News
Last AirTran Airways flight set for December
May 23, 2014, Dallas, Tx. - Another name in aviation history will disappear after the final flight of AirTran Airways, which is scheduled for Dec. 28.
May 23, 2014 By The Associated Press
The Atlanta-to-Tampa, Florida, trip has been designated AirTran
Flight 1 and will retrace the route taken by a predecessor airline's
first flight in October 1993.
Then it was known as ValuJet Airlines, a fast-growing,
low-cost carrier that flew mostly in the eastern U.S. The airline
changed its name through a merger after a 1996 crash in the Everglades
that killed all 110 people on board.
Investigators blamed the crash
shortly after takeoff from Miami on a fire that started with improperly
handled oxygen generators in the cargo hold.
Southwest Airlines Co. bought
AirTran in 2011 for $1.4 billion and announced plans to combine the
fleets under the Southwest brand. It is repainting AirTran's Boeing 737
jets and selling the smaller Boeing 717 planes to Delta Air Lines Inc. A
Southwest spokesman said Thursday that there are still a few employees
who started at ValuJet.
Southwest does not currently fly
beyond the United States, but starting in July it will take over AirTran
service to several destinations in Mexico and the Caribbean. Meanwhile,
it is shuttering service at some of AirTran's smaller destinations in
the U.S.
