Originally Posted by
Tim34
Why have 1,000 dollar fairs when you can add a second flight. MKE-SFO and MKE-SEA seem to have strong bookings. Why settle why not add a red-eye on both of those routs as well as make SFO year round. I will tell you why Midwest just does not have that killer instinct that you need to be a billion dollar company or for that matter to grow MKE.
Bookings to SEA and SFO have been pretty decent so far. Spring, summer, and fall are always popular times to visit those two places. The real test will be this winter. Traffic on MKE-SFO (and SEA) begins to weaken significantly once November rolls around.
Personally, I think there is a 50/50 chance that MKE-SFO will stay year-round.
Midwest has flown MKE-SFO in the past with an evening departure/red-eye return. The flights were only 40% to 60% full. I suspect that's why the LAX-MKE red-eye gets pulled after 9/30 as well. Red-eye flights to MKE have never been very popular in the off-season.
It's very possible that MKE-SFO and the 2nd MKE-LAX flights will remain year-round. We'll see what Midwest has planned. It appears that the 2nd MD88 that Midwest acquired earlier this year is being used as a spare this summer. This is allowing Midwest to rotate the plane through-out the system while heavy maintenance checks are performed on the other MD80s. Once those are completed, this plane will be available for scheduled service. We'll see what happens.