At press time, Midwest Airlines issued a statement from its board saying it would not be in the best interest of its stakeholders to pursue a merger with AirTran, a process AirTran has been working on for over a year but announced yesterday. AirTran Chair & CEO Joe Leonard said, despite the rebuff, the company thought both Midwest and AirTran stakeholders needed to know about the offer which, he said, would provide a 30 percent price premium on Midwest’s 30-day stock price average and an 89 percent premium on its average closing price during the last six months. The bid is for $11.25 per share in cash and stock and, in discussions with investors this morning, Leonard said that if, during due diligence, further value was found, AirTran would be willing to pay for it. Financing is already in place. For now, AirTran says the deal would provide $60 million in incremental synergies which does not include the value of their presence in their respective hub markets of Atlanta, Milwaukee and Kansas City. The combined carrier would have a nationwide reach and expands AirTran’s largely north-south sweep to include the east-west Midwest Airlines network. Even so, the networks lack a significant presence in the west begging the question as to whether further acquisitions were planned. Leonard noted that AirTran recently cut a deal with Frontier to combine networks for frequent flier reasons. For a complete report on this unfolding story, see the December 18 issue of Regional Aviation News.