AirTran Airways has been growing steadily at Milwaukee since its failed attempt to acquire Midwest Airlines nearly two years ago.  As a result, they have decided to officially declare Milwaukee a hub and are adding more than 100 new jobs to the area including 50 Boeing 737 pilot positions and 50 Boeing 717 and 737 [...]

Delta Airlines, the world’s largest carrier, was granted permission yesterday by the Federal Aviation Administration to operate the two carriers – Delta Airlines and acquired Northwest Airlines – as one, single airline.  This involved the FAA granting Delta Airlines a single operating certificate to use for both carriers. 

Delta plans to make some of the internal [...]

Although airline mergers are always percolating in the industry rumor mill, there has been a noticeable uptick in recent weeks as analysts talk about possible tie-ups. With the acquisition last year of Northwest Airlines by Delta Airlines looking like it should be a success, creating the world’s largest airline, and capacity still over-pacing demand, the [...]

Mokulele, owned by Republic Airways and go!, owned by Mesa Airlines joined forces today to cooperate but operate both Hawaiian inter-island carriers as one entity, but under both brand names.  Some details of the deal are still uncertain, but the terms include Mesa owning 75% of the combined carrier and Republic owning 25%. 

This comes after go! [...]

Midwest Airlines announced that on November 9 it will cease operating the carriers main fleet type – the Boeing 717.  The new owners of Midwest, Republic Airlines, will replace all Boeing 717 flights with either regional jets or shared Airbus jets from their new partner, Frontier Airlines. 

The Midwest pilots are not happy about the change.  [...]

Now that the deal for Republic to buy Frontier is nearing completion, and the Midwest deal complete for a month, the two now related airlines have begun code-sharing their relatively small networks.

Now, Frontier customers can reach additional East Coast cities like Boston, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh by connecting in Milwaukee, Midwest Airlines small hub to Midwest [...]

The European Union regulatory agency has authorized the purchase of Austrian Airlines by Lufthansa today.  There are conditions that have been agreed upon that Lufthansa must abide by to alleviate some competitive concerns primarily the directive to give up slots in Vienna to German destinations. 

This agreement makes Lufthansa the leader in European airlines by far.  [...]

The sale of beleaguered Air Jamaica, the government owned state run airline of the Caribbean island nation of Jamaica, is still waiting for a decision from the government.  A couple of months ago, Spirit Airlines and Caribbean Airlines made proposals to acquire Air Jamaica and those proposals have been reviewed for many weeks.

A delay by [...]

Good news!  Frontier Airlines will remain Frontier Airlines.  The Southwest bid to buy Frontier Airlines in bankruptcy court failed to get court approval as a result of a lack of agreement from the Frontier pilots on integration into Southwest, and granted the authority to purchase Frontier to the intial bidder, Republic Airlines.  Republic will continue [...]

There is a possible glitch in the Southwest bid for Frontier Airlines.  The two unions have not come to an agreement on seniority of pilots for the acquired Frontier.  Southwest pilots union offered the Frontier pilots to be added to the bottom of the combined seniority list if the bankruptcy court approves Southwest’s $170 million [...]

Southwest Airlines is trying to eliminate a competitor in the Denver market by bidding an extreme $170 million for the beleaguered Frontier Airlines.  The bid competes with Republic Airlines bid of $108 million, although because of aircraft lease issues and other items the bids are actually much closer. 

There is an auction set for this week [...]

Southwest Airlines has announced their attention to bid for Frontier Airlines in the bankruptcy court auction next month.  Republic previously this month announced their intention to purchase both Frontier and Midwest Airlines in order to expand their holdings and diversify their operation. 

Southwest apparently has decided they don’t want an independent Frontier to remain strong in [...]

European regulators in Brussels today announced that Lufthansa Airlines of Germany has not convinced them that their acquisition of Austrian Airlines would not hurt competition on select routes between Germany and Austria. 

Lufthansa had to allay similar fears just last month when EU regulators were wary of the then proposed Lufthansa takeover of Brussel’s Airlines.  This [...]

The Department of Transportation (DOT) today approved Continental Airlines request to be excused from antitrust laws paving the way for its inception into the Star Alliance.  Not many details were provided yet, and there were only a few small restrictions on certain routes. 

This will give Continental the ability to dump Sky Team and join Star [...]

European Commission regulators have approved Lufthansa’s bid to acquire Brussels Airlines SN Airholding, Belgium’s national airline.  Initially, later this summer, Lufthansa will purchase a 45% stake in the Belgian airline, with the remaining 55% available to Lufthansa in 2011 if all legal and route rights are secured. This tie up is a further step in [...]

After what may have been a bidding war with Trinidad-owned Caribbean Airlines, Spirit Airlines will be the new owner of money-losing Air Jamaica.  Air Jamaica has lost an average of $140 million annually and continues to shrink in size and operations under the control of the Jamaican government. 

The report I read says that ultra low-cost [...]