A bankruptcy-protection filing by ATA Airlines will lead to the kind of realignment that airline observers have been expecting but not seeing so far— the transfer of an endangered airline's assets, however limited in scope, to an up-and-coming competitor. Even as AirTran Airways reported its first quarterly loss since the three months that immediately followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the Orlando-based carrier says it will pay ATA $87.5 million for rights to lease up to 14 gates at Chicago Midway Airport, authority to develop ramp space at Midway for as many as 10 gates for regional jets, and time-controlled takeoff and landing slots at the two U.S. High-Density-Rule airports— New York LaGuardia and Reagan Washington National. AirTran has tried with only limited success to gain access to both, and the ATA deal will give it 19 slots at » LaGuardia and eight at Reagan.
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