Archive for the 'Midwest' Category

Midwest Rebuilds Kansas City Route Map

Published
by
Dan Webb
on February 26, 2010
in Midwest and Republic
. 2 Comments

Yes, three Republic-related posts in one week! Sorry to be repetitive, but some interesting route (and fleet) announcements have been coming from them of late. We’ve seen a bunch of routes from Milwaukee reinstated over the past few months, and now Kansas City is getting some love with new nonstops to New Orleans and Columbus, which are both routes the airline used to serve. Midwest launched flights to New Orleans in 2005 but left after Hurricane Katrina. Columbus has always had Milwaukee service, but Kansas City flights were cut a couple of years back.

New Orleans service will be daily and starts on May 20 – that’s interesting because Frontier is launching a daily Denver nonstop soon after in June.  The Midwest flights are a few hours earlier, so that gives Frontier/Midwest customers a few more options two and from the city. The service will be provided by Republic E-170s.

As mentioned earlier, Columbus is an existing Midwest city, and it has a few ERJs to Milwaukee per day. So why add Kansas City? There’s certainly some local demand there, but I think this is to help generate some extra connections, which is something that Frontier has done recently by announcing Denver service from some other Midwest destinations.

But after looking through the schedule, it seems that this flight adds a new connecting option to cities like Los Angeles, Seattle, and San Francisco. In fact, the outbound flight (YX1989) in the morning is a one-stop to Seattle. The inbound, YX1974, flies SFO-MCI-CMH, but for some reason that itinerary isn’t bookable on Midwest’s website.

The Columbus service is operated with Republic E-190s. CMH-MCI fights operate Monday-Saturday, while MCI-CMH operates Sunday-Friday.

As I’ve said a lot lately, it’s certainly interesting to watch Midwest rebuild. And it’s also fun to see a slew of route announcements in this economic environment.

Photo Credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nostri-imago/ / CC BY 2.0

Republic: Our Lufthansa?

Published
by
Dan Webb
on February 25, 2010
in Frontier, Midwest and Republic
. 8 Comments

Republic’s certainly been a fun player to watch of late. The regional carrier has  become what some might call a “real” airline after acquiring Frontier and Midwest, instead of just focusing on fixed-fee operations. Republic did release its fourth quarter earnings last night, but let’s talk about the future, because that’s just more fun. :D

Today we saw an even more interesting development with Republic’s announcement that it will order Bomardier’s CS300, certainly a big boost for the type and the manufacturer. Republic plans to order 40 of the type with 40 options, with deliveries starting in the second quarter of 2015. The aircraft will seat 138, and there will be 5 rows of STRETCH seating for 25 passengers (the aircraft is in a 2-3 configuration). And that’s basically all we know for now. Which is where things get interesting.

A Bombardier rendering of a Republic CS300 aircraft.
Photo Credit: Bombardier.

At face value, this order looks like a replacement for Airbus aircraft, especially those that might be coming off lease in the future.  The CSeries will seat two more than Frontier’s current A319s. Bombardier is promising some strong economic benefits of the aircraft. Bryan Bedford called the aircraft “game-changing” during today’s earnings call, and it was also mentioned how it will provide “great flexibility” for them. Clearly, if the CSeries does end up doing great on the cost side of things, that certainly helps give Republic an advantage in competitive markets like its Denver and Milwaukee hubs.

This order might make Boeing and Airbus get moving on a decision on re-engining the 737 and A320 families, respectively. Plus, it might want to make other carriers take a closer look at the aircraft now. (United and AirTran, strong competitors in Denver and Milwaukee, respectively, have both expressed interest in the aircraft.) But back to Republic. Continue reading ‘Republic: Our Lufthansa?’

Midwest Continues to Rebuild its Route Map

Published
by
Dan Webb
on February 22, 2010
in Frontier and Midwest
. 0 Comments

Apologies in advance for a quickly-written post. Last night I began having a lot of trouble with my laptop. My biggest fear is that I’ll end up with a new hard drive today.

Anyway, Midwest announced some new routes last week, and the airline continues to rebuild its route map from past cuts. When Midwest dumped its MD-80s Milwaukee lost nonstop service to Seattle, forcing passengers to go through Kansas City (and more recently, Denver as well). Well, Midwest is restoring Milwaukee service on a seasonal basis three times a week from May 14 to June 10, and then four times a week until September 6. The schedule of the service is kind of interesting – the outbound leaves at 7:55 PM, arrives at 11:20 PM, then leaves from Seattle at 11:45 and comes back to Milwaukee at 5:35 AM.

I found it pretty interesting that it was decided to make the SEA-MKE route a redeye. I think one reason for that Midwest  schedule is so that E190 can fly that route at night while keeping its normal schedule during the day. (On a side note, at first it seems that Midwest’s schedule was a bit unique, but it appears that AirTran has a redeye now as well. I’m not sure if that’s new, though.)

Second, Midwest is coming back to San Diego from April to November with daily service from Milwaukee. When that station was cut, it only had service from Kansas city. The service will be provided with Frontier A319s.

Additionally, Frontier will be adding another flight between Milwaukee and Denver, for a combined six flights between the cities from Frontier and Midwest. My hope is that the route is being added because demand for codeshare routes between the two airlines.

On a side note, Midwest’s press release mentions how both the Frontier A319 and Midwest E190 feature STRETCH seating. Does this mean that Midwest Signature Service has been rebranded? (Midwest didn’t reply to my question on that one.)

Anyway, I’ll have more thoughts on Frontier/Midwest/Republic when earnings come out later this week…and when I have a working laptop.

Win Some Midwest Signature Seats!

Published
by
Dan Webb
on January 7, 2010
in Midwest
. 1 Comment

Once I have a house, I plan on getting some old airline seats in there. It’s just another way to show my geekiness to the world. Naturally, I was excited when I heard that Midwest is giving away a seat of Signature Seats that used to fly on a 717. All one needs to do is become a fan of Midwest on Facebook, and then comment on the wall post announcing the contest by 9 AM CST on Wednesday, January 13.

Tthe winner has to go pick up the seats themselves at Midwest’s headquarters, so I think I’m out of the running, sadly. Getting them over here to Little Rhody is probably a bit expensive. :D

jan7

Midwest Signature 717 – Photo Credit: Martin Rottler.

AirTran Makes the Milwaukee Hub “Official”

Published
by
Dan Webb
on December 30, 2009
in AirTran, Midwest and Republic
. 0 Comments

Well, that’s at least how I view yesterday’s announcement saying that AirTran will open a crew base there in April, which will have 50 pilots and at least 50 flight attendants. AirTran has been calling MKE a hub for awhile, but opening up a base while having “line maintenance station, regional human resources, sales and community relations staff” shows that the airline is serious about the market.

Speaking of AirTran in Milwaukee, the airline slipped in a nice little dig at Midwest in a recent presentation – when AirTran was showing its Milwaukee route map, it called itself “Milwaukee’s largest mainline carrier,” now that all of Midwest’s 717s have left the fleet and been replaced with Republic E-Jets. It should be noted, though, that AirTran’s partnership with SkyWest out of Milwaukee has already begun.

dec30_2

Midwest Restarting SFO and RDU Service from MKE

Published
by
Dan Webb
on November 12, 2009
in Frontier, Midwest and Republic
. 1 Comment

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.

nov12

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.

SkyWest to Begin Flying for AirTran

Published
by
Dan Webb
on November 5, 2009
in AirTran, Midwest and SkyWest
. 0 Comments

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. Continue reading ‘SkyWest to Begin Flying for AirTran’

Sunday Video #45

Published
by
Dan Webb
on November 1, 2009
in Midwest and Sunday Video
. 0 Comments

Midwest has started running a new TV ad — good timing, too, since Southwest starts service to Milwaukee today. Also, kudos to Midwest for starting an official YouTube channel!

YouTube Preview Image

The Flexibility of Republic

Published
by
Dan Webb
on October 29, 2009
in Frontier, Midwest and Republic
. 6 Comments

I’ve written before about the flexibility Republic now has with Frontier and Midwest. For example, some Frontier A319s will begin operating for Midwest out of MKE and some Republic E190s that have operated for Midwest are off to Denver. Well, now some aircraft will be used for both Midwest and Frontier – on the same day!

oct29

Photo credit: JetPhotos user Fokker Aircraft. Used with permission.

Last week, Frontier announced an experiment: seasonal service from Oklahoma City to both Orlando and Tampa. The schedules just didn’t seem to make sense to me, as I couldn’t find any other E190 flights out of any of those cities. I just chalked it up to me missing something obvious (quite often the case ;) ), but an announcement from Midwest cleared everything out. Yesterday, Midwest issued a press release announcing seasonal service from Omaha to Orlando and Tampa, which was very interesting.

Let’s look at the Orlando flying, for example. The E190 will start its day flying from Omaha to Orlando for Midwest. It will then fly to Oklahoma City and back, but for Frontier. Then it’ll fly back to Omaha for Midwest. On other days, it’ll be the same, except with Tampa instead of Orlando. Of course, the flights are operated by Republic crews for those carriers.

For some reason, it just amazes me what Republic can do with the two airlines at the same time.

Republic to Acquire Ten US Airways E190s

Published
by
Dan Webb
on October 15, 2009
in Midwest, Republic and US Airways
. 1 Comment

As rumored earlier, Republic will be acquiring ten of US Airways’ twenty-five E190 aircraft. In exchange for the aircraft, “Republic will apply the full balance of its $35 million loan from US Airways toward the purchase of the aircraft and assume the remaining debt on the aircraft,” according to a Republic press release.

Four aircraft will be delivered to this year, and they will be used to replace the few remaining Midwest 717s. The six aicraft will go somewhere in Republic’s operations, but does it really matter what livery is painted on the aircraft? Probably not, considering that soon Frontier aircraft will do some flying for Midwest and vice versa.

With this move and the pulling of Shuttle America E170s from Hawaii, Republic will see a net gain of nine aircraft for domestic service. Will they be used to launch some new routes?

Frontier Leaves Bankruptcy

Published
by
Dan Webb
on October 5, 2009
in Frontier, Midwest and Republic
. 2 Comments

Last week, Frontier Airlines emerged from bankruptcy as it becomes part of a the Republic Airways family, presenting some interesting opportunities and threats for both Frontier and  Republic.

oct5

While Frontier is certainly a stronger carrier than it was before, Denver is still a very competitive market. While many have reported that Frontier has performed better than Southwest in Denver, Southwest is still a strong competitor that has continued to grow in the market. It will be interesting to see how Southwest continues to develop its Denver operation after it failed to acquire Frontier.

Like always, United remains as a rival in the market. One has to wonder about the nature of Republic’s relationship with United right now. Its subsidiaries Chautauqua and Shuttle America operate E145s and E170s (respectively) for United Express. There are  even some Denver routes that have service from both Shuttle America and Frontier! Continue reading ‘Frontier Leaves Bankruptcy’