Who will be Southwest's merger partner?

[Jet41]

Colgan

 

[Andy]

No merger, just internal growth. My bet is that the bulk of it occurs in DEN. F9 will be shrinking in bankruptcy and LUV is likely planning a big expansion there. That should be enough to keep them busy for a while. It'll be interesting to see if LUV pushes to pick up a bunch of A gates in DEN.

 

[FatesPawn]

You're right, if it wasn't for the recent legislation, I'd be much more concerned.

If the company is sold whole, the pilots go.

If the company is parted out while still a viable entity, the pilots have to go with any deal that is considered a large portion of the operation taken as a large combination of aircraft and gates to a single buyer.

Lear,

I don't disagree with you that the Bond/McCaskill legislation makes it much harder to NOT take employees.....

...however, the new legislation only applies IF employees are part of the deal. A scenario like the former Muse/Transtar deal perhaps operated separately, in a wet-lease deal slowly moving assets like gates and airplanes over the the acquiring company that DOES NOT involve the transfer of people does not fall under the language of the Bond/McCaskill legislation.

This may sound far fetched but the bottom line is Allegheny Mohawk will only apply if people are part of the deal. If it's for assets only, your merger/fragmentation language is your only protection.

-fate

 

[WalterSobchak]

I'm certain no one wants our 717's... it's probably what kept someone from coming after us before. The problem is selling them to someone who wants what we owe on them.

I could see Hawaiian interested in a few of them for interisland service...not sure who would take the remaining 80-something airframes.

 

[GuppyWN]

No merger, just internal growth. My bet is that the bulk of it occurs in DEN. F9 will be shrinking in bankruptcy and LUV is likely planning a big expansion there. That should be enough to keep them busy for a while. It'll be interesting to see if LUV pushes to pick up a bunch of A gates in DEN.

Nail meet hammer. Good summation Andy. I was in DAL this week and there's big talk about DEN. Market it growing exponentially and most all our growth plans this year were focused on Denver. That was before Friday. I'd expect a major push second half of the year to include taking more airplanes and pilots than expected for 2008.

Gup

 

[bmxandjets]

Nail meet hammer. Good summation Andy. I was in DAL this week and there's big talk about DEN. Market it growing exponentially and most all our growth plans this year were focused on Denver. That was before Friday. I'd expect a major push second half of the year to include taking more airplanes and pilots than expected for 2008.

Gup

so would that mean HR would start gearing up for more interviews..?

 

[Secret Squirrel]

so would that mean HR would start gearing up for more interviews..?

Or they could buy someone, like airtran, and pull overlapping capacity, like BWI, and send it to Denver.

 

[GuppyWN]

BMX, don't know. I didn't ask how deep the pool was but last I heard there are 3 classes this month and 2 in May. Could very well be just to catch up. We are fat on the captain side and really short on FO's. I love the F9 guys and hope they are doing all the right things to revive their cash position but if there is a void left in Denver I'd hope it would be us that filled it.

I'm just a line guy. All I have is speculation based on what I heard in Dallas.

Gup

 

[RedDogC130]

I think the pool was 300+ deep...from what I remember way back

 

[vandypilot]

Spirit has gates in LGA, BOS, ATL