Comments on: Midwest Rolls Out Its Post-MD80 Schedule

By: Midwest’s Deal With Republic at Dan Webb

Midwest’s Deal With Republic at Dan Webb — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 11:27:41 +0000

[...] route network after it cut so many cities, primarily due to dumping the MD-80 fleet. (Cranky has a good post on that, by the [...]

By: AirTran and Midwest: Exactly What Was Expected at Dan Webb

AirTran and Midwest: Exactly What Was Expected at Dan Webb — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:51:28 +0000

[...] need Midwest anyway, and could just expand without them. Well, that seems to be coming true now. Cranky has a good post on what markets Midwest is cutting. Some of these cities include Ft. Lauderdale, Ft. Myers, and [...]

By: Doug

Doug — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:15:15 +0000

I spent 90 minutes on hold with these clowns because I had booked a flight for my wife and myself to fly into Hartford for Christmas. Of course the only consolation is they are offering is a full refund of my original ticket price. They would happily re-route me to another airport (like Boston) but of course I have to pay a fare difference of 800 dollars per ticket! Thanks a pantload Jim but MWA’s sense of customer service sucks to say the least. Put your passengers in an expensive situation and then tell them they have to pay for your executives’ decisions. Makes me wonder if the slogan, “The Best Care in the Air” is a worthy of a false advertisement complaint with the Wisconsin Attorney General!

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:19:51 +0000

With the Lake Express you can take your car too.. something you can’t to on a Beachcraft 1900. Honestly though, the Muskegon service is not a big deal. So few seats with so few flights.

Yes, bad management. I few with Uncle Timmy a few weeks ago. It was interesting. When they started to “expand” I got worried. When they added “saver” service.. I got worried. When they divided Signature services into a 2×2 and 2×3 seating I got worried. When they charged $60 for the wide seats, now $65 I got more worried (After all.. is the first class service in NW anything MORE than a wide seat?). You still get leather and cookies. Huh. Now I have a reason to be worried.

The good news: no kids going to see the Rat. Airfares are simply too expensive and oh yes, the flights to Orlando are cancelled. Pity.

By: comma8

comma8 — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:58:15 +0000

@ James

I’m personally amazed that the Milwaukee to Muskegon lasted as long as it did. The Lake Express ferry makes the trip across Lake Michigan in 2-1/2 hours, and by recent calculations (Midwest Express is offering rates between $568 and $668 online right now) the ferry will save you $400 dollars or more per person.

Given the state of Milwaukee Mitchell Field ticketing and general air travel hassles, I’d imagine you could drop someone off at the airport, get on the ferry, then meet them at Muskegon before they even landed.

By: BES

BES — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:12:07 +0000

AIR TRAN???…..Uncle Timmy would have never sold out to them. The entire Sr Management staff would have been let go, plus the TPG offer put 12 mil in Uncle Timmy’s pockets Air Trans deal was not nearly so rosey for the top execs. This once Great airline has been plagued by bad decisions made by the SR Execs. Yes fuel prices are very high, but European airlines have been fighting high fuel prices for MANY years and they have learned to thrive. Concessions need to be made by EVERYONE in the company not only the employees. The employees are expected to take HUGE pay cuts of up to 67%, Uncle Timmy is taking a 40% cut of his close to half a mil paycheck, how gracious. Then the cuts drop drastically for Sr Execs, down to about 11%.
Capt’s are being downgraded to 1st officer, then expected to take huge cuts, some of them will be making slightly over 30k??? I am not even sure how much they are expecting the FA’s to take.
It is one excuse after another with them, bottom line is poor management.

By: Nicholas Barnard

Nicholas Barnard — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 06:08:03 +0000

Midwest/TPG could an asset sale of 717s to Airtran and a asset sale of gates etc to Delta/NWA? I can see that happening..

Not sure if Airtran wants the 717s but given they’re a fuel efficient plane it might not hurt..

By: The Passenger Seat » Midwest Airlines cuts flights from Milwaukee to Fort Myers and Fort Lauderdale

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:29:41 +0000

[...] Cranky Flier alerted me, Midwest Airlines is cutting service from Milwaukee to various places. The most interesting ones to me are the cuts to its south Florida [...]

By: CF

CF — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:40:16 +0000

Steve – Good question. TPG is in kind of a tough spot. They might be able to extract some money from the new DL to make them quietly disappear, but I also don’t think AirTran would be interested in buying anymore. Why buy what will probably disappear on its own soon anyway?

For TPG to make money on this deal, they’ll have to find someone who sees value in what YX is offering. I’m not sure that there’s anyone like that now. They had to know what they were getting in to on this. It was Northwest’s baby, so I’m sure something has been or will be worked out about what happens in the end.

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:32:24 +0000

Oh I completely agree. The question is: since TPG group has then, why would they well them to Air Tran when they also own NW. Its an interesting dilemma. Maybe they will just keep them as a nice small airline. I wish.. not a chance.

What Would TPG do?