Think US Airways is the only airline with a pilots union integration issue? Guess again. Southwest Airlines and its pilots union are definitely playing hardball against the pilots at AirTran. Southwest, of course, completed its purchase of AirTran a few months back. Now Southwest is saying that if AirTran pilots as a whole reject the latest pilot seniority integration offer negotiated between the two airlines’ pilots unions and demand binding arbitration instead, then the merger may be off. If that were to happen, Airtran would remain a separate operation though owned by Southwest.
But then again, this could all be a bluff on Southwest’s part in an attempt to make the AirTran pilots accept a worse deal than they could get through arbitration.
Charlotte impact: If AirTran remains a separate brand, then we may well not get Southwest Airlines proper here in the CLT anytime soon. Even via codeshare.
