Airline News

Who's Who in Low Cost Aviation

Carrier:	AirTran Airways
Headquarters:	USA
Founded:	1995
Destinations:	56
Bases:	Atlanta, Orlando
Owners:	Public
Listed:	Yes
Online Booking:	Yes
Website:	http://www.airtran.com
Fleet	B737-700 50 B717-200 87

Overview - AirTran Airways

AirTran: From disaster to promising future

From an unlikely and unfortunate lineage, AirTran has become one of the strongest LCCs in the American industry. The carrier was born out of the ashes of its first incarnation – ValuJet – after that company's infamous Florida crash in 1996, an event that threatened America's acceptance of the LCC model.

Since then, and with the deck of public opinion initially stacked against it, AirTran has flourished. The first LCC to fly the East Coast routes, the carrier's low costs enabled it to take traffic off the main routes of US Airways and Delta.

Although its 2004 bid for ATA's Chicago operations was trumped by Southwest, it has still grown its base at Midway, launching services to Minneapolis, Newark and Boston. It also filled the void left by ATAs departure from Indianapolis with daily services to LA and San Francisco. Following AirTran’s failed attempt to purchase Milwaukee-based Midwest Airlines, the LCC is also lanning a significant expansion in Midwest's hometown.

AirTran has gone from a small carrier to operating the worlds largest fleet of B717s - 87 in total. Its ambitions outstripped that aircrafts range, however, leading to the order of B737-700s. The airline plans to operate a 200 aircraft fleet by 2012.

AirTran currently operates over 700 daily services to over 56 destinations, handling almost 20 million passengers p/a. The airline has reported six consecutive years of non-fuel unit cost reductions, and claims its unit costs are less than Southwest Airlines and JetBlue.

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