Oh I dunno.
AirTran is in the business of getting people from point A to point B by stuffing them into pressurized metal tubes and squirting them through the stratosphere without a parachute.
Most people already think it's safer to drive than fly. It isn't.
If that changes to thinking it is more dangerous to fly than drive, they won't fly.
They won't buy AirTran tickets, and AirTran's CEO's children will want for shoes.
If terrorists succeed in instilling fear in people and altering their behavior, they have won. Why should AirTran help them win?
Actually I heard a great marketing idea for commercial airlines the other day, if an airline company stated that they will have armed marshalls on every flight do you think that people would chose to fly with them or the ones that aren’t offering protection for their passengers?
People should remember that AirTran is the former ValuJet, the airline that crashed a plane in Florida and cost then-Transportation Secretary Federico Pena his job. Pena immediately declared that ValuJet was safe and he'd still fly it. I believe they said the crash was due to shoddy maintenance that was outsourced to locations in Latn America.
AirTrans is no stranger to stonewalling the public.
-PJ