Southwest Airlines is a little more than seven weeks away from making the AirTran brand history when flies it final flight – AirTran flight number 1 from Atlanta to Tampa on December 28, 2014 – and Southwest is making a number of changes as the AirTran brand winds down, including disabling AirTran.com
According to the Nuts About Southwest blog, the changes, effective today, include:
As of today, all flights previously flown by AirTran between seven international destinations and nine domestic gateway cities are now flown exclusively by Southwest.
Additionally, Southwest is proud to announce that we have finalized the integration of Southwest.com and AirTran.com. Effective today, Customers attempting to access AirTran.com will be routed to an informational page on Southwest.com where they can book travel, view integration-related FAQs, and find loyalty program information.
Also, Rapid Rewards® is now the sole loyalty program of the combined carrier, and all A+ Rewards Members who did not already have an account have been enrolled in Rapid Rewards. As a result, former AirTran frequent flyers will now be able to benefit from our unlimited reward seats, no blackout dates, and points that don’t expire (as long as you have flight or Partner earning activity every 24 months)
As we near the completion of this momentous integration effort, all AirTran-branded signage in airports systemwide will transition to Southwest signage in an attempt to familiarize our AirTran Customers with the Southwest brand.
Bottom Line:
It’s been more than four years since Southwest Airlines announced it’s $1.4 billion dollar purchase of AirTran Airways on September 27, 2010. This seems like one of the slowest moving purchases in aviation history, and I can’t figure out why Southwest would want the AirTran brand around for such a long time. Any ideas?
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Sorry to see AirTran go, it was my favorite airline. Reasonable prices, good service and accessible biz class.
The first thing that comes to mind that they have looked at other airlines mergers that were poorly handled (UA-CO) and decided we will take it slow and do it right. Plus, what’s the rush? They are already getting the profits from both airlines and they are just taking their time to capture the additional savings through efficiencies.