RSVP

That sounds about right. That's what they were flying before the Midwest acquisition.

In fact, local media reported last evening. Frontier could leave MKE entirely in two years. Anything is possible.

MikeFromMKE

MKE-CUN was around before F9 had any connections to serve at MKE. I think they flew it DEN-CUN-MKE-DEN, because I remember being on a few MKE-DEN legs where they said the plane came from CUN.

Also, I believe that F9 will be picking up additional Apple Vacations flying next year, so I would think that they'd take over the flights from FL. So we will probably get to keep some vacation options from F9.

BlueHorseShoe2000

Frontier offered MKE-CUN for only one winter season. The route performed horribly and was pulled after a couple of months. It was brought back after Republic purchased Frontier and Midwest but I still don't think it has done all that well.

Unless it's offered as part of a charter, it won't be back.

tylerdurden4543

Forgive me if I'm just dense, but is this saying that all non-stop service between MKE and LGA will be suspended as of June 1? I'm just about to book some flights for July...

BlueHorseShoe2000

Are you actually saying you had confidence in the Republic Managemen team?

Over time it has became clear that the leadership at Frontier/Republic was lost. They didn’t seem to have a vision for what the airline was going to be when it grew-up. Their constant strategy shifts reflect this.

It's clear that the the train-wreck in Milwaukee was partly due to Republic's own ineptitude. They clearly had a fundamental misunderstanding of the market and did not have the right tools to compete effectively.

I was composing a rather lengthy post about some of Republic's decisions regarding Milwaukee but what's the point. What's done is done.

Personally, I don't have much confidence in the future of Frontier. Last quarter's financial results were hardly impressive. Even though they cut their losses from the previous year almost in half, Frontier still lagged most of its peers. They seem to have a very diffucult job expanding anywhere beyond DEN. Every focus city has more-or-less failed (LAX, MEM, OMA, MCI, and now MKE). COS is the new flavor of the month and we'll see how things go but I don't have high hopes for success. Frontier may find an investor but ultimately I expect the airline will ultimately be sold or shut-down. And will an investor be happy with only modest to marginal profitability?

The last five years have been fun here on FlyerTalk. However, my interest in the airline is wanning, especially now that MKE operations are almost non existant. There will be a lot less for me to comment on. I also fear that if the many MKE area contributors end-up leaving this message board will get very boring. Some people think that this board was always too MKE/MIdwest focused so perhaps that will be a good thing.

Good luck to all of the MKE based travelers. As one person famously said here-you have (for now) Southwest. Be grateful

BlueHorseShoe2000

Yes, all non-stop MKE-LGA flights are being discontinued. But Frontier will still sell you a ticket on their website

I would ask them to reaccomodate you on the Delta or AirTran non-stops, but they'll probably just offer you a refund.

tylerdurden4543

That sucks - I thought it was good service, nice planes and generally reasonable prices

knope2001

No words into my mouth, please...

Indeed. I don't like repeating myself a lot, and I don't know that there's much new to bring to the table. Might be cathertic, but not sure if that's worth the time or effort.

Some would portray these moves as refocusing on their strengths in Denver, while others would characterize it as doubling down at the most embattled hub around. This will give us the chance to see how Denver is really doing. For the past year or two, Milwaukee, the E170, and the RJ have all been very heavily scapegoated for Frontier's results. A good chunk of that may well be deserved scapegoating. But going forward, they won't have Nixon to kick around anymore, as they say. Denver will largely be it, sink or swim. There have been periodic comments about Denver being profitable, and hopefully it is. However we don't know if that is overall profitable, or "profitable with an asterisk" profitable.

I suppose it could always be worse. Unfortunately, the AirTran buyout is what really hurts here. Milwaukee played a key role for AirTran, where it quite likely will not for Southwest. Southwest just isn't built to come anywhere near replacing the flights of a lost hub. It's just not their business model, and they have nothing riding on making it work at an also-ran city like Milwaukee.

mke9499

Per Rich Rovito at the Business Journal, 129 Frontier employees in Milwaukee will lose their jobs 06/30/2012.

http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee...al-layoff.html

IllinoisMan

Well, at least for now people can still fly direct to Rhinelander. I suppose city officials could use that in Milwaukee's marketing plan. Sure, YX is gone and F9 failed. But WN/FL still have plenty of flights at MKE, therefore for what F9 loses, WN/FL gains. Not sure I see a jobs issue here, its more of a lesson in capitalism. WN has a viable business model and they had a strategy - that won - and now owns the market. The whole YX/F9 situation became a burning mess years ago, and what started the fire was YX using their "hometown" airline image to screw the area residents into thinking it was worth saving. Remember when all the local businessmen sucked up to the CEO of YX to stop FL from buying out them out because it would destroy the airline and ruin a Milwaukee product? That's how F9 ended up at MKE and how did that work out?

These cuts are bad news for the employees, but who really wants to fly out of MKE when the Amtrak can take you to Chicago and you can fly cheaper? Depending on where you're going it's almost better flying out of ORD or MDW anyways. There's plenty of direct flights anywhere you want to go and the hour and a half it takes to drive down to Chicago is about the same as the time in-between connecting flights out of MKE to your final destination. Just yesterday I was on F9's site to cash in some of my miles so that my wife could fly to New York and visit our daughter in June. The trip is still available (for 45k miles, when it was 35k yesterday), only now the only way you can get to LGA from MKE on F9 is to fly through DEN, for a total of six hours in the air and an hour or two layover. Or a little more than half the time it takes to drive to New York from Milwaukee.

jpetekYXMD80

That makes no sense at all.

Who wouldn't want to spend $50 r/t and 3 hours each way with a laborious Amtrak to Blue line connection just to get to the airport. Sign me up..

That said, driving is not that bad at all, but that train idea is a non-starter.

traveller001

Amtrak to MKE works great for those urban areas near the train station or regulars of CTA. Though in reverse not so much make that definately not so much. As for the hour and half drive... that's under the best of conditions. Under the worst it could take double that or more. Parking way more expensive.

There is still bus transport MKE-ORD... taking advantage of MKE parking prices though like you I'd rather pay more and fly out of MKE.

As far as cheaper... I've actually seen MKE UA flights connecting in ORD priced lower than the direct from ORD.

MikeFromMKE

I often see that from AA as well. Although with FL and F9 no longer pulling yields down, I'd expect those to creep up.

WIRunner

UA tends to be cheaper to the same destination MKE-ORD-xxx than just ORD-xxx

hazelrah

Yup, and don't forget the sale to that former company from Minneapolis for 30 pieces of silver.