Airtran buys slots from ATA, opening Chicago hub..

They're an awesome airline.... Someday I'd love to fly for them (as you might see by my icon). This should have them competing pretty heavily with Southwest now. Good news!
 
Probably the only 'gotcha' about the ORD/MDW market is that you're competing with SWA which no one has ever been able to do successfully, an airline in bankruptcy (UAL) and American who is a voracious (with a capital 'v') competitor.
 
Yeah, its too bad here in Dallas out of Love Field you cant fly on SWA any further than texas and the touching 4 states. Guess we just have to take AA or good ole Delta if we want to go further.
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BTW, what is the deal with that restriction that SWA has out of Dallas?
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Re: Airtran buys slots from ATA, opening Chicago h

It was created to keep Southwest from explanding and becoming the super-duper airline that it is.

Didn't work....
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Re: Airtran buys slots from ATA, opening Chicago h

Kind of more to do with funding and viability of that big venture in Irving TX. But the gate fees were so high that WN said "Nah!"

Hard to close an airport when there's a carrier operating there, but even harder to force it out to a higher cost facility.
 
Re: Airtran buys slots from ATA, opening Chicago h

This is one of the keys to this deal:

>>Under the agreement with ATA Airlines, AirTran Airways would assume ATA's leases on up to 14 gates at Chicago's Midway Airport, 19 time-controlled take-off and landing slots at New York's LaGuardia Airport and 8 such slots at Washington's Reagan National Airport. <<

These are valuable slots and don't compete with SWA directly. I think Airtran will be much stronger out of MDW that ATA and have no trouble competing with SWA.

The reason that no one could compete witht SWA in other situations, like BWI, was they couldn't compete on cost. AirTran will have no problem with that.
 
Re: Airtran buys slots from ATA, opening Chicago h

This is a great move for AirTran to expand, and helps ATA get some desperately needed cash in their coffers.

To be clear, MDW is not slot-controlled. The assets acquired at MDW are the leases on ATA's gates at Midway, which AirTran will use to start their own flights and establish a hub at Midway. The slots are at LGA and DCA, both places AirTran has wanted more slots for quite some time. This also helps answer another pressing question for AirTran ... where to put all those 737s. Both runway capacity and gate space are at a premium in ATL, so until more of both are added (the new runway is 3-6 years away) there's only so much room to grow there. Enter MDW.

As to "competing" with Southwest, that's a bit of a misnomer. AirTran and Southwest are very different airlines with different business plans. They don't compete head-to-head on many routes. AirTran is largely a hub-and-spoke carrier (albeit with some point-to-point routes), and this move seems to indicate hub number two will be at MDW. Southwest is a point-to-point airline with some minimal connectivity built in to a handful of airports (including BWI, MDW, and PHX) to expand their reach a little bit. AirTran goes to airports that Southwest won't be considering for years to come ... The Rochesters, Flints, Akrons, and Gulfports of the world.

This basically works out well for everybody. ATA will probably wind up scaling way back on scheduled service in favor of vacation and military charters, perhaps retaining a smaller scheduled service hub at IND. MDW has a new airline to use all those gates in the new terminal that would have lain dormant (at least for a while) should ATA go belly-up. (Remember that ATA is the largest airline at Midway, Southwest is a close second.) AirTran has a new airport to expand at with a nice new facility to build a hub outside Atlanta and extend their reach east-west with the 737.

Alert from the rumor mill: if a post-bankruptcy ATA is smaller on scheduled service, look for AirTran to pick up a sweetheart deal on the 737-800s. The 757s are much better charter aircraft for ATA, and AirTran would be happy to take more 737s and grow more aggressively.

Interesting times we live in ...
 
Re: Airtran buys slots from ATA, opening Chicago h

Do you suppose Air Tran will contract Chicago Express to feed them at Midway?
 
Re: Airtran buys slots from ATA, opening Chicago h

From another board, interesting:

"Just saw a news conference with Mayor Daley (Chicago Mayor). It appears that the transfer of gates at MDW is far from a done deal. The concern is no one from AirTran, or ATA has even made presentations to the city of Chicago, the one who owns the gates. It gets more interseting. ATA had made a deal to build a $100 million training facility. The promise made by ATA was to provide over 1,100 new jobs. The city and state purchased the land with airport bonds, with an agreement to lease it back to ATA. Now that it appears that over 3,200 chicago jobs will be eliminated by the AirTran / ATA deal. That does not seem to sit well with city hall. Daley was quoted as saying preserving jobs was a very important aspect to the approval. He wants guarentees of jobs for ATA employees. Someone must have forgotten Chicago is democratic city. Don't underestimate Daley.........he bulldozes entire airports over night!"
 
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