The new schedules are supposed to be available by Wednesday. Rumors from reliable sources indicate that Midwest will be keeping several MD80s in service for awhile. There's really no reason to keep only a few MD80s around unless Midwest has "other fleet options" available and they'd like to keep a presence in select markets for the time being (i.e. MKE-LAX) rather than turn all of that displaced traffic over to competitors.
Midwest has some pretty strong bookings for several sunbird markets already for peak periods in Feburary and March. (That's not out of the ordinary, by the way.) It would not surprise me to find someone else...likely NW...come in with flights specifically to serve this traffic if Midwest cannot serve it themselves. LAX does not book heavy that far out. Both Vegas and PHX do somewhat. But Florida especially has many flights with dozens of people already booked in 2009. If there is going to be some coordinated service to backfill the vacuum from another airline, they probably want to have these ducks in a row before they announce their plans.
Here's what I don't get. Why do they keep coming out and saying that they're "going" to be making cuts, with more details to come in the future?
From a PR standpoint, why would you have repeated announcements that bad things are in the works? You'd think they could have come out with an all-encompassing announcement saying that they're cutting 1,200 jobs, eliminating x routes and are parking the MD 80s.
Am I looking at this too simplistically? I just think when you have bad news, you should get your ducks in a row behind the scenes, come out with the bad news and then move on. Better than having bad press on a weekly basis.
I think it is also stupid to give the public huge uncertainty about future schedules. I need to book two seats for a weekend in Denver in September for a wedding. Flights are listed as MD-80. What confidence do I have that I won't get bumped to another later flight (missing the afternoon wedding) or even happen at all?
And that is just at the beginning of September. What if someone needs to fly in November, or early next year? Many will say what's the point of booking, or look for other options (AirTran, my case Frontier, etc)
I think it is also stupid to give the public huge uncertainty about future schedules.
This uncertainty is absolutely hurting Midwest's business with both leisure and business travelers.
They are going to have to come up with some sort of promotion or "sale" to encourage anxious customers to book on YX. Midwest has been running commercials advising people to lock-in fares at the current levels, before the fares increase any further. The message sounds like "If you think things are bad now, wait and see what's next."
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Quote:
Originally Posted by knope2001
Midwest has some pretty strong bookings for several sunbird markets already for peak periods in Feburary and March. (That's not out of the ordinary, by the way.) It would not surprise me to find someone else...likely NW...come in with flights specifically to serve this traffic if Midwest cannot serve it themselves. LAX does not book heavy that far out. Both Vegas and PHX do somewhat. But Florida especially has many flights with dozens of people already booked in 2009. If there is going to be some coordinated service to backfill the vacuum from another airline, they probably want to have these ducks in a row before they announce their plans.
Looking back, I should have worded my original post better. Midwest currently has 12 MD80 aircraft in its fleet. Rumors floating around from reliable sources suggest that Midwest may in fact keep several MD80s in service past September. In and of itself, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The cost to maintain a small sub-fleet of a couple MD80s would likely out-weigh any benefits, especially if the aircraft will be used to transport low yield tourist and snow-bird traffic to warm weather destinations. With that said, it may make some sense to keep these higher density aircraft around to prevent further incursions into MKE by competitors, especially if other fleet options do exist but won't be available by September. I used LAX as an example because that is the only route that can't be reliably flown non-stop from MKE on the 717. Is there value in keeping a flight in that market? One could also question if the 99 seat configuration on the 717 is appropriate for the Florida, Phoenix, and Las Vegas markets in general?
As other posters have mentioned, I agree that Midwest has done a horrible job as it relates to the PR aspect of the down sizing. We've been given general statements about Midwest being "committed to its core business markets" and that they don't plan on closing any destinations. No one really knows what that means and I'm sure its costing Midwest dearly. I do recognize that they're in a difficult spot, though. If they were to announce tomorrow that they're cutting FLL, MCO, and LAS (hypothetical) AirTran would probably have a press release within a day or so announcing new and expanded warm weather flying from Milwaukee. From a competitive standpoint, Midwest has to tread water very carefully at the moment.
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The cost to maintain a small sub-fleet of a couple MD80s would likely out-weigh any benefits, especially if the aircraft will be used to transport low yield tourist and snow-bird traffic to warm weather destinations. With that said, it may make some sense to keep these higher density aircraft around to prevent further incursions into MKE by competitors, especially if other fleet options do exist but won't be available by September. One could also question if the 99 seat configuration on the 717 is appropriate for the Florida, Phoenix, and Las Vegas markets in general?
Have you checked the YX fares to leisure markets such as FLL lately? Travel in late fall on the 717 prices out about double for off-peak and easily three times during peak travel periods with the MD80, over fares this past year. Midwest has been the only carrier to provide MKE-FLL nonstop service, let alone any nonstops from MKE to SE Fla., recently. The advance bookings, especially over early winter, look quite decent.
The FLL station is serviced by DL, so YX really doesn't have much overhead there. There are usually pretty strong loads for the market in season. FLL used to be a seasonal destination; perhaps it will revert to seasonal, if it's not eliminated.
I definitely do not think that Brophy and Midwest in general is doing a good job with the media, but I do think it's a difficult line to walk at the moment.
I got to know Brophy in the 1980's when we both worked for a congressional candidate. He was the press secretary and hoping to move to Washington when the candidate got elected.
To make a long story short, the congressman went to Washington, Brophy was NOT asked to join the Washington staff.
I suspect Aurora may have nudged him out the door also.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mke9499
Have you checked the YX fares to leisure markets such as FLL lately? Travel in late fall on the 717 prices out about double for off-peak and easily three times during peak travel periods with the MD80, over fares this past year. Midwest has been the only carrier to provide MKE-FLL nonstop service, let alone any nonstops from MKE to SE Fla., recently. The advance bookings, especially over early winter, look quite decent.
The problem with the Florida flights is that they are very low yield. As knope mentioned in an earlier post, some of the warm weather routes already have strong bookings for next February and March, 7-8 months away. What types of fares have these passengers paid? How many people book during fare sales, etc.? Overall fares may be much higher than in the past but so are operating costs for the flights as well.
I guess we'll see what Midwest decides to do.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mke9499
Have you checked the YX fares to leisure markets such as FLL lately? Travel in late fall on the 717 prices out about double for off-peak and easily three times during peak travel periods with the MD80, over fares this past year. Midwest has been the only carrier to provide MKE-FLL nonstop service, let alone any nonstops from MKE to SE Fla., recently. The advance bookings, especially over early winter, look quite decent.
Duplicate post.
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Accompanying video and posted comments from KC very interesting.
Although the internal memo I posted this morning stated that the work force reductions would be spread throughout the company, I'm somewhat surprised MCI is taking such a big hit. Honestly, I thought MCI might be spared somewhat, especially if Midwest increases some of the West Coast flying. I'm really curious how much of the MCI route network will be left intact. In some respects this is a lot like 2003 when Midwest retrenched and MCI took a big hit, losing non-stops to BOS, RSW, MSY, AUS, and OMA.
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Flew the remaining segment I planned to use, on Monday. SEA-MCI-LGA. Quite a decent trip About 85% full to KC, but the KC to NYC leg only had 36 people onboard. AirTran had a SEA-MKE-LGA flight scheduled right on top of them. That kind of competition, coupled with the uncertainty they are projecting, seems to be killing them.
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I've always felt that YX has been a study of contradictions and the latest experiences are just exacerbations of that.
In its heyday, "the best care in the air" was just that on mainline equipment. Skyway's Beechcraft "flying pencils" were clearly the "worst care" with no services, not even a lavatory. On a good day when everything was working well, things were fine. Any irregular operations and the system goes haywire. I've seen some of the nicest people working for YX -- and, sadly, SOME OF THE ABSOLUTE WORST in terms of rudeness to pax.
Today, YX management was all to eager to get Milwaukee to rally around its hometown airline when it suited them. Now it's hush-hush and rumors.
Historically, the more YX deviated from its core, the more problems it has had. And that's sad across the board.
I've always said that if 9/11 hadn't happened, Tim Hoeksema's plans would be heralded as brilliant. But today I'm not so sure that he isn't more of the problem than the solution.
I fully understand the feelings of the YX employees who are unwilling to grant the sought-for concessions. What is being proposed is essentially gutting the airline.
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FWIW, I just received a schedule change e-mail (and automated phone call) about a MKE-LAS trip I have scheduled for early January. Just 10-20 minute time changes for both flights. Probably just a routine thing (these flights also were also changed by a few minutes almost exactly 3 months ago) and nothing to do with the overall upcoming schedule changes, but I thought I'd come out of lurking mode to mention it anyway.
