This Week in Merger News: AirTran Gives Its Blessing and Southwest Wants New Planes
It’s been a while since AirTran and Southwest announced they’d be shacking up, and for the most part, things have been pretty quiet. We guess that no news is good news when it comes to airline merger stuff, but still, we kind of expected that there would be a little bit more news at this point.
Rest assured, the merger is moving forward, and the most recent update has to do with AirTran giving the go ahead to get gobbled up. Last week AirTran shareholders got together to talk things over, and they voted in favor of the merger—and that’s a good thing for those looking for even more free checked bags. Uncle Sam and his team of lawyers are still reviewing everything, and that’s really the last hurdle before the two airlines can set a date for their official marriage.
Moving away from the somewhat boring financial stuff, it looks like Southwest might be adding a new airplane to its fleet. We knew they were thinking about adding a different flavor of their favorite plane—the Boeing 737—but now it looks like it could be something totally different.
Southwest CEO—and awesome Halloween costume selector—Gary Kelly recently stated that a next generation airplane was inevitable. He opened up the possibility of choosing from several companies including Boeing, Airbus, and Bombardier. As long as the new plane has WiFi, we’re all for it, so we’ll be on the lookout for announcement.
Related Stories:
· Southwest Says it Could Add New Plane Type [Reuters]
· AirTran Shareholders OK Southwest Merger [USA Today]
· Airline Mergers coverage [Jaunted]
[Photos: Wikimedia, keetsa, Photoshop: Jaunted]
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