Southwest takeover of AirTran promising for gay travelers and employees

The pending merger of AirTran and Southwest airlines, announced on Monday, Sept. 27,  appears to be a big win for gay travelers as well as for the gay employees of AirTran.

While AirTran has generally remained at the terminal when it comes to marketing to gay travelers and supporting the gay community, Southwest has been flying sky high. Southwest is a member of the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association and has been a supporter of many gay events, including Washington, DC's Capital Pride.

In addition, Southwest operates a corporate-wide gay-specific microsite: www.southwest.com/gaytravel. On the site the company states, "Southwest Airlines is a Company that works hard every day to provide Positively Outrageous Customer Service, regardless of race, religion, and sexuality. It's in our DNA and goes to the heart of our Culture of Freedom, inclusiveness, and living and practicing the Golden Rule."

AirTran is one of the few major airlines that is not a member of IGLTA and its support of gay events has been limited. It was an official travel partner of Orlando Black Pride in 2010.

As part of the Human Rights Campaign's 2010 Corporate Equality Index, Southwest received a near perfect rating of 95 based on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workplace policies and benefits. According to HRC, the company has non-discrimination policies that include sexual orientation and gender identity, provides domestic partner benefits for same-sex partners/spouses, requires diversity training for all employees and an inclusive diversity council.

AirTran was not rated by HRC in its 2010 CEI.  HRC did list the company as having a non-discrimination policies that include sexual orientation; however, a review of the company's benefits and policies posted on its Web site makes no reference to sexual orientation or gender identity.  

Assuming that Southwest retains AirTran's current gates, the merger will result in Southwest serving some new popular gay-friendly destinations and expanding its presence in others. 

""This acquisition creates more jobs and career opportunities for our combined employee groups, as a whole. It allows us to better respond to the economic and competitive challenges of our industry, and fits perfectly within our strategy for our fifth decade of service. It offers customers more low-fare destinations as we extend our network and diversify into new markets, including significant opportunities to and from Atlanta, the busiest airport in the U.S. and the largest domestic market we do not serve, as well as Washington, DC, via Ronald Reagan National Airport. The acquisition also allows us to expand our presence in key markets, like New York LaGuardia, Boston Logan, and Baltimore/Washington. It presents us the opportunity to extend our service to many smaller domestic cities that we don't serve today, and provides access to key near-international leisure markets in the Caribbean and Mexico," said Gary C. Kelly, Chairman, president and CEO of Southwest.

According to information provided by Southwest, based on current operations, the combined organization would have nearly 43,000 Employees and serve more than 100 million customers annually from more than 100 different airports in the U.S. and near-international destinations.