MKE's days as a hub were toast the day that Timmy ran to Minneapolis which led to the NW/TPG/Republic Frankenstein monster.

People have argued in the past that Midwest never had a real hub at MKE.

Jay Sorensen is planting the "JetBlue might be interested in Frontier" seed.

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/ne...html?ana=yfcpc

This isn't 2007. High oil prices, excessive capacity, some of the worst yields in the nation, and a small local market effectively killed the MKE hub.

Certainly high oil is a factor in lack of profitability. Excessive capacity is just another way of saying excessive competition with inevitably poor yields. In the post Midwest environment of 3 LCC carriers, somebody had to flush out and it looks like it is Frontier.

Nobody ever said competition is pretty; I have to give Southwest credit. WN crushed Frontier in DEN and MKE like a bug.

As one in the Wisconsin hinterland who has been extremely adversely effected by the demise of Midwest and the Northwest/Delta merger I'd give you all at MKE sympathy, but I'll reserve that for my local community.

Enjoy your connections in ORD, DTW, DEN, ATL, wherever :p

A lot of moves in the airline industry underway. Frontier has very good assets, airline slots and a nice route map. The asset unlocked will unleash the true potential of the firm. It has modern jets, new orders, and combined with slot swaps and mergers and the like, it will take the firm to the next level.

Funny how history keeps repeating in Milwaukee.

Whatever.

Exactly what Bryan Bedford thinks of Milwaukee.

:rolleyes:. So what would you have Bedford do? Piss away millions of more dollars on an operation that has little, if any, hope of sustained profitability in the current climate?

Making a big push in MKE simply to recapture market share likely would have forced Frontier (and maybe Republic itself) into bankruptcy or worse. I know you don't like hearing this but a big pòrtion of the losses Frontier racked-up over the past two years was directly attributed to the horrible financial performance of MKE.

I'm sure other airline executives view Milwaukee the same way as Bedford does.

As a legacy RAH employee I can tell you most of us want BB to sell Frontier as fast as he can. When I first started in '06 I was amazed at how i felt coming to work. being happy to be going to here and there. Now its just ehh and Morale is very low. I remember getting a very nice Christmas bonus every year. Before we bought those airlines we got very nice sums based on longevity. Last year we got $500 and this year well we wont expect anything...

Bedford needs to go to Bedrock.

I'm tired of this MKE inferiority complex crap. This area can support a quality hub airline. I remember when NW tried to kill offYX...and failed. I'm not sure F9 was ever the best partner for YX but it is what it is and with some creativity they could still pull it off.

If MKE wanted to keep more F9 service they would have voted with their dollars. I wish they would have, but resentment towards YX, poor decisions, and basement fares on other airlines drove a lot of people away, meaning even more people are unfortunately losing their jobs.

I hope MKE can find a way back in the F9 system, but it won't happen until the passengers are willing to pay for it. See MCI. It has seen steady growth since the F9 transition, not every route has been outstanding, but solid growth.

In the current environment, no, MKE can't support a hub.

Southwest will extend their schedule through Summer 2012 early next week. Rumors are everywhere that it will contain significant route and network changes. This may give as an indication of what their plans are for MKE. If Southwest does some right-sizing, perhaps this will present some opportunities for Frontier. However, I wouldn't expect much back filling as there are not many routes that can sustain E190 or Airbus aircraft.

Let's see what news next week brings.

I bet those Frontier pilots are kicking themselves for voting down the WN acquisition deal about now