Three Years For SWA/AirTran Integration

By Frank Jackman frank_jackman@aviationweek.com, Andrew Compart . andrew_compart@aviationweek.com .
WASHINGTON, WASHINGTON .

The Southwest Airlines-AirTran Airways merger is expected to close Monday May 2, but full integration of the two low-cost carriers is three years away.

After the legal close of the merger on Monday, the next major milestone will be FAA issuing a single operating certificate (SOC), the target date for which is the first quarter of 2012, according to Brian Hirshman, VP ...

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