Anybody here affected by ATA's sudden closure?

TangoWhiskey

TangoWhiskey

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Actually, I think AirTran is doing pretty good and is one of my favorite domestic airlines. (Not that I have a lot of favorite airlines :rolleyes:)
 
smigaldi said:
BTW is ATA what ValueJet evolved into? I can't remember for sure.
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Nope, ValueJet became Air Tran. That's why sometimes you'll hear people call AirTran - who's callsign is 'Citrus' - 'Critter'...it's kind of a jab at who they used to be.

'Amtran,' as ATA was called, used to be American Trans Air, but changed to ATA a few years ago. They're owned by Global Aero Logistics, formerly New ATA Holdings, formerly ATA Holdings, who recently bought World Air Holdings, Inc...the company that owns and operates North American Airlines. North American has been a popular "next job" for guys here at Colgan. A lot of our ground and sim instructors are current North American pilots...should be interesting to see what happens to them, North American wasn't doing too great recently, either, I can't imagine this will help.
 
smigaldi said:
Ah ok, I just could not recall which one they were. AirTran is already out of business, is it not?
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Nope, they're alive and well with a bunch of 737 and 717s. They're a pretty good airline these days. And the 717s are cool, too.

EDIT: Good lord, apparently I'm a really slow typer today.
 
wsuffa said:
Nope. ValuJet became AirTramp.
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Anymouse said:
Actually, I think AirTran is doing pretty good and is one of my favorite domestic airlines. (Not that I have a lot of favorite airlines :rolleyes:)
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wsuffa said:
Nope. It recently was spurned in a bid to buy Midwest Airlines.
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Teller1900 said:
Nope, ValueJet became Air Tran. That's why sometimes you'll hear people call AirTran - who's callsign is 'Citrus' - 'Critter'...it's kind of a jab at who they used to be.

'Amtran,' as ATA was called, used to be American Trans Air, but changed to ATA a few years ago. They're owned by Global Aero Logistics, formerly New ATA Holdings, formerly ATA Holdings, who recently bought World Air Holdings, Inc...the company that owns and operates North American Airlines. North American has been a popular "next job" for guys here at Colgan. A lot of our ground and sim instructors are current North American pilots...should be interesting to see what happens to them, North American wasn't doing too great recently, either, I can't imagine this will help.
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Thanks

I guess there is a small chance that they are still in business :D:D

Thanks to everyone for also reading the responses before you replied to make sure the question had not been answered. ;););):D:D:D
 
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Anymouse said:
Actually, I think AirTran is doing pretty good and is one of my favorite domestic airlines. (Not that I have a lot of favorite airlines :rolleyes:)
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I have to echo your comments. Besides the occasional nasty crew every once in a blue moon, it's one of my favorite domestic airlines as well. The airplanes are always in good shape, the Atlanta based crews are usually professional and very friendly, and my dad gets to jumpseat with them so we can usually save money by buying one less ticket when we go on vacation if it's not a busy travel day.

The only discouraging circumstance I find with ATA's decision to pull the plug is that they did so very all of a sudden. I know the process involved in the entire deal is quite lengthy, but they would have received much greater respect and trust from their customers and clients if they had only announced they were ceasing operations a month ahead of time. That said, I still understand the complex situation they were in.
 
What a fair number of people do not realize about AirTran is that, although the name is "AirTran," the combination of ValuJet and AirTran was done by ValuJet buying the (much, much smaller) AirTran mostly for the purpose of using AirTran's name.

You'll recall the debacle surrounding the tragic crash of the ValuJet DC9 in the 'Glades (ironically enough, due to the mistaken loading of live O2 generators by an MX contractor); ValuJet's name and reputation were dragged through the mud badly- their entire fleet grounded for quite a while- and they used what they had a lot of (money) to buy whet they did not have (an untarnished name).

They have turned into a pretty decent little airline, although they bailed on their abortive attempt to create a mini-hub at DFW, so most roads for them lead through Atlanta. Ugh.

/7500
 
smigaldi said:
Nope. Well other than I will have to dodge fewer spam cans around MDW when I fly down the Cal-Sag and Des Plaines rivers.
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It was 10 whole flights a day. You know. Being delayed by all of those rich guys in private planes. ;)

What helped more was Southwest grounding its 737s for a few days to do the actual inspections.
 
Yep, AirTran as it's now called had a rough road for a bit after Critter 592 went down. But now, AirTran is a major pain in the ass to Delta had has probably become their largest competitor as far as number of flights out of ATL.
 
My question is "who's going to take the L-1011s that ATA used?" You know, the ones they got from Delta.
 
HPNPilot1200 said:
I know the process involved in the entire deal is quite lengthy, but they would have received much greater respect and trust from their customers and clients if they had only announced they were ceasing operations a month ahead of time.
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When a company ceases operations like this, the only thing left that they care about are the creditors and their lawyers. Customers and clients are no longer relevant. Neither are employees. I hope ATA had them all home when they pulled the plug. Some airlines have left planes and crews stranded all over the country. Aloha did this about as neatly as I've ever seen (for an airline) - three days notice.

Regards,
Joe
 
SCCutler said:
What a fair number of people do not realize about AirTran is that, although the name is "AirTran," the combination of ValuJet and AirTran was done by ValuJet buying the (much, much smaller) AirTran mostly for the purpose of using AirTran's name.

You'll recall the debacle surrounding the tragic crash of the ValuJet DC9 in the 'Glades (ironically enough, due to the mistaken loading of live O2 generators by an MX contractor); ValuJet's name and reputation were dragged through the mud badly- their entire fleet grounded for quite a while- and they used what they had a lot of (money) to buy whet they did not have (an untarnished name).

They have turned into a pretty decent little airline, although they bailed on their abortive attempt to create a mini-hub at DFW, so most roads for them lead through Atlanta. Ugh.

/7500
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I wouldn't touch ValueJet with a ten mile pole back in those days. Too many parallels to People Express. Ugh!! Never again!!
 
ATA flew a lot of military transport flights into BWI, at least while I lived under the approach.:mad:

For me, not so bad, as i loved watching the airliners come in. Only drawback was that so many were 737s and MD80s -- I looked forward to the several times a week ATA L1011, the twice-weekly Ghana Air DC10-10 (man was that LOUD), and the Aer Lingus A330 (man was that quiet). The loudest, though, had to be World Airways with a DC10 that must have had amplifiers on the engines! It was much worse than the smoky ol' Fine Air DC8s.

I flew the L1011 to England and back with TWA. I really liked it, more than the DC10, and way more than the 767 for sure. Plus, ATA had a decent livery in recent years, a palm tree motif if I'm not mistaken.
 
I had a few friends still working at ATA, but most of the people I worked with were all laid off after 911. I believe the only L1011's that ATA still had were the 5 -500's they got from Gulf Air. They did just recently purchase several well used DC10-30's from north worst. Kind of sad, a lot of good people, who for the most part, I thought did a pretty good job. But like most air carriers today their upper managment left something to be desired. Sad.
Ron
 
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Enough about all that. The more important question: What's gonna happen with the seniority list?
 
That's a smart cat!

My cats know that the door "handles" (they aren't knobs, they are handles you push down) will open doors but they can't quite reach them. I've seen them try though!
 
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