AirTran was merged with Value Jet in 1999.
From
http://airlines.afriqonline.com/airlines/434.htm
Air Tran Airways is a US domestic airline flying cut-price domestic scheduled flights using Boeing 737-200, DC-9 and Boeing 717 (MD-95) type airliners. The airline began operations using a small fleet of Boeing 737-200 jets out of Orlando.
July 1997 Air Tran merged with the ill-fated ValuJet, who had lost its good name after a fatal DC-9 accident. The ValuJet fleet of DC9-32 jets were repainted in Air Tran livery along with the Boeing 717s that were on order at the time of the merger.
FLEET: Douglas DC-9-32, Boeing 717, Boeing 737-200.
From
http://airlines.afriqonline.com/airlines/433.htm
ValuJet began in June 1993 flying cut-price scheduled domestic routes initially out of Atlanta. Its first route was with a DC-9-32 jet to Tampa, Florida. A large fleet of aging Douglas DC9-32 jets were acquired as the route network quickly expanded to over 20 eastern US cities. ValuJet added other DC9 variants to its fleet as the routes expanded. DC9-20 and MD-80 jets were acquired and a launch order was placed for the new MD-95 (first flown as the Boeing 717 in mid 1999).
On 11 May 1996 a ValuJet DC9 crashed in the Florida everglades with all souls aboard lost and the Federal Aviation Administration took a closer look at the ValuJet operation resulting in its operating licence being revoked before the cause of the acccident had even been determined by the NTSB. This was mainly due to political pressure due to the adverse publicity that ValuJet was getting in the media.
ValuJet restarted limited operations that September after the FAA had required the airline to witdraw or scrap some of its older Douglas DC9s. The airline industry is very sensitive to poor public image, however unfair, and it was agreed that ValuJet should merge with the untainted Air Tran Airways and take the later's name and livery. This happenened during 1999 and the Boeing 717 jets were delivered in the new Air Tran livery.
