SOUTHWEST TO BUY AIR TRAN

[Hope777]

http://twincities.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2010/09/20/daily47.html?ana=yfcpc

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Southwest-to-buy-AirTran-for-rb-249196378.html?x=0&.v=1

 

[wnbubbleboy]

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100927-704895.html

 

[wnbubbleboy]

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100927-704895.html

Rumored for a long time. Hopefully will be a great marriage.

 

[wnbubbleboy]

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/southwest-to-buy-airtran-for-1-37-billion/


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[eolesen]

I'd pay good money to be hanging around the DL executive suite this morning....

WN in ATL was just a bad dream.

WN in ATL with Airtran's size must have them changing their underwear, drinking heavily, or both...

 

[snapthis]

Good luck to SW and Airtran. I hope Gary Kelly handles the acquisition of Airtran better than Doug Parker handled the acquisition of Us Air.

 

[jimntx]

I'd pay good money to be hanging around the DL executive suite this morning....

WN in ATL was just a bad dream.

WN in ATL with Airtran's size must have them changing their underwear, drinking heavily, or both...

 

[wnbubbleboy]

I'd pay good money to be hanging around the DL executive suite this morning....

WN in ATL was just a bad dream.

WN in ATL with Airtran's size must have them changing their underwear, drinking heavily, or both...

Wait till they see what we charge pax for baggage 🙂

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

Good luck to SW and Airtran. I hope Gary Kelly handles the acquisition of Airtran better than Doug Parker handled the acquisition of Us Air.

Noe that is not a very high standard, is it? 🙄

 

[FWAAA]

The merger website says that the 717s will be retained - so WN will no longer be a single-fleet type airline. WN just bought 86 100-seaters.

 

[Travelpro72]

Anyone out there that believes that this "new" Southwest being bigger and stronger won't be a serious headache to the majors is kidding themselves. Oh and Delta..."The World's Largest Airline" 🙄 must be having an attack. Southwest will change the landscape for many areas of the country. Certainly the big A-T-L ! ! ! 😉

 

[does this plane go to paris]

The merger website says that the 717s will be retained - so WN will no longer be a single-fleet type airline. WN just bought 86 100-seaters.

Post 9/11 Airline is a vastly different scene. The old model of single aircraft, flying to out outlining cities worked wonders for WN. The new generation of LCC's knew they couldn't compete in WN's backyard, so they hit the east coast(AirTran), Big Cities,(Jetblue in JFK) and it made the "old" legacies turn more and more into Southwestesque.

For years, Gary Kelly has been hammered for being too conservative and Wall Street saw that they were not the aggressive little airline, (or that was the perception) and put their money elsewhere.

I personally liked what GK was doing, letting the dust settle and keeping a ton of cash around. He's been able to see that Jetblu has been able to intergrate 2 types of aircraft and expand outside the US Boarders. AirTran has been able to do the same. Look at the US/HP merger and he learned, along with every other CEO on how not to merge two airlines.

From what I've read, AAI's CEO clearly understood the landscape and wanted a dance partner. There will be 2 or 3 Legacy Carrier's and about 2 Giant LCC's. From the inital reports, Wall Street likes the deal. GK is not HDK and I wouldn't be surprised if WN somehow intergrates the concept of a row or two of Larger Business seats on all their aircraft. I've flown on AAI"s biz seat and it's not a bad deal at their price.

Just for FUN, I would move 15-20 of those 717's to the Hawaiian Islands and see how long go! stays around.

 

[snapthis]

Noe that is not a very high standard, is it? 🙄

I think Doug now understands there is a lot more to a merger than standing on a podium at the NYSE in celebration. Southwest has a blueprint how not to conduct a merger after the closing bell.

 

[tadjr]

It will be interesting to see how they bring these two together. Other than being low fare carriers, their models are really different.
First or all coach?
Seat assign or not?
Bag fee or not?
Could this be the time for WN to add the bag fee? They see people already paying it on FL and if they drop it from those flights, how much $ will they leave (again) on the table?
XM or not?
Leave the ATL "HUB" or move some of the flights out to other markets? Continue to operate to the cities where FL has just a few flights a day (Branson, Bloomington, Gulfport, Tunica) or add flights there? Continue their international flights?
What to do with their "alliance" with Frontier?

Its going to be interesting to see which path they go.

 

[SharoninSAT]

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Southwest Airlines-news release