On Monday May 16, 2011, Lee Seham, AMFA Legal and AMFA Assistant National Director Floyd Looney met with the National Mediation Board (NMB) in Washington, DC concerning the Southwest Airlines/AirTran Airlines merger/purchase.

The meeting took place at 2pm at the NMB building on “K” Street in downtown Washington, DC. The meeting attendees were as follows:

The meeting consisted of a “meet and greet” with the Board offering to assist AMFA with services and as a go-between with the Company and AMFA, or AMFA and the IBT, if necessary.  The Board also reiterated the fact that Single Carrier Status can only be requested by a Union (AMFA or the IBT), not the Company or the Board itself.

The Board stated it started doing these “courtesy” calls on all merger cases in the last 18 months so that the request for meeting with AMFA was not at the behest of the Company or any other entity.

While in DC no type of negotiations with the IBT took place or can take place without your Negotiation or Seniority Integration Committee and therefore no contact was initiated.

This update is provided by your AMFA NEC and is the only authorized update for this subject.