The level of inflexibility and resistance to change at SWA is mind-blowing. It was a big deal when the -800 NGs came aboard in 2012-2013. So much so that management labeled it the “Game Changer”. 🙄

SWA is IT inept and change/flexibility incapable. It’s pathetic to witness.

 

Didn’t SWA get around this by running AT separately during the wind down? IE selling tickets separately still, pulling a few AC off the operating certificate to reconfigure, and slowly winding it down? I can’t remember but once they get a joint CBA it could come with a clause that allows both certificates to exist temporarily during a set wind down transition period of say 2 years.

Though I’m sure they would re-protect and code share with each from day one during this transition so yeah still some issues just like AA/B6 now on that front.

But as long as they keep the brands separate wile converting say 10 AC a month for a few years and continue to sell tickets separately it could work.

I could be wrong but I recall flying AT well after the merger was official and I bought the tickets on their site and it was 100% their product although the CS was already converted to SWA and it was a SWA branded gate so some transition was going on outside the onboard experience. So not ideal for sure but I think there may be president.

 

You are correct. AirTran continued to operate separately and planes were pulled and converted over to SWA gradually. The B717s went to Delta as you know.

 

You can do that, for as long as you want. But the double overhead means you won't be realizing the paradigm-altering synergies that the business analysts predicted and used to justify the merger in the first place. So not ideal to drag it out.

 

How many 737’s did AirTran have?? Spirit has over 176 buses, and still taking deliveries….

 

I’d assume the 19’s are gone

 

The new deliveries can be reconfigured with a phone call to Airbus - at least the outyear ones.

Ben Baldanza RAN Spirit for what? Eleven years? If he isn’t aware of what he’s buying who would be? And he’s an economist who teaches classes in airline management when he’s not sitting on the board at JetBlue.

Like anyone else, he may guess wrong, but you can hardly say the man doesn’t know anything about what he’s getting himself and B6 into.

 

And all the Spirit pilots said “Amen.”

 

Oh so you're saying AS and WN management would get along just fine then...

 

Merger talks are swirling again at HAL with you guys. The new Northern Pacific Airway wide body operation, LUV struggles in HI, JetBlue trying to buy Spirit, etc. Anything?