Will United pursue AirTran?

[FlyAirtran]

"you were in 'nam so were we, what unit were you in?"

"I was in zang bang, dang gone, I was all over the place, lots of places, lots of places... Er I was with the green berets er, special unit battalion er, commando airborne tactics specialist tactics er, unit battalion. Yeah it was real hush hush. I was agent orange that was my name agent orange, special agent orange that was me."


"I am a chain belt in King Fu. Bruce Lee was my teacher. Watch this..... That's called the quart of blood technique. You do that, a quart of blood will drop out of a person's body. "

 

[STL717]

If an airline made an offer for AirTran more airlines or financial groups would up the price with a possible top bid of $2 BILLION as the final offer.

 

[Daddy]

Lookin' good, Billy Ray!

 

[Eagle757shark]

United doesn't have any "doe" (dough) to be able to afford us.


Frontier would be good... for their route structure.
Alaska would be pretty cool, too, although I don't think we're on their radar at all.

But what do I know...?

I hear you bud, the only problem is, two weeks ago know one thought any other airline was interested in Midwest. Everyone thought, hell Midwest reject AirTran and their stock tanks and we pick up the pieces. Well that didn't happen. In fact the shareholders are going to make out big initially in this deal. We all know NW trumped AirTran to prevent them from having a hub in their backyard. ALL the legacies are out of Ch.11 and will eventually be looking to regain PRICING POWER, its just economics. (especially considering the cost of oil) Like the oil industry, banking industry, and phone industry to name a few, when it comes time to control pricing power, the big boys WILL begin to buy up the competition. The airline industry is not immuned. The airline industry just experienced some bad times after 9/11. All of the legacies now have CASH (even United....to the likes of 5 billion dollars) and a cash stock deal aimed at Orlando may not be as far fetched as you may think. (Trust me United has plenty of money to buy AirTran) Everyone seems to subscribe to the theory that legacies are going to start merging with legacies. I don't believe that because of regulatory reasons. I believe legacies will start buying carriers that affect pricing and that would be low cost carriers. Now what would make for some legacy low cost carrier mergers....hmmm....lets have fun with this one:

Jetblue.....Northwest
Jetblue.....United
Delta....Alaska
Continental....Alaska
Northwest....Spirit
Continental...AirTran
United....AirTran
US Airways....Spirit

Who knows...but some fun theories. Heck remember American bought Reno...who saw that coming. Hmmm...interesting things do come up in this industry.

 

[Lear70]

It's possible, I guess... I wasn't aware that United had $5 BILLION in UNRESTRICTED cash... I was aware of just SOUTH of $1 Billion being UNRESTRICTED (available to use) and wouldn't think they'd blow all of it on us but, again, what do I know...

I personally wouldn't mind CAL, but have ZERO interest being part of the United group. Just my personal thoughts, your mileage may vary.

 

[Reebo]

Lookin' good, Billy Ray!

Feelin' good Mortimer

 

[jimcav]

He said the carphone in his limosine was busted.What is ya ignorant?

 

[UAL-GSO]

I personally wouldn't mind CAL, but have ZERO interest being part of the United group. Just my personal thoughts, your mileage may vary.

The feeling is mutual here

 

[TV9Driver]

God, i'd love to be based in DEN though.... I hate ATL!!

What if UAL and AAI got together and AAI's management ran things? It would never happen, I know, but I think they could do some great things if they had those kind of resources....

I'm not very impressed with UAL management and am pretty sure they would cash out, take the money and leave a smokin' hole for everyone else to sort out.

Good luck to ALL of us - we are ALL going to need it...

 

[Max Powers]

BECAUSE I'M A KARATE MAN...KARATE MEN BLEED FROM THE INSIDE!