The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel breaks news that Midwest Airlines will begin talks with AirTran over a possible sale of the Milwaukee-based airline: "AirTran Holdings Inc.'s (AAI) hostile takeover bid for Midwest Air Group Inc. (MEH) took a big step forward today, with Midwest Air announcing the formation of a committee that will begin discussions with AirTran, and will explore 'strategic and financial alternatives' - corporate jargon used by companies that are considering a sale."

The story rails on about the history of the hostile takeover bid by Air-Tran but misses a key part of the story which, surprisingly, is in the third paragraph of the story: "Additionally, the committee intends to hold discussions with other strategic and financial parties that have recently expressed interest in pursuing a transaction with Midwest. The committee intends to execute confidentiality agreements with each of the interested parties that will enable them to conduct due diligence investigations. There is no assurance that this process will result in a transaction with AirTran or any other party."

Translated: There are other bidders interested in Midwest Airlines -- a key point the Journal-Sentinel glosses over.

Goes to show us that not all the nitwitness newsies work for television stations.

This is posted separately because this is a new development, i.e., not just AirTran bidding for YX. Could NW be one of the bidders?

NW is the no. 2 airline at MKE. It is working on a code-share with YX. There is little route overlap. NW could, if it wanted, operate YX as a virtual free-standing subsidiary, i.e., keeping the cookies and corporate culture, etc.

Stranger things have happened.