America West Eyes Merger With Ata

[Hatu]

NEW YORK, Oct 14 (Reuters) - America West Airlines (AWA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) is in talks to acquire all or part of low-cost carrier ATA Airlines (ATAH.O: Quote, Profile, Research) , the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources.

http://yahoo.reuters.com/financeQuoteCompa...14132555_newsml

 

[USFlyer]

Interesting combo and one that, at first thought, makes sense. It would get HP into the Chicago area market -- a city with tremendous O&D.

 

[Light Years]

Latest rumour is that they will take MDW, 753s, and the 737s... all fit well except the redundancy of having Airbuses and 737NGs.

Now all they have to do is merge with an LCC-fied US Airways and they would be the first major network LCC!

 

[pitguy74]

I'm not sure exactly what to think about this one. I am a bit shocked. Could this merger create a deeper grave for the majors. Hmm, well, best of luck to those employees in which this may effect in a negative way. Then again, maybe it's a good thing. The airline sector is full of twist and turns.

 

[coolflyingfool]

I thought AWA was trying to reduce the # of types of a/c that it flew. Now you get to add 2 more types. Different cockpits and different parts for the 737-800s vs the 737-300, which will be phased out in 4 years or so, I think.

 

[hp_fa]

I think AWA is mostly interested in the Hawaii routes, the 757-300's and the ETOPS. Boosting business in Chicago is a possibility, but I wonder about retaliation in a business where executives seem to have a lot of testosterone, which they substitute for brains.

 

[coolflyingfool]

Back in the early 90's, AWA served both MDW and ORD and MDW disappeared after a while. Looks like this would be a bigger go of it, but not sure that there is enough traffic in the Chicago area for AWA to overfly PHX and LAS and stil up all the flights that they currently operate out of ORD. I would think that MDW would need to be just an East Coast operation with the rest of the aircraft going to bolster new flying out of PHX and LAS. Just my thoughts......

 

[HPearlyretiree]

We actually served MDW twice! In the early days and later we had flights to CMH and PHX.

It was an icky little aiport, smelled like boiled cabbage

 

[mga707]

We actually served MDW twice! In the early days and later we had flights to CMH and PHX.

Correct. According to Cactus Wings' unofficial HP history pages (www.cactuswings.com/hp/city.html), the start/end dates were: 7/15/86 to 1/5/88 and then 2/1/92 to 10/2/01.

It was an icky little aiport, smelled like boiled cabbage

[post="193893"][/post]​

'Tain't icky no more, nor little, terminal-wise. Although the field size is still just that same single square mile.

 

[USAir757]

What can HP do differently this time in MDW as opposed to their time at CMH? The O&D market may be bigger, but I wonder how the route structure will develop considering their failures in the eastern markets before. It's not like they will inherit a huge piece of market share from ATA. Just my thoughts.

 

[Just Plane Crazy]

I thought AWA was trying to reduce the # of types of a/c that it flew. Now you get to add 2 more types. Different cockpits and different parts for the 737-800s vs the 737-300, which will be phased out in 4 years or so, I think.

[post="191048"][/post]​

Who said that they would keep the B737-800.

 

[AC AA LA FA]

What can HP do differently this time in MDW as opposed to their time at CMH? The O&D market may be bigger, but I wonder how the route structure will develop considering their failures in the eastern markets before. It's not like they will inherit a huge piece of market share from ATA. Just my thoughts.

[post="194342"][/post]​

,-Bush/Cheney 2004-from a US employee-wow- I better check my computer It must have a NASTY virus or something.............................................................
.........

 

[jimntx]

I saw an interesting news blurb tonight where someone from AWA was still talking about what a good LCC an AWA-ATA merger would produce. Would this still be true even though ATA sold its MDW gates along with its LGA and DCA slots to AirTran?

 

[cltvff]

Would this still be true even though ATA sold its MDW gates along with its LGA and DCA slots to AirTran?

[post="195276"][/post]​

My understanding is that the BK court must entertain any competing bids, so even though Air Tran has an "agreement", the court hasn't approved it and AWA (and anyone else) can make offers for ATA assets.

 

[Pacemaker]

I hope this does not come to pass. I am interviewing for a pilot position with America West and this (not to mention the 3Q press) has dampened my enthusiasm somewhat. Why covet HNL routes anyway? Does anyone make money there? Didn't Cactus try this in the 90's?