Originally Posted by
Exterous
I don't think it is a red herring because I don't think a lot of these issues are because of the merger. Air Tran is doing much better than Southwest for on time arrivals so acquiring them actually improved Southwest's overall on time arrivals. The on time issues stem more from decreased turn around times, decreased layover duration, higher passenger loads etc. These are all issues that likely would have existed if the merger had not happened
It's a red herring because it distracts from the subject of this thread. I'm not defending WN's on-time performance over the last year, it's been terrible and pretty much everyone acknowledges this, but I cut them some slack as they complete they complete the staff and equipment absorption of Air Tran.
Who's responsible for all those operational issues? Who's responsible for all those decisions? Who's responsible for the integration? It's the same people, i.e. management. Take a look at the link I posted, it's been the same at every carrier, some have handled merger well, others not so well.