Originally Posted by
rsteinmetz70112
I don't know why the decided to buy Airtran then effectively give away more than half of the airplanes and discontinue service to a third of their locations. The reasons usually given don't really make a lot of sense to me.
I always thought the Airtran purchase was more to take out a rival than expansion. I know that publicly Southwest claimed they would use Airtran's aircraft to expand, but they cut so many of Airtran's routes, that I have to doubt the expansion plans.
I realize that Southwest took over Airtran's international routes, but that's not really worth the 3.4B that they paid (1.4B in cash and stock and 2B in debt and lease assumption). I personally thought that Airtran's business model was successful, and Southwest could learn a thing or two from it.
Airtran, I'll miss you.