Things in the Sky

The drama in Milwaukee does not want to end.

Remember Midwest Connect? Technically, every aircraft in a Midwest scheme now has Midwest Connect titles, but I’m talking about the service that used to be flown by Midwest subsidiary Skyway, which only handles ground operations at this point. That flying was then taken over by SkyWest. When Republic came in, the agreement with SkyWest was terminated, and the service is being replaced with ERJs flown by Republic subsidiary Chautaqua.

So, SkyWest needed to find a home for the CRJs, and it has been announced that they will be operated for AirTran out of…Milwaukee. Yep. It really doesn’t get any better than this. There will be some new destinations for AirTran as a result. Akron-Canton (CAK), is a completely new market with no competition. Service to Omaha and Des Moines will face competition from Midwest.

But, SkyWest will also be replacing AirTran mainline service to Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. As one might expect, ALPA isn’t all that pleased with that part of the deal. In the end, that’s kind of a plus for those airports, though, as they’ll be seeing more frequencies. For example, Pittsburgh only has one AirTran flight to Milwaukee, but will have three from SkyWest, which means there will actually be an increase in seats.

This is AirTran’s second attempt at a regional partner. The first, called AirTran JetConnect, was a partnership with Air Wisconsin that lasted less than two years. But, this agreement is very different. First, the flights will be SkyWest-branded, which is very interesting. Also, Midwest is going to paying for this service by itself, so there’s minimal risk for AirTran.

So, we’ll have to see how it goes. SkyWest also has to find homes for some more CRJs. 20 ASA CRJs are being pulled out of service – 14 will be going to United, but six more are available.

On a final note, last time I checked AirTran and Frontier were still partners. How long is that going to last now now that Frontier and Midwest are both owned by Republic?