Southwest Airlines will buy AirTran for $ 1.4B

The announcement brings the airline industry continues to consolidate. Continental Airlines and United Airlines, UAL Corp., the parent will officially join this weekend and the largest in the world, dropped the Delta. Delta said the location, if Northwest Airlines bought two years ago.

Southwest failed last year tried to buy Frontier Airlines out of bankruptcy. Republic Airways Holdings, won the auction in August last year, bought Frontier, a company based in Denver for nearly $ 108,800,000.

In the west-south AirTran gain is expected to close in the first half of next year. It requires approval by regulators and shareholders. The airline expects to be in the mix of business in 2012.

Based on closing share price of Southwest Airlines on Friday, a deal valued at $ 7.69 per share from AirTran. That's 69 percent premium from its closing price of $ 4.55. In pre-market AirTran shares jumped 61 percent, to $ 7.31, while shares of Southwest rose 12 cents to $ 12.40.

In the west-south to pay approximately U.S. $ 670,000,000 of cash available. Southwest picked up $ 2000000000 AirTran's debt.

In the west-south and AirTran, said the new airline will operate more than 100 different airports, serving more than 100 million subscribers.

In April, showed AirTran Holdings Inc. CEO Robert Fornaro, interest in concluding the agreement is to consider a combination with other airline operators if they dealt with the agreement and whether it makes sense for the company and shareholders.

But when asked by The Associated Press that the potential beneficiaries AirTran, Fornaro said, "I'm not sure it necessarily suitable for consumption by other properties."
...