Predicting Airline Growth

AirTran’s attempted takeover of Midwest, however, is one exception to the rule. Boyd says his company did an analysis of the takeover, and saw nothing but good things coming from it, including more jobs and lower fares for passengers out of Milwaukee.

“Today, anybody who’s in Milwaukee who’s going to complain about fares, they’ve got no reason to complain. They didn’t want the merger, so now if they have high fares that’s their problem.”

Labor is also going to be a big issue for airlines during the next 18 months, he says. “They helped save the airline industry,” Boyd.

The fact is labor wants it back again, and regardless of how expensive oil is, regardless of anything else, you know labor’s not going to walk away from the bargaining table unless they get something back again.

“[Airlines] give away management bonuses — I don’t care if they’re due or not, you just don’t do that when your employees took 20 percent pay cuts. Labor has made it happen, labor wants it back again.”