Originally Posted by
rsteinmetz70112
Seems like a sale to Southwest would solve all of these problems. Southwest would get more planes and more pilots. The pilots would get more money under the current Southwest CBA and the current owner could make a nice profit.
Labor cooperation is essential for any merger - it helped Parker steal AA during Chapter 11 proceedings, continues to cause all kinds of grief for Smisek, forcing pmUA and pmCO to continue operating as separate entities. Like Parker, Kelly would have to play Santa Claus to make everyone happy.
A better (but not likely) explanation for not agreeing to competitive contracts is if Kelly is trying to SELL LUV - make the numbers look as attractive as possible to extract maximum value. Perhaps Branson has several billion burning a hole in his pocket, partnership with DL has not work as he hoped, VA is not growing fast enough for him. I consider AS to be a better run, more customer friendly carrier than WN, would rather see Tilden send Kelly sailing in to the sunset on his golden parachute.