Southwest Buying AirTran

Wow! Southwest (SWA) is Buying AirTran and the buzz is big time. This will give SWA access to Atlanta at last. Story is that Kelleher, when he was top dog in charge at SWA, tried to operate out of Atlanta’s Fulton County Airport, but Delta and Atlanta’s Good-Old-Boy Club shut him out. Supposedly—and this is but rumor, and old rumor at that—Kelleher vowed at the time that SWA would never serve Atlanta while he was in charge. SWA also acquires AirTran’s fleet of Boeing 717 aircraft. This blog in August reported that SWA was buying B-737-800s. That was a first for SWA, and I worried a bit that they were changing from the keep-it-simple formula that had served them so well for nigh onto 40 years. Others worry because SWA is, they say, leveraging itself for the first time. One of the reasons the company has been profitable for so long was that they borrowed so little. None of this seems to matter to the stock markets. From what I read, markets—or at least brokers—seem excited about the purchase. As for me and my house, we are delighted. It would suit me if SWA flew out of every airport. But I admit to bias. I like doing business with them. We’d love to post your comment. Please click the comment tab at the top.