I have to agree with you. The RDU-MKE flight times weren't the greatest and really didn't connect to all that much. There probably is very little traffic to/from places like GRB, ATW, or DSM. Even DEN passengers only had one flight option going to RDU. Not very appealing. Frontier would have been far better off offering something like 1x daily to MKE, 1-2 x daily to MCI (covers local traffic and connections to Texas, Denver, and the west Coast) and 2x daily to DEN. Not only would this capture a better mix of traffic, it would have lowered station costs and allowed for better aircraft rotation/utilization.

As far as advertising goes, I was surprised to see that the airport didn't even highlight the Frontier flights. I was in Raleigh this past spring visiting family. While waiting for my bags, I watched the TV monitors as they highlighted all of the new service offered at the airport. I kept waiting for some mention of Frontier flights but nothing ever appeared. It seemed strange but maybe RDU already knew Frontier was pulling the plug on MKE flights.

It's sad to see ATW go in part because it was the original home of Midwest Express. It's not a huge loss though as GRB is close by and Frontier offers DEN flights from there as well.

BDL is a bit of a head scratcher. I had heard loads and yields were good (but maybe not good enough to survive in this high oil environment). IMO, BDL in general could have performed better if there was a DEN connection as well.

On the bright side, I'm glad to finally see some sanity starting to return to MKE in terms of capacity offered. Hopefully yields will return to levels that will allow Frontier to restore at least some of the cuts.