NEWS: Southwest presses its Chicago-Midway advantage via ATA
Southwest may nab four Midway gates
OK...math time so pay attention. Chicago-Midway has 43 gates. Southwest acquired 6 of 14 gates controlled by ATA last Dec when it loaned ATA $47 million bringing its total to 25 gates. A new proposal introduced as part of ATA's bankruptcy re-org plan would move another 4 ATA controlled gates to Southwest's sweaty little palms giving them 29 gates. ATA would keep 1 gate and the City of Chicago would get the remaining gates under this latest proposal. AirTran, who tried to purchase all 14 gates back in Dec, is likely wondering how they missed out not once but twice on these gates. Even worse for AirTran, this deal will push them out of two gates they are currently using (pssst, AirTran...call the City of Chicago...I hear they have a line on some gates). How much is all this worth to Southwest? Apparently $5 million per gate since the deal would forgive $20 million of the original $47 million loan to ATA (and I did that all in my head...woohoo).
OK...math time so pay attention. Chicago-Midway has 43 gates. Southwest acquired 6 of 14 gates controlled by ATA last Dec when it loaned ATA $47 million bringing its total to 25 gates. A new proposal introduced as part of ATA's bankruptcy re-org plan would move another 4 ATA controlled gates to Southwest's sweaty little palms giving them 29 gates. ATA would keep 1 gate and the City of Chicago would get the remaining gates under this latest proposal. AirTran, who tried to purchase all 14 gates back in Dec, is likely wondering how they missed out not once but twice on these gates. Even worse for AirTran, this deal will push them out of two gates they are currently using (pssst, AirTran...call the City of Chicago...I hear they have a line on some gates). How much is all this worth to Southwest? Apparently $5 million per gate since the deal would forgive $20 million of the original $47 million loan to ATA (and I did that all in my head...woohoo).
posted by The ACK at
14:20
