I'm not upset by this news, but in the long run, I think F9 Employees may have regrets.

Even though we did not get Frontier I'm thrilled to see SW trying to grow, not standing still and fishing for options. You will never grow doing nothing. This was an opportunity and SW went right at it. I'm proud.

Gary it's ON and you are rocking the boat!

Sort of a surprise to me. With Republic having absolutely zero experience in operating an airline (Republic only does regional service and follows protocols of carriers they are contracted for), I do not by any means think that Frontier and its' employees have any greater chance of survival than they would have had they been acquired by Southwest Airlines. Nonetheless, I wish everyone luck at Republic and Frontier. I caution, however, that the status quo will not lead to prolonged success of Frontier Airlines. Change is necessary in order to grow, secure financing from creditors, and provide return to shareholders. Rest assured, changes will still happen even under Republic's rule.

So sorry to hear that Frontier Airlines rejected Southwest Airlines bid offer. Best of luck to the winner. We all know the extreme friendliness and professionalism shown by
all Southwest Airlines employees over the years. I, too am one of the many passengers
who prefers this company when it comes to destinations, prices, schedules, etc.

" Keep on travelin' ! "

CHANGE IS ALWAYS GOOD. This will give F9 and Republic a chance to grow together and offer more competition and more options. I like options!

You know what this means....

BIG fare sales and continued intense competition on routes to/from DEN!

Lets get to work on those near-International routes.. on SWA metal.

I applaud SWAir for sticking to its core values and competencies. The airline continues to set not just examples, but standards for how to run a company, let alone an airline! This is why SWAir is content for so many business studies and why I regularly use the airline in examples in classes I teach about service deliver and cultures of excellence.

I believe the better deal was selected! I agree with “F9 for” -- where is the regret? I am going to enjoy not having to re-apply and start over. Go F9!!!

I'm glad to see it's not about who has the most money. I'm so proud of Frontier and the creditors for putting the employees first! Congrats Frontier and Republic!

I am saddened to learn that Southwest and F9 were unable to come to agreement. Many people here in Atlanta, GA, were looking forward to the opportunity to fly with Southwest again, having moved to this area from areas serviced by Southwest. Their customer service is excellent, as are their prices and no-nonsense approach to running an airline. I believe Southwest's presence at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport would have provided a little more leverage to bring costs down among the other carriers. We will continue to hope that Southwest will one day come to Atlanta, and many other places not yet served by this great carrier.

Best of luck to F9 and Republic in their future relationship.

this is great news as sw made no secret in their proposal that they had no intention of keeping any frontier employees had they of been able to cannibalise frontier. southwest has been losing millions of dollars in trying to compete with frontier in DEN, all one has to do is look it up. they figured if you can't beat them, buy them. frontier will continue to be one of the best low fare airlines out there and southwest will continue to be the walmart of the airlines industry.

Everyone is a winner here. F9 keeps its culture. WN keeps its culture. DEN remains a truly competitive market with THREE airlines not a sort of duopoly like like PHX and PHL. YX will get better aircraft for MKE-west coast routes and remain competitive with FL and WN.

You can say all you want about Frontier being weakest of the three at DEN and it's probably true. But WN wanted this as an asset play and it should not come as a surprise that there was no labor agreement between WN and F9. This should really read integration agreement where F9 pilots would lose their seniority in exchange for WN providing "job security" by training selected pilots on 737s as the beloved Airbuses disappear. F9 gets to remain pretty much F9. WN won't have integration hassles. If the Morris Air integration was a mess with their all 737 fleet and being a virtual copy of WN just based in SLC what do you think absorbing F9 would have looked like?

Best news I've heard all day, I find it funny that Southwest employees are afraid of their "culture" and "values" being in jeopardy if their bid had been a success ... heh you guys can keep your khaki shorts and white tennys ; ) They obviously don't know Frontier very well : ) And I'm glad our pilots kept their dignity and respect during the labor talks, besides everyone knows the Airbus is a more comfortable ride ; ) And for those nay sayers who said Frontier wouldn't be around all those months ago, how's 9 consecutive months of profit and an exit partner sound? Cus that's music to my ears... (i'm givin' you SWA guys a hard time, i'm just glad this is over with!) I look forward to our ongoing friendly rivalry at DEN...

I wonder how many frontier pilots have active job applications in at southwest airlines while i write this

We are sitting here celebrating the survival of a great brand that is a whole different animal. The F9 culture is the only alternative to UAL in DEN for us business travelers. A SWA win would have been a great boost to UAL but a severe setback for us DEN travelers.

The press releases from southwest are very professional and polished. SW employees may have decent salaries, but it is hard to win over passionate employees when they inform them in a meeting that very few (if any) other than the pilots group would be offered employment with Southwest. Especially the union represented groups whom would have had to bid for stations. Denver is a desireable location, what jobs that would have been created would have gone to senior employees and not necessarily those already here. The republic deal at leasts provides some respite from the gallows that was offered by the company. I respect that the CEO says it was too important for the employees for this to go forward, but he was never talking about integrated Frontier employees. That was apparent from the start.

HELLO!!!! This was a SELL not a merger. Their employees should be thankful a company like SWA would ever consider keeping them. Business is business. If no one bought them all their planes would be in the Mohave desert, not to say Republic won't send them there anyway. Why would you stay an Airbus pilot and the down grade later on to a RJ. That what's gonna happen. Republic won't keep the planes and they'll have a very small presents in DEN.

Thanks, Max :)

I agree with MAX--Paula, you've had your HANDS FULL with this one and you've handled it with your normal perfect aplomb. You ROCK, PB....thanks from all 34,000 of us! at SWA!!!!

Bill

Congrats to F9 for keeping their company alive and not bowing to the pressure of SWAPA. WN kept saying they are concerned about the employee culture. Translation: we have to make sure all the pilots, and only the pilots are happy or we're out. It took a lot of guts for FAPA to say no we're not going to give up our entire career to start over, and by doing so also saved the jobs of many a mechanic who were told by WN you won't be coming along when we own you.

Sadly, pilots think that they are the only workers who make an airline run smoothly. And apparently so does GK. This sounded more like a pilot union merger than the purchase of a bankrupt airline.

I look forward to F9 continuing their operation and Denver and keeping WN from taking over. It's a good opportunity for Republic to create a stronger airline with strong employees with good character and morale, and nice clean airplanes with TVs and assigned seats instead of the cattle call rush by the sketchy folk trying to save a buck.

No sour grapes or anything, but I will enjoy looking forward to seeing how Republic intends to run a real airline for the first time. Frontier pilots may have blown an excellent opportunity to get in with THE premier domestic airline in the United States and make substantially more money. I would bet that Southwest did not anticipate FAPA coming into this situation making ANY sort of demands at all. It seems to me that they were not coming from any real place of leverage, and would have been (and were) completely out of line in expecting SLI. Even a 3 year WN FO earns more than an F9 captain.. Well at any rate, Frontier pilots made their stand and I hope they will be happy with the results. Let's all revisit this topic in 2012 for kicks, what do ya say?

I don't understand why Frontier employees feel confident that they will keep their jobs with Republic.

"Pilot labor expert and airline consultant Robert W. Mann said Southwest’s executives can’t be blamed for thinking that Frontier pilots would see the prospect of higher pay and potentially greater job security in the Southwest bid as attractive.

“Frontier pilots need to look at the facts,” he said. Republic has said it would operate Frontier separately from its other regional jet operations, but Republic replaced all the pilots and planes at Midwest Airlines when it bought Midwest this year and could do the same to Frontier’s operations down the road, Mann said. "

http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/0814dnbu...

Told you all last week that the pilots would block the deal. WN was going to basically liquidate F9 and that was the end of it. Again, we were counted out...and again..here we still are. To all the peeps bashing us, get over it, were winning in Denver and that's not going to change.

It's amusing how people are "confused" why were happy about Republic buying us. Really? Yeah..we are all very happy we get to stay employed w/o our charity fail interview with WN. Status quo now, making money in Denver, keeping our airbuses, keeping our jobs.

Our Pilots stood up for what was right, as did our MX group. We all thank you for that. To my coworkers who kept their head up for the last year and a half.....lol..now "It's On" lol.

Southwest, is there a reason you are not posting all of the blogs here? Really, I know of few that were posted before some of the kool aid was posted, and...........nothing. Well, I guess this one won't get posted either.
Tommy

Hey, Tommy -this is a manually moderated blog so sometimes it takes a few minutes for a comment to post, but I can assure you that all comments are being posted.

Noooooooooo! What a bummer. When I heard that this would get SWA into the Atlanta market I was hoping it would happen. Since I moved to the Atlanta area 4 years ago I have missed flying on an airline that cares about their passengers and at a reasonable fare. They make the flight enjoyable and it was not always about an on time departure, several times they held the flight because the incoming connection was delayed.
I hope another opportunity comes up soon to get you in the Atlanta market!

Frontier pilots need to look at the facts,” he said. Republic has said it would operate Frontier separately from its other regional jet operations, but Republic replaced all the pilots and planes at Midwest Airlines when it bought Midwest this year and could do the same to Frontier’s operations down the road, Mann said.

RJET replaced the planes because YX's the MD-80s were large gas guzzlers. The 717s are OK for most of YX's routes except the premium West Coast routes. The E190s allow them to go MKE-LAX and offer two classes of service, they needed new planes. Expect YX and F9 to standardize to 318/319/320s (we'll likely see less 318s). The 717s will probably stay for a while since YX won't be able to dump them easily, unless FL needs them.

F9 pilots were being selfish, not thinking about the ground personnel or MX. Southwest is working short in DEN. Temps from other stations are helping out. So if we bought F9 we would hire almost all the employees at DEN.

Southwest should respond with new non-stop service from Denver to Boston, seek additonal slots for new service between Denver and Laguardia, and add new service from Denver to Washington Dulles

"I don't understand why Frontier employees feel confident that they will keep their jobs with Republic."

DUH, at least they have a better chance of keeping a job! Republic is a great company with a CEO that cares just as much about the employees as Gary Kelly or Sean Menke does. At least this way the pilots of F9 stood their ground knowing that 4500+ jobs were on the line with a WN buy out.

Republic replaced the Midwest aircraft because they were 40 year old dino's that sucked to much gas. Republic is on the way to changing they're business model by purchasing an airline that has continued growth potential. One that makes the competitors pissed because F9 does provide a better product which keeps WN from growing market share in DEN. Thats the only reason for WN bid was to eliminate the competition.

This was a win for the great state of Colorado, for all the loyal customers who continue to support Denvers ONLY HOMETOWN AIRLINE. This was a win for Republic who is now in the big airline business, which is something WN didn't want to see. And a BIG win for all the employees of F9. IT'S ON, show WN that they'll never be able to stake the claim as the hometown airline.

CONGRAT TO REPUBLIC FOR BUTTERING THE DEAL, BUT YOU ALL DON'T KNOW IF YOU ALL WILL HAVE A JOB IN TWO YEARS. HOPE FOR THE BEST AND REMEMBER WN WILL ALWAYS BE AROUND AND LOOK FOR BETTER OPPORTUNITIES TO CONQUER. WE STRIVE TO BE THE BEST IN ALL THAT WE DO. ANALYST PREDICT WITHIN THE COMING YEARS THERE WILL BE THREE AIRLINES STANDING.WILL REPUBLIC BE ONE OF THEM OF THEM. SOUTHWEST WAS ANNOUNCED AS ONE

Paula,

Just a small comment. Maybe since this is all over we should close this thread for comments? It's really doing no one, F9 or SW any good having these horrible comments thrown out into the blogosphere when there really is no need anymore. Maybe those that feel they can say what they please with anonymity here will now seek another venue or activity. I'm thinking it's summer.... spend some time with your family and friends and stop wasting time writing hurtful comments. In other words, stop beating a dead horse.

"SOUTHWEST WAS ANNOUNCED AS ONE"

Keep trusting those analysts. In the meantime I’ll put my faith in a better product.

To all the F9 supporters and FAPA...Congrats on Keeping your jobs and Keeping your animals and Keeping your unique brand. Now, do us all a favor...make sure RJET does a better job of Keeping your cash balances up when oil hits +$100 or WN will be picking through the next yard sale in Denver offering 5 cents on the dollar.

Here's hoping you never have to reconcile your current joy and since of self controlled destiny with the ancient chinese proverb, "a bird in the hand is woth more than two in the bush". Should you have to learn this lesson in the next few years, feel free to come back to the blog and express your remorse.

I know for a fact that if SWA won the auction,120 F9 pilots would have been furloughed immediately at the closing of the transaction. Every other F9 pilot would likely be furloughed within the next year or two after they had been stapled to the bottom of the SWA pilots list. Apparently, only certain employees at SWA are really important to them. That is too bad. The reduction in growth at SWA, and the decline in the effectiveness of their business model probably will lead to slower growth for them. I would have been perfectly happy to work for SWA but am certain my job security, along with that of every other F9 employee, is much better with RAH than SWA. Good luck to all of us in this business. Even the mightiest have their days, just ask the employees at UAL, DAL, NWA, CAL, Pan Am, Eastern, Braniff, and all the other giants that have hit the wall.

BTW211 says:

F9 pilots were being selfish, not thinking about the ground personnel or MX. Southwest is working short in DEN. Temps from other stations are helping out. So if we bought F9 we would hire almost all the employees at DEN.

The VERY few people that would have been taken on by WN (after interviews and starting back at the bottom) would have only been a handful of gate agents and ramp personel. Over time as the Airbus (a much better aircraft then the 737) was phased out a few pilots would have been hired and AGAIN have to start at the bottom. They would have no need for line MX mechanics, and would have surely gotten rid of ALL our heavy maintenance personel since WN farms out all their heavy maintenance. In time DEN would have probably become a line station that would have been manned by WN mechanics and none from F9. All the reservation people and the folks at our headquarters (IT, HR, ENG, MCC, OPS, ECT.) would have all been let go.

It's a win for DEN, our customers, and the employees of FRONTIER Denver's ONLY HOMETOWN Airline.

BTW211, You say F9 pilots were being selfish. I don't think so. Since they decided to fight and not just lay down and take it. Yeah so you are right they are selfish they just saved the jobs for every single F9 employee in all stations. Iam so glad they were selfish. Iam glad you all chose not to be selfish and fight for your rights and for the company.

<<>

I didn't know Carmac the Magnificent was on this blog

I'm divided at the result. I would have liked to have seen what Southwest would do at ATL, DCA or with more slots at LGA. Even more exciting was the possibilities of Southwest using Lynx to enter smaller markets. Still, I'm happy that my second favorite airline (next to Southwest) at least has some prospect at surviving (while Southwest was on record that Frontier would not have lasted longer than two more years)

I want to thank all of the Southwest and Frontier employees for all of the the great flights that I have had on both airlines. All of you have done a great job. If it was not for you we would all be flying AA Delta United, and we all know what the fares would be. This morning when I got up acounding to CNN news we were still in a recession. I just don't want to see anybody else loose ther job.
Thanks again Southwest and Frontier employees for your great sevice. It is you that makes a Airline or any other Buisness

Thank you, Gary Kelly.

For showing that Southwest is dedicated to it's customers, employees, culture, and stockholders!

Not to mention showing through all of this, that Southwest is the TRUE low cost carrier in Denver.

Now that the auction is over, and Sean Menke was asked to stay on at Frontier the truth is out.

"Menke conceded on a conference call with reporters Friday that the auction outcome—leaving Southwest as a competitor rather than owner of Frontier—"makes it tough" for airlines to boost fares and achieve profitability in Denver. "I'm not going to beat around the bush on that one. That's why we've been focused on the cost structure." "

So one can only conclude, that the only reason their fares have been low, is because Southwest entered the market, as the TRUE low cost carrier.

As for those of you responding to the post above:

"I don't understand why Frontier employees feel confident that they will keep their jobs with Republic.

"Pilot labor expert and airline consultant Robert W. Mann said Southwest’s executives can’t be blamed for thinking that Frontier pilots would see the prospect of higher pay and potentially greater job security in the Southwest bid as attractive.

“Frontier pilots need to look at the facts,” he said. Republic has said it would operate Frontier separately from its other regional jet operations, but Republic replaced all the pilots and planes at Midwest Airlines when it bought Midwest this year and could do the same to Frontier’s operations down the road, Mann said. ""

After reading in Buisness week today.

I would beg to differ that they have all the facts yet, as I am certain that they are not all worked out, and not all those maintnance jobs will stay in Denver.

But what is certain, as it has been stated by Bryan Bedford on behalf of republic. " Some of Frontier's Airbus 319s will migrate to Milwaukee for new nonstop flights to the West Coast. Republic also is likely to seek cost "synergies" for its expanded fleet, in terms of maintenance and other aircraft operations. "

"There's not a lot of organic growth in the fixed-fee contract flying business," Bedford said. He added: "I hope these transactions don't negatively affect these relationships in the long term." Which one might conclude he is concerned about legacy carriers considering Republic as a competitor now, and further decreasing it's market capital.

Add that to the following from the same article.

To date, Midwest has flown only Boeing 717s, which do not have cross-country range. Vaughn Cordle, an airline analyst and former pilot, said in a note Friday that Republic's small market capitalization—"suggests that Republic will want to move aggressively to displace as many Airbuses as fast as practical to lower its average costs."

I would not be on here posting how all of you at Frontier are keeping your jobs, and your airbuses, as it sounds as if they may be leaving.

You can see for yourself, as I know you are going to dispute it. ( I supose you will claim Southwest has some conspiracy with buisness week or something. )

The article is located here
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/aug2009/db20090814_5...

I have been amazed at how many Frontier employees, find the need to come post here on the Southwest Blog. (I don't understand why their company cannot post on their own blog. If they do not have one, then make one.)

But at any rate, congradulations on sticking with your employees, customers, and share holders Gary Kelly.

As a huge fan of Southwest!

I am a loyal Southwest customer, and I hope you continue to expand your great brand!!!

Don't let those Frontier people get you distracted, it seems by the newsweek article there maybe allot of them with time on their hands, to just come in here and distort facts and antaganize a fantastic airline.

I am very disappointed with the attitudes of some of the people posting here. If they are employees of either airline, I wouldn't want to work for either of them. It is great that you all are proud of your respective companies, but you need to show professional courstesy and respect for one another.

Frontier, you can't blame SWA for attempting to buy, not merge with, (there is a difference) your airline. You have a great product with great customer service and awesome employees. Buying a whole airline for $170 million is a steal. SWA had nothing to lose and everything to gain by making a run at it. It made perfect sense for them to try.

SWA, you can't blame Frontier employees for being scared about being bought out by you. You pretty much admitted that Frontier would go away in 2 years as you asorbed their
routes. I know that would sour my attitude towards SWA if I worked for Frontier. You too have a great product with great service and awesome employees. Keep it up and it won't matter that you didn't win the bid.

I wish the best for both airlines. Frontier, I pray things work out for you all and that
Republic treats you with the respect that you deserve. SWA, I applaud the loyalty shown to your employees and hope that you keep it up.

What surprises me is the large number of F9 fans and F9 employees who are sitting on the Southwest Airlines Blog. It appears there may be some SWA Envy going on. I give the F9 employees less than a year before they are banging on SWA's door looking for a job. Oh wait. SWA was probably where they dropped their first application and they didn't get selected.

I just want to say that it's absolutely amazing that SWA started and kept this blog alive with all of the negativity in its threads. I am - and always will be - a fan of Southwest Airlines (as just a regular old passenger) and think some of what was said in here was uncalled for. I think this blog deserves more positivity, so I'm going to provide some.

I love Southwest Airlines for the following reasons, and have been flying them for 15 years:

1) This company thrives on making it affordable to fly. From weekly fare specials, to Ding! fares (that conveniently and frequently show up in your task bar with a cute little piece of mail on the tail of airplane), to their Featured Destination, you can get a great deal to great US cities often. I can cite many specific examples of fares I've gotten for less than $100, and can only recall paying more than $200 on two or three (of ~90) occasions. SWA has spoiled me to the point that fares over $200-250 are appalling!
2) Southwest has a great rewards program. After flying 8 roundtrip trips, you can get a free flight. This program has (understandably, considering the economy) offered fewer of the "double rewards" it used to offer, but I have gotten SEVERAL free tickets on SWA.
3) Southwest has some of the greatest employees on earth. They are positive, cheerful, helpful, funny, concerned, and passionate about keeping up a great reputation for themselves and their company. I'll never forget the time a flight attendant said "meow" over the intercom around 35 times while explaining that we were arriving to Chicago on time and beginning our descent.
4) Southwest has an excellent record of leaving on time, and getting places early. I'm not the type to look up the exact stats, or how they compare with other airlines, but I've experienced very few late departures (luckily, the times I did, I really needed the flight to be as late as I was running), and very few late arrivals (maybe even none...).
5) The Spirit magazine they have on board is always interesting. I know they encourage it, but I've taken many of them home with me.
6) I happen to love the fact that, regardless of flight time, I always get a package of peanuts and a little snack whose smell is non-offensive to people sitting around me. While some people may complain about an airline that does not provide in-flight food service (not many do these days anyway), I like the fact that if it's a longer flight, I know I need to pick up my own lunch or dinner.
7) They don't hate my bag (and I just love that commercial!). I rarely check bags, but if I did, I sure wouldn't want to have to pay for it. If, however, it was necessary to keep the company alive, I would.
8) Each month in Spirit magazine, they take the time to recognize an outstanding employee and an outstanding customer (or group of customers). There are full pages dedicated to these people, and I think it's just amazing. The CEO or CIO also make it a point to dedicate an article to the magazine talking about their experiences with the airline industry, with travel in general, with customers who've touched their hearts. They've told beautiful stories of personal and emotional times in our nation's history that shall never be forgotten and many stories of the happiness and joy travel brings to families during the holidays. I've never felt like I've known the beliefs and values of the top executives at a major corporation the way I feel like I know SWA's.
9) Southwest and its employees gives millions of dollars and a lot of time/hours (again, don't know stats) to various charities around our country. The great employees of Southwest make perfect fits as true altruists!
10) Southwest makes no bones about valuing its employees over its customers. I've read several accounts of this fact in the Spirit magazine, and to be frank, didn't really understand it at first. How could a company value its employees more than its customers? Well, clearly, it's great for any employee to work for a company that believes in this. Every working person would agree, right? Every consumer who believes that the customer is always right may not. However, it is clear to me that the trickle down effect of this value system makes for a very positive customer experience. And, you gotta love a company that loves its people.
11) Southwest's stock symbol is 'LUV' for goodness sakes! Enough said. (it's not over yet, though)
12) Southwest has never (knock on virtual wood) crashed. They only fly one type of aircraft for several business reasons, no doubt, but the main driver behind this is passenger safety. Every pilot and co-pilot knows how to fly the plane, every bagging agent knows how to appropriately and safely load baggage, every person on the maintenance crew knows how to maintain the aircraft and knows everything that could possibly be wrong with the plane if something doesn't look or sound right, etc. Bottom line is, I feel SAFE on Southwest Airlines.
13) This company, its corporate culture, its loyal customer base, and its sheer success is documented in many business articles and books and is studied in business schools around the country. Many companies admire, but can never achieve, the (near) perfection that is SWA.
14) New one from today: They have the character, confidence, transparency, and courage to publish and maintain this particular blog.
15) Southwest does not think of it as a business opportunity to make money when people need to change their flights - regardless of the reason. It's rarely free to change your flight last minute, but you're not going to be paying $100+ to do so.
16) There are probably a good 10 more reasons I think this airline is great, but I'm winding down and hope I've made enough of a point.

To all the other Southwest customers and employees that happen to love this company, I hope you choose to make your voice heard here as well. To those of you who have posted threads on this site, I sincerely wish you all the best. Mergers/acquisitions are no fun, and tend to scare people. I truly hope that the deal that was reached will be the best for all involved.

It's October 2 and now the Republic deal is 100% done. I think Southwest should now buy Lynx Aviation from Republic. It has been making a nice profit and everyone knows the Q400's are 30% more fuel efficient than other commuters.

Southwest could grow its Denver presence by having Lynx feed them instead of the "new" Frontier owned by Republic. Republic doesn't want any turbo props in its fleet.

Alaska airlines certainly has proven a feeder like Horizion (its wholly owned commuter) makes sense and lots of dollars. Southwest could own the smaller markets like Aspen and other cities that don't work well with 737's.

Lynx would be a great buy with brand new airplanes, a separate certificate and well trained crews. Go get em Southwest