Southwest Air submits bid to acquire Frontier Air

Market Watch ^ | Aug 10, 2009 | Carla Mozee

[Ben Mugged]

Southwest Airlines said Monday it has submitted a binding cash offer of more than $170 million to acquire Frontier Airlines, which will be sold at auction as part of Frontier's bankruptcy case. As part of the offer, Southwest would acquire about 80% of Frontier's existing Airbus fleet, or 40 aircraft, plus all of Lynx, Frontier's short-haul subsidiary. "We believe our bid ultimately should be seen as the strongest offer by all interested parties, including Frontier, its creditors, employees, and customers," said Southwest Air's Chief Executive Gary Kelly in a prepared statement.

[colorado tanker]

Crap. I really like Frontier and if you shop their internet specials they are often cheaper than Southwest.

They are just buying Frontier to dismantle it since they haven't been able to drive them out of business by competition.

[pissant]

Will they get rid of all the homo male stewardesses that Frontier has. I hope so.

[montanajoe]

This would be good news for Frontier if Southwest would continue to operate into the smaller markets of the west..which really doesn't fit the SWA business model so I skeptical of the benefits.

[ChuckHam]

Seems to me they drove them out of business by competition since SW is still going strong and Frontier is in bankruptcy.

[trumandogz]

Perhaps it would be good news for Southwest but it will be bad news for everyone else.

But, what makes it most interesting is that SWA would then be flying Airbus products, something that they have never done.

[colorado tanker]

Frontier is set to emerge from bankruptcy and had a buyer that would strengthen them. That's why Southwest is doing this, they don't want a reorganized Frontier to compete with here.

[dirtboy]

As part of the offer, Southwest would acquire about 80% of Frontier's existing Airbus fleet, or 40 aircraft,

That's an odd fit - I recall SW saying they only have one type of aircraft, and it's Boeing.

[montanajoe]

I wonder if they would keep only 40 airbus jets around. Might be more trouble than they were worth.

[colorado tanker]

You are correct. Southwest says it will run Frontier as an intact airline for two years, although many of us doubt it will be that long. When they close it out they will have to incorporate the Frontier Airbus fleet and become a two plane airline, or, more likely IMHO, dispose of the fleet.

[NVDave]

More than that, LUV has only 737’s. They have no long-haul a/c.

This is part of what keeps Southwest’s costs down. One aircraft vendor, one type, makes maximum use of their inventory of parts and tooling.

[Irish Eyes]

ping to self

[biff]

I remember the original Frontier when they flew DC-3’s and then was amazed at the newer Convairs when they came into service.