Southwest Purchase of Airtran and US/DL Slot Swap

[ebwgs]

Now that Southwest has announced it's purchase of Airtran the DOT should back off and allow, the DL/US slot swap deal to proceed as planned, now that WN has gained access into DCA. That may or may not happen. But if it does, I'd be interested to know what happens with the extra Sao Paulo route authority that I assume would still be in the deal. Would US return the route that it's leasing to UAL, run a second Sao Paulo or include Buenos Aires instead from DL? Never a dull moment in this business!

 

[Richard]

A reminder - do not discuss the merger here, just the affect it may have on the pending slot swap....

 

[nycbusdriver]

From the pilots' thread, but more appropriate here:

Should be interesting. Adds another fleet type to WN (probably not for long as I expect they will shed the 717's). One thing for sure, they will be integrated and flying together long before us.

Best part......ALPA loses another airline and 1678 dues paying members!

And LCC is not in any position to outbid WN for anything that WN wants to have.

I am delighted that ALPA will lose another 1600+ pilots.

However, WN has the history of shutting down carriers that it purchases that do not operate 737s. The former employees of these carriers are not WN cheerleaders, to say the least.

I agree that WN will shed the 717s, but not in a way that is friendly to the AirTran folks.

Personally, I think this is dismal news for the employees of AirTran. I hope I am wrong.

 

[MAAMARCH04]

Now that Southwest has announced it's purchase of Airtran the DOT should back off and allow, the DL/US slot swap deal to proceed as planned, now that WN has gained access into DCA?

Interesting question/good point. My hope is that the Crew Planning at our Company will take a deep breath, regroup and slow down the movement of crew to CLT (some of whom are unwillingly being displaced there) until they have a clearer picture of this new development and how it may affect the DL/US swap deal. Wishful thinking, I know, but it is not good for morale to rip people's lives apart only to do it again 6 months or so later (if US will get to expand in DCA after all). SIGH!

 

[Al Legheny]

Interesting question/good point. My hope is that the Crew Planning at our Company will take a deep breath, regroup and slow down the movement of crew to CLT (some of whom are unwillingly being displaced there) until they have a clearer picture of this new development and how it may affect the DL/US swap deal. Wishful thinking, I know, but it is not good for morale to rip people's lives apart only to do it again 6 months or so later (if US will get to expand in DCA after all). SIGH!

A very possible result of the SWA /Air Tran merger will be the approval of the US / Delta slot swap. With SWA now haiving increased access to LGA and DCA, it would appear that the anti-trust issues have just taken care of themselves.

I would bet that the slot swap proposal willl arise again and be resubmitted and the company will not have to go to court to force the DOL to allow the slot swap. This merger changes the whole ballgame on that issue.

 

[FWAAA]

I don't see this purchase as affecting the slot swap deal. WN's purchase of FL doesn't reduce the increased market concentration that US would gain at DCA or that DL would gain at LGA - and that was the "harm" identified by the regulators. The remedy proposed by the feds (and soundly rejected by DL and US) would have allowed WN a chance to bid on the divested slots. I'm sure that the feds would approve the slot swap deal as long as the auction format it required was followed. That would permit WN a chance to gain even more access to DCA and LGA.

 

[etops1]

All I can say is We have bigger fish to fry than a Slot swap. This changes the whole ballgame of US going at it alone. Stand Alone is no longer an option in my opinion. Parker better be making calls to Gerry down in DFW right now..

 

[psw737]

All I can say is We have bigger fish to fry than a Slot swap. This changes the whole ballgame of US going at it alone. Stand Alone is no longer an option in my opinion. Parker better be making calls to Gerry down in DFW right now..

I don't think a merger with AA is what will happen. My bet is on a merger with jetblue, US leaves star alliance to join one world alliance and strengthens this new codeshare that jetblue has recently started with AA.

 

[wnbubbleboy]

From the pilots' thread, but more appropriate here:



And LCC is not in any position to outbid WN for anything that WN wants to have.

I am delighted that ALPA will lose another 1600+ pilots.

However, WN has the history of shutting down carriers that it purchases that do not operate 737s. The former employees of these carriers are not WN cheerleaders, to say the least.

I agree that WN will shed the 717s, but not in a way that is friendly to the AirTran folks.

Personally, I think this is dismal news for the employees of AirTran. I hope I am wrong.

http://www.examiner.com/job-search-in-baltimore/southwest-airlines-acquisitions-of-airtran-should-not-affect-jobs-at-bwi

Mr. Kelly stated during a press conference that while no specific employee plans have been discussed at this time, he feels the acquisition will create greater opportunities. Some employees may have to transfer, or change jobs, but no jobs should be lost.

 

[N903AW]

Mr. Kelly stated during a press conference that while no specific employee plans have been discussed at this time, he feels the acquisition will create greater opportunities. Some employees may have to transfer, or change jobs, but no jobs should be lost.

Same thing was said years ago when Southwest announced the acquisitions of both Muse Air and Morris. Ask the employees of those two carriers how things eventually turned out. :blink:

This should definitely ease up the government's stonewalling of the transfer of slots between Delta and US at LGA and DCA. I wonder if Delta is still interested?

 

[Travelpro72]

Look, I said it before and will say it again, "US should go after Jetblue and increase their domestic presence and size". This will help increase your passenger base to feed your international flights. We always hear that our t/a is smaller due to our size. Ummm HELLO?????? Increase your domestic size, rid a competitor and strengthen yourself. I DO NOT see US standing alone while all these airlines merge around them. I'm also NOT buying the "It's good for US too". No it isn't. Every airline is increasing business presence and size while US is the old car dealer on auto row selling rusted cars. You NEED to be part of the action unless everyone wants to read the "History" of US and how it failed. Parker and his money buddies better get crackin'.

 

[usa1]

Henry Harteveldt, travel-industry analyst with Forrester, also said it’s possible a Southwest-AirTran deal may give Delta and US Airways ammunition to try again on a deal to swap takeoff and landing slots at Reagan Washington National Airport and LaGuardia. Earlier this year, the government turned down the airlines’ request on competition grounds.

LINK

 

[bigbusboy]

You NEED to be part of the action unless everyone wants to read the "History" of US and how it failed. Parker and his money buddies better get crackin'.

Very true. Parker's modus operandi invovles using the bankrupcty courts for aquisitions. I'll bet he's trying to convince AA to file very soon, so he can make his move. I know people are saying no way will AA ever merge with US, but it's making more and more sense every day.

 

[FWAAA]

A very possible result of the SWA /Air Tran merger will be the approval of the US / Delta slot swap. With SWA now haiving increased access to LGA and DCA, it would appear that the anti-trust issues have just taken care of themselves.

I disagree. The antitrust issues weren't that WN had no slots, the antitrust issues were the increasing market concentration of DL at LGA and US at DCA and the remedy demanded by the feds was divesting some slots at each. DL and US came up with their competing remedy (rejected by the feds) that cleverly tried to keep any of the slots out of WN's hands. The feds rejected that plan. WN buying FL merely substitues the owner of FL's slots but does not decrease the increaesed market concentration of DL and US at their respective strongholds and thus, this purchase doesn't really change anything about the slot swap.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Not surprisingly, I agree with FWAAA except that I would add a second reason to the market share issue. US and DL wanted to hand pick who would get the divested slots and especially at DCA prevent any one carrier from getting many of the slots being divested - seriously, how much does US compete with WestJet, for example. The purpose of the blind auction was to prevent that.

To allow the deal to go forward now, even as amended, would allow the very things the DOT objected to.

Jim