Southwest Looking to Buy Frontier in Bankruptcy Court Bid

July 30, 2009 at 1:44 PM | by juliana | 1 Comment

The bad news? Frontier Airlines is bankrupt! (Actually, they have been since April 2008.) The good news? Southwest is looking to buy the ailing airline next month in bankruptcy court for a minimum bid of $113 million.

Southwest has posted a Q&A with Ron Ricks, Executive Vice President Corporate Services and Corporate Secretary on their blog. Some highlights?

Southwest is still preparing the [bidding] proposal, so it's premature to comment on the specifics at this time. What we can say is that we are interested in a substantial investment in Frontier and to operate Frontier as a wholly-owned subsidiary, independently and separately from Southwest Airlines, for a period of time until the carrier could be combined into Southwest.

If all things go well, Frontier employees will also be hired into Southwest "as needed" over time. Ricks also said this acquisition of Frontier would allow them to keep their "legendary low fares" across the country, but especially in the Denver market. Oh, and there's that little thing called "competition" that's got Southwest pretty excited about the bid as well.

Still, Ricks says this just a preliminary step in the process and as of today, nothing changes at either carrier. However, Southwest's bid will be formally submitted on August 3. They have until August 10 to make a binding offer. If someone else steps up to the plate with an offer just as good, then an auction will take place on August 11. If no one else bids, then this deal could be done within a few weeks.

Southwest is hosting a media conference call shortly. We'll update you if we hear anything new.

Related Stories:
· Commence Airline Bankruptcy Prognostication [Jaunted]
· Southwest Bids for Frontier Airlines [Southwest]

Jaunted

Select a Destination:

Tags: Frontier / Southwest Airlines / Airlines / Airline Bankruptcy / Travel News / → All Tags