Southwest Airlines acquired AirTran Airways’ parent company in 2011, then folded AirTran’s operations into Southwest over several years. AirTran’s final passenger flight was on December 28, 2014. The airline did not disappear when the deal closed: the acquisition, operating-certificate change, customer-system transition and last flight were separate milestones.
When did AirTran become part of Southwest?
| Date | Milestone | What it meant |
|---|---|---|
| September 2010 | Southwest announced plans to acquire AirTran Holdings, AirTran Airways’ parent. | Southwest valued AirTran common stock at approximately $1.4 billion, including outstanding convertible notes and based on Southwest’s closing share price on September 24, 2010. Southwest’s announcement described the proposed transaction. |
| May 2, 2011 | Southwest closed its purchase of all outstanding AirTran Holdings common stock. | The airlines initially continued to operate separately; Southwest said full integration would take several years. Southwest’s corporate timeline records the closing. |
| March 2012 | The FAA issued Southwest and AirTran a single operating certificate. | This was an operating and regulatory milestone, not the end of AirTran’s brand or customer-facing services. Southwest’s timeline distinguishes it from later integration steps. |
| February 2013 | The airlines connected their networks. | Customers could access the combined network, while other parts of the integration were still underway. Southwest’s timeline lists this step. |
| 2014 | Southwest transitioned AirTran’s international service, booking functions and A+ loyalty program into its systems. | A+ was integrated into Rapid Rewards, and AirTran.com converted to Southwest.com in November. Southwest’s timeline describes the customer-system changes. |
| December 28, 2014 | AirTran’s final passenger service took place. | Southwest’s integration timeline identifies the final scheduled flight as departing Atlanta for Tampa. Its 2014 Form 10-K also reports that AirTran ceased passenger service that day. |
Why did Southwest buy AirTran?
Southwest said the acquisition would expand its presence in markets where it had limited or no service, particularly Atlanta and Washington, D.C., including Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. In a later filing, the company also described access to near-international markets such as the Caribbean and Mexico as a strategic benefit. These were Southwest’s stated reasons for the deal, not an independent assessment of whether it succeeded. The rationale appears in Southwest’s acquisition materials and its 2014 Form 10-K.
What happened to AirTran’s planes and employees?
Southwest retired the remaining 66 AirTran Boeing 717-200 aircraft during 2014. AirTran’s Boeing 737-700s followed a different path: by December 31, 2014, all 52 had either completed conversion to Southwest aircraft or entered the conversion process. Southwest expected the remaining aircraft to enter service in early 2015. These fleet figures and the conversion status are reported in Southwest’s 2014 Form 10-K.
Southwest reported that all AirTran employees had become Southwest employees by December 31, 2014. The company characterized the effort in its 2014 One Report as “a massive undertaking—possibly the biggest in Southwest’s history.” That is Southwest’s description of its own integration, not an independent evaluation. The employee figure and quotation are in Southwest’s integration materials.
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