Originally Posted by
BlueHorseShoe2000
IMO, people are making way too much out of Bedford's comments.
If you read the transcript from his presentation, he made the comments about Milwaukee when discussing price stimulation and traffic growth. Bedford indicated that price stimulation works on some of the leisure routes, such as Florida, but doesn't draw many more passengers to the business markets and therefore Republic feels it can maintain a revenue premium because there is no need to dramatically slash fares. He indicated that this makes sense to most people except perhaps AirTran (given how light the loads have been on many of the traditional business routes AirTran serves in MKE, Bedford seems to be correct). Milwaukee is very much an origin market for travelers. People come to Milwaukee mainly for business or to visit family/friends. How many people wake up everyday and say, "I want to visit Milwaukee?" Not many.
Could Bedord have worded his comments better? Probably. But if you look at his comments in the context they were presented, what he said was 100% correct.
Yes, he should have phrased it in a positive sense. He could have said that Milwaukee is more of a business destination than a leisure destination. He could have said that Milwaukee is a great place to route connecting passengers from throughout the YX/F9 network. He could have said that, while YX focuses on business travelers, he'd like to increase both business and leisure traffic to Milwaukee to see what a great city it is.
Moving forward, he will certainly learn to be more careful. He probably doesn't have a lot of experience in getting a lot of attention from the general public. He's probably seeing more of it now than he's ever seen in his entire career, and I suspect he's still learning how to deal with public presentations and the news media. When you own actual airlines (and not just planes operated for other carriers), you are under the microscope a lot more. The public eye tends not to focus on contract carriers, but when you're branding yourself as Milwaukee's "Hometown" carrier, you must certainly understand the importance of communicating the message that Milwaukee is a great place to visit and do business.