usally means one of two things.

1. They are **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED**ty pilots who feel better by putting "Capt" in front of their name.

2. They have small tools.

I suspect both


P.S. Do you always feel the need to tell chicks that your a "PILOT"? Yeah, I thought so......

What about when they put it at the end of their name?

 

[-9Capt]

Cooperman,
As far as MDW goes, in my mind it was a little too risky to part with 30% of our cash on hand* to assume a money losing operation.

My feelings exactly.

 

[MDP727]

Mdw is not a losing operation. Why would you guys have been interested in the first place! ATA management was making it a money loser. It was only offered because it was there only asset. Chicago is the 2nd largst travel market in the US. A garbage man could make it work with the right aircraft and marketing.

For years now Mikelson has blamed ATA's losses on everything except himself and his management team. It's either fuel, labor costs, too many seats or the wrong airplanes, while other LCC's have been making it. I've been on the 737-8 since we got em. I've watched us open up city after city when the only people knew we where coming were the flight crew on the airplane. I don't care if it's a C172, with that kind of marketing it has too many seats. One things for sure ATA is the biggest airline that no one knows about. I finally made it to a "major" and now everyone who asks "Who do you work for?" I tell them ATA, they say "oh do you want to be a commercial pilot one day", or "oh you must fly cargo".
Personally I don't really care as long as I keep getting payed, however this is why we are, where we are at ATA.

A good example route: PIE-SFO non stop redeye, I don't think I ever had more than 30 pax. I've been waiting on the "New LCC to Europe announcement"
I predicted it would be PIE to Lisbon or Cologne.

 

[SirFlyALot]

SWA won this battle as soon as they announced they were going to submit a bid. The reason? SWA has nearly two billion in cash and AAI has less than 300 million.

This whole episode also works to illuminate the fact that we are dealing with two very smart management teams heading both AAI and SWA.

AAI was smart to ink a deal for 14 gates at MDW. AAI was also smart not to accept a reduced number of gates nor up their bid to an unreasonable level for those gates. The only way the deal could have been good for AAI is for them to have received the large block of MDW's gates that they wanted for an amount that still left them with a substantial amount of cash on the balance sheet. There are going to be other battles to fight in other places. Cash, as they say, is king.

SWA was smart to block AAI's attempt to expand into it's territory at MDW. It was very smart and very crafty in the way it both structured and marketed it's bid. Obviously, SWA's bid was not an attempt to assist ATA. That was only a key component of the way they sold the bid to the concerned parties. SWA management sees AAI as a serious rival and serious threat and needed to move to thwart them. This is the word I have gotten from SWA employees. SWA's response to AAI's MDW bid is tacit acknowledgement of that.

SWA won this battle. However, there is a war yet to be fought. It will be very interesting to see how this David vs Goliath story plays out over the next several years. Way back when, SWA played the role of David. They prevailed by being scrappier and smarter than their larger and better-financed rivals. Will the new upstarts be able to do the same now? Only time will tell.

However, as SWA grows at an unprecedented pace and does so with the new moniker of "industry leader", I think there is a real chance in the long term that SWA will fall into some of the same traps that have tripped up large, industry leading airlines in the past. Given SWA's relatively massive cash accounts and it's fuel hedge program, it's position is assured for the next several years. Beyond that is anyone's guess.

 

[vclean]

I believe the biggest creditor for ATA is Boeing. Boeing's new corporate headquarters is in Chicago. I suspect they may have some success convincing Da Mayor the SWA deal should go through.

 

[Jim Smyth]

Looks like my family will now be non reving in the near future to Hawaii!

 

[saabcaptain]

I believe the biggest creditor for ATA is Boeing. Boeing's new corporate headquarters is in Chicago. I suspect they may have some success convincing Da Mayor the SWA deal should go through.

Daley would accept ANY of the outcomes, he will just stick out his chest a bit now and say he has to "review" the issues before "approving" the deal, then he will have some "closed door meetings" and then come out saying *he* saved jobs in Chicago.

 

[TexaSWA]

I think there is a real chance in the long term that SWA will fall into some of the same traps that have tripped up large, industry leading airlines in the past.

The biggest stumbling block that has tripped up the "industry leading" airlines was 50+ years of depending on government subsities, then suddenly (26 years ago) having to actually run a business.

We're still as "scrappy and smart" as we ever have been, but now we have the money too.

 

[kelbill]

If true, good luck to the ATA folks. In my few dealings with them they have been a great group of folks. Then again, so have the AWA and AAI folks. I have no idea where all this is going with SWA, but pride and reputation dictate that we will do our best to continue ATA's viability, or at least ease its transformation into a more specialized entity, other than through bankruptcy. I don't expect us to cut and run.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

 

[Delville]

We're still as "scrappy and smart" as we ever have been, but now we have the money too.

TexasSWA, I love the attitude! I hope everyone at SWA allows cockiness to creep into their mindset while the new "little guys" rise to challenge you all.

 

[StopNTSing]

TexasSWA, I love the attitude! I hope everyone at SWA allows cockiness to creep into their mindset while the new "little guys" rise to challenge you all.

Lighten up, Francis. As SirFLyAlot so aptly put it, just the fact that SWA moved decisively to block AAI's expansion at MDW in itself shows a lot of respect for them as a competitor. Rest assured, our head shed is indeed looking over their shoulder at AirTran, Jetblue, AWA et-al, and NOT underestimating any of them.

 

[fuzzy077]

I'm glad it worked out this way...dont forget about the clause for the 3.5 million from ATA if anyone else secured the deal besides Airtran. Not a bad deal for AAI in my book.

 

[Joe Peeoznotz]

I'm glad it worked out this way...dont forget about the clause for the 3.5 million from ATA if anyone else secured the deal besides Airtran. Not a bad deal for AAI in my book.

Yea, that's about equal to the "holdup" money they just got Sarasota/Bradenton. Looks like it's back to business as usual.