Here are some of the highlights from the brand announcement today. I’ll add a few comments about the presentation since most already saw it and newsmanhoss already made all of the important points.
I arrived at the hangar about 10:30 am. Midwest had a tent set-up outside for guests until they were allowed inside the hangar for Bedford’s presentation. Coffee, bottled water, and cookies were available. By this time, the rumor mill was in full swing.
After mingling with some of the guests, everyone seemed to have a “good source” that knew what was about to come. One individual told me that the Midwest name was being kept but animals would be placed on the tails. There was also talk about Frontier serving as the mainline carrier while Midwest Express would serve as the brand for all regional jet flying (a la Alaska/Horizon). Someone even mentioned that a union representative had informed him that a Frontier jet flew into MKE during the middle of the night and was sitting inside the hangar waiting to be used as a prop during the roll-out. Oh how wrong and disappointed some must have felt!
Employees gathered at the hangar for the official unveiling at 10:45 am. As they left, community leaders, media, and other invited guests were allowed inside.
The presentation
At about 11:15 am, Jim Reichart took the podium, welcomed everyone to the brand unveiling, and then turned things over to Bedford.
I thought Bedford’s presentation started out strong but he seemed to get tripped-up when the PowerPoint slides weren’t synched up with what he was saying. This was around the time when Bedford announced that a Best Care Club would be opened in Milwaukee (he meant to say Denver but seem flustered by what was happening with the PowerPoint slides). Even though he appeared to have a “clicker” in his hands, there was a bit of back-and-forth as to what slide should be displayed.
Bedford seemed to be getting into some specifics about what the merged brands would look like when all of this unfolded and then seemed to quickly move on once the slide he wanted was found. Perhaps this is why no mention was made of WiFi, in-flight entertainment, LiveTV, etc.
When the Frontier name was actually announced, there was a brief moment of dead silence followed by some polite applause. Newsmanhoss was right when he said you could have heard a pin drop.
I was confused on what slogan will be used going forward. Will it be a "Whole Different Animal" or "The Best Care in the Air." It wasn't really clear.
Despite the issues with the slides advancing too fast, I thought Bedford’s delivery was strong and professional. However, the big unveiling was light on specifics and I honestly expected some more detail.
I also found it somewhat strange that there was no actual aircraft available to serve as a back-drop for the presentation. While having the aircraft in MKE may have blown Republic’s surprise, it would have been a great back drop for the media. Plus, Bedford could have given the media a tour of the plane, making a point to highlight the availability of LiveTV and cookies for every passenger. This would have generated some positive PR as well.
Afterwards
Once Bedford finished, he made himself available for the news media.
Newsmanhoss and I spent some time talking with Mostly Air, Steve Mathwig (Now heading up the combined Frequent Flier Program), Jim Reichart, and several other individuals at Midwest who are all familiar with FlyerTalk!
I had some general discussions with several of these individuals regarding a possible replacement for Delta. Work is actively being done on this front and a partnership/membership with a certain alliance is hoped for. Nothing is finalized yet and I won’t say anything more about it at this time.
When leaving the hangar, I grabbed a couple of cookies. Even though not warm, they were actually pretty good (much better than an experience I had on a MCI-MKE flight a few years ago…those cold cookies were truly awful).
After leaving the hangar, I turned Jeff Wagner’s radio program on to gauge how well the announcement was going over. He kept flapping his gums about how it didn’t have to come to this and he’s certain that people would have paid a little bit more (maybe $30-$40) for the extras Midwest once offered (as if that even came close to covering the costs). Of course, he also stated that Midwest would have had to cut back a lot of its flights and destinations to be able to do this. The calls are always interesting because they can be such a mixed bag of opinions. One man was complaining about how he couldn’t fit into the Saver Seat and Midwest wanted to charge him extra for the up-grade (contradicting his claim that he would pay extra for the bigger seats). What nerve! It’s not as if Midwest is responsible for the man’s size. Surprisingly, the most reasonable caller was an airline pilot who clearly articulated why Midwest fell on such hard times in the first place.
Here are some pictures that ‘Hoss and I took today:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39531954@N05/