“The Southwest (bid) could be the best thing since sliced bread. Or not,” John Stemmler, president of the Frontier Airlines Pilots Association, said today in a telephone chat. He says many Frontier employees are weighing the bids with a mindset that Republic would likely keep a full operation, while Southwest is more likely to scuttle much of Frontier’s domestic capacity out of Denver and eliminate redundant administrative jobs. But that may not be the case. “It’s so hard to tell right now because we don’t know what Southwest wants,” Stemmler says. To gather some answers on that front, leaders of Frontier’s pilot union are meeting with Southwest executives, including Kelly, and Southwest pilots’ leadership Monday and Tuesday in Dallas. Frontier’s 718 pilots have a spot on the airline’s creditor committee, as well as an unsecured claim in the bankruptcy, giving it some voice in the Aug. 11 auction. “As far as frontline people go, it’s all a matter of how much growth they want and how much they’re willing to keep on,” he says. The hope at Frontier is that Southwest is “not just buying the airplanes to get rid of a competitor,” Stemmler says. “We actually do what we do quite well.”
http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/travelers_check/archives/2009/07/southwest_and_d.html
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