Gettin’ Carried Away

Exactly two weeks ago, I wrote about Southwest’s potential ownership of Frontier Airlines. Frontier had filed for bankruptcy earlier this year in April, and Southwest put in a bid of $170 million to acquire the airline. This sounded like a good business deal to me, especially since Southwest is gaining ground on bigger carriers like American and United.

However, because the two Pilot Unions (SWAPA and FAPA) could not reach an agreement on how they would work together, Southwest’s bid was deemed unacceptable, and Republic Airways walked away with the goods.

Either way, I think Southwest Airlines is in a really good position right now. It’s the only carrier that offers free checked baggage, and their airfare is ridiculously cheap at times. As you can see, SWA has had my loyalty for awhile now. S what do you think the problem was between the two labor unions? Perhaps there were too many FA employees to keep them on and mix them in with SWA employees?