ATA, which had codesharing and frequent flier partnerships with Southwest, is going belly-up. It stopped operations just a day after filing for Chapter 11.
Southwest had hoped to use the partnership to indirectly launch international service:
“ATA Airlines has been an outstanding partner for Southwest, and we are disappointed to hear this unfortunate news,” said Gary Kelly, the chief executive officer of Southwest, in a statement.
Kelly said at a June meeting of the BWI Business Partnership that the low-fare domestic carrier would consider using BWI as a “launch pad” for international service in the coming years, and would begin to test that using code-sharing with ATA to destinations in Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.
With its growth curve in domestic operations starting to flatten, the code-share entrée to international flights was a no-brainer for Southwest.
Well, after he truly and fully clears up the safety issues fiasco, Kelly can start hunting for a new code-share partner.
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