AirTran’s Interesting Milwaukee Move

Published
by
Dan Webb
on March 5, 2010
in AirTran
. 2 Comments

To be honest, it’s been an annoyingly slow news week airline-wise. Yeah, traffic reports and RASM estimates are kind of exciting, but I usually wait for all of the airlines to release results, because it just gets redundant otherwise, I think. So hence today’s fast post.

But this morning an interesting press release came over from AirTran about Milwaukee. And it’s not a new rote announcement:

ORLANDO, Fla., March 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — AirTran Airways, a subsidiary of AirTran Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: AAI), today announced that the airline will host its annual shareholders’ meeting on May 18, 2010, at the historic Pfister Hotel in downtown Milwaukee. This marks the first time the Company’s annual meeting will be held in Milwaukee. AirTran Airways operates a hub in Milwaukee and is the fastest growing airline at General Mitchell International Airport.

Is it just me, or is this decision to not have the meeting in Orlando, where AirTran is headquartered, fairly symbolic here? I think it shows that AirTran is really committed to this market. Heck, AirTran is calling itself “Milwaukee’s largest mainline carrier” and it’s opening a crew base there. Clearly they’re ready to face-off Midwest for an extended period.

There’s definitely a lot of overlap between the two airlines. But Midwest does have some advantages here, I think. First, while it’s probably eroded a decent amount, they still have brand loyalty as Milwaukee’s hometown carrier. Second, they still have some unique markets, especially the smaller ones with the ERJ service, so that can drive some connecting feed to their other flights. On a related note, Midwest does have some greater fleet flexibility. The smallest AirTran can go is 117 seats with the 717 (granted, there are a five SkyWest CRJs working for them, too), while Midwest can use those E170s, etc. in markets that might not work out for AirTran. Finally, Midwest has been able to expand its reach with the Frontier codeshare.

And, like I usually write here, it will be interesting to watch them duke it out.

2 Responses to “AirTran’s Interesting Milwaukee Move”

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  1. 1 Gary
    March 5, 2010 at 2:48 pm

    Isn’t duking it out over Milwaukee sorta like duking it out over Richmond, Jacksonville, or Virginia Beach?

    I mean, once you win, it’s still Milwaukee. How much upside?

  2. 2 Dan Webb
    March 6, 2010 at 3:58 pm

    Gary, you do make an interesting point. I think it depends how you view MKE. Just for Milwaukee, or as Chicago’s third airport?

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