December T100's (onboard loads)
Here are onboard loads for Midwest and select MKE competitors for December 2010. As always, remember that onboard loads are only half the picture when trying to estimate relative financial performance.
As last month, the Midwest flight operated by Frontier 319's were not included in reporting.
Midwest/Frontier
Routes primarily served with E190/E170
85.7% ….. MKE ….. LGA
84.9% ….. MKE ….. TPA
84.6% ….. MCI ….. RSW
83.1% ….. MKE ….. DEN (includes both airlines)
82.8% ….. MKE ….. FLL
82.0% ….. MCI ….. LAX
81.5% ….. MCI ….. SEA
77.5% ….. MKE ….. DFW
76.9% ….. MKE ….. DCA
71.5% ….. MCI ….. SFO
70.9% ….. OMA ….. DCA
70.6% ….. MKE ….. ATL
70.4% ….. MCI ….. LGA
69.0% ….. MKE ….. BOS
65.4% ….. MCI ….. DCA
62.9% ….. MKE ….. MCI
60.7% ….. MKE ….. OMA
57.1% ….. MCI ….. BOS
Routes primarily served with ERJ/ER3
81.2% ….. MKE ….. GRR
76.9% ….. MKE ….. MSP
74.1% ….. MKE ….. EWR
73.5% ….. MKE ….. PHL
71.8% ….. MKE ….. DSM
71.2% ….. MKE ….. IND
70.6% ….. MKE ….. MSN
69.9% ….. MKE ….. FNT
69.7% ….. MKE ….. BNA
66.2% ….. MKE ….. ATW
64.2% ….. MKE ….. PIT
63.3% ….. MKE ….. GRB
56.0% ….. MKE ….. CMH
50.9% ….. MKE ….. DAY
49.7% ….. MKE ….. CLE
39.3% ….. MKE ….. SDF
AirTran
89.7% ….. SEA
83.2% ….. RSW
82.6% ….. SFO
81.9% ….. LAX
80.4% ….. FLL
80.2% ….. TPA
79.2% ….. MCO
78.3% ….. LAS
76.9% ….. PHX
74.3% ….. MSP
71.4% ….. ATL
68.9% ….. LGA
68.2% ….. DEN
67.5% ….. BOS
61.8% ….. BWI
53.6% ….. DCA
49.4% ….. STL (only first few days)
48.3% ….. PIT (only first few days)
33.0% ….. IND
Skywest
78.6% ….. STL (partial month)
66.5% ….. PIT (partial month)
Southwest
92.5% ….. PHX
84.0% ….. LAS
63.6% ….. MCI
61.6% ….. TPA
58.8% ….. MCO*
54.6% ….. BWI
*in a different thread I reported this as 60.1% but that was incorrect due to a problem with my Excel forumula
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On the YX/F9 side, it's interesting that MKE-LGA was the fullest market. Now we don't have the traditional high-volume leisure markets which are 319, so perhaps a couple of those might have surpassed MKE-LGA. But why LGA isn't getting more capacity I'm not sure. I understand...athough I'm not a fan of...them taking the slots for the 5th MKE flight and moving them to give DEN a 3rd flight. But MKE should not have E170 trips in the peak season IMHO.
On the competitive side, largely the same story as last month. AirTran's MSP route was (if I recall correctly) the fullest it's been, but from every indication the huge majority of passengers are connecting. We can tell passengres on "thru" flights, and the one daily MSP-BOS flight which operated as "thru" averaged 28 MSP-MKE-BOS passengers per day. Similarly, the one LGA-MSP flight which operated as "thru" averaged 31 passengers per day LGA-MKE-MSP. And Seattle benefitted from thru passengers to/from Atlanta since ATL-SEA nonstops were discontinued for winter...some 30 thru passengers each way per day flying ATL-SEA or vice versa.
Skywest's first month of branded operations saw pretty full planes, although this included more than a few oversold flights during peak times. These routes were sold as 717's well into fall, and some over the holidays were booked to more than 50 when the switch came. From all accounts MKE-STL continues to do the best. Based on airport reports PIT and IND were under 50% in January. Des Moines and Omaha airport stats (first month for each city) it looks like DSM was around 34% and OMA around 46%. But we'll get real numbers in a couple of months.
On the Southwest side, the significant thru traffic to/from DAL boosted MCI, and LAS benefitted from LAX thrus. Both MCO and TPA were boosted by dedicated thru traffic to RSW and FLL respectively. In spite of that, however, Southwest's soft loads to Florida are something of a surprise for December.