PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - It's a deal worth $1.4 billion and involves over a 100 million airline passengers a year. Southwest Airlines announced today that it is buying low cost rival AirTran.

Bob Fornaro, CEO of AirTran Airways probably said it best, "Together we are stronger, together both AirTran and Southwest can accomplish more than either of us can accomplish alone."

The purchase of AirTran will give Southwest a bigger slice of the market in cities like Boston, New York, and the Baltimore area where the airline has been expanding already. In addition, Southwest will now be able to go head to head with Delta in Delta's home base of Atlanta, a city that Southwest doesn't currently serve. The acquisition of AirTran also gives Southwest access to the Caribbean, Mexico and smaller cities here in United States where it doesn't fly today.

Once the carriers are combined Southwest will operate 685 planes from more than 100 different airports. In Philadelphia Southwest is currently the cities second largest carrier, behind US Airways, and offers 55 weekday daily flights out of 8 gates. While AirTran operates 9 daily flights to Orlando and Atlanta out of 3 gates.

Southwest expects to integrate AirTran into their operations by sometime in 2012 which means combining frequent flyer programs, and customer service philosophies. Again, they'll be flying under the Southwest name. But this purchase requires both regulatory and shareholder approval. So for now it's business as usual and both airlines will operate as independent companies.

Story Contributor: 3 On Your Side Consumer Reporter Jim Donovan