the employees that were going to lose their jobs were not the pilots. there are alot more people that make an airline run than pilots and flight attendants. the gate agents/rampers/dispatchers/maintenance and others were all going to be gone if south west's bid was approved. Republic needs all those people in order to make thier new monster code shared airline of midwest and frontier to work. And by the way im guessing that with in 6 months the whole new mess will be a part of the star alliance.