Midwest announced service to San Francisco and Raleigh from Milwaukee earlier this week, which were routes eliminated by the airline in September of last year.
Photo credit: Chris Weyer. Used with permission.
Last year, Midwest had to cut many routes in September when the airline eliminated its MD-80 fleet. Their 717s didn’t have the range to get to the West Coast, so service to San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle from Milwaukee was eliminated, though service to the latter three was maintained through Kansas City. A few regional destinations were axed , and Raleigh was one of them. Unlike San Francisco, Raleigh lost all of its service.
Thanks to new fleet flexibility, Midwest can get to the West Coast again with Republic E190s and Frontier A319s. The Los Angeles service was originally flown with an E190, but is now flown with a Frontier A319. The daily San Francisco flight, which launches on April 19, will also be operated by an A319. Midwest will be competing with AirTran in the market.
Meanwhile, service to Raleigh will begin on April 1, with two daily flights from Milwauke. Service will be operated by Republic E170s. There is currently no competition on the route.
It’s certainly been interesting/fun to watch Republic work on Frontier and Midwest. The two airlines are facing strong competition in both Denver and Milwaukee, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens next. Nevertheless, it’s nice to see Midwest restore its route map.
It is fun to watch them do this.
If Republic’s still doing well in two years, I’d really watch out for them in the future. It’ll most likely mean they took on both Southwest and AirTran at the same time and beat them both.