AirTran Airways, a
subsidiary of AirTran Holdings, Inc., today issued the following statement:

AirTran Airways regrets that, after more than two years of negotiations,
the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO, (AFA) Negotiating
Committee rejected the contract proposal jointly requested by the Company
and the AFA and offered this past week by a private mediator who has been
meeting continuously with the parties since last March. The Company and
the AFA, in order to bridge their differences, had brought in a private
mediator who had extensive experience in airline collective bargaining
disputes and who was himself a former flight attendant, union official and
long time Senior Mediator at the federal National Mediation Board. The
Company unconditionally accepted the private mediator’s contract proposal
and urged the Negotiating Committee to submit it to the AFA membership for
a vote in spite of the fact that the independent mediator’s proposal did
not satisfy the Negotiating Committee’s expectations.
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