knope2001

The details of January's traffic at MKE are out. Here's some information by airline. I have Midwest and Frontier together (for both 2009 and 2010) since they fly each others routes now. I have AirTran and Skywest-branded together but also broken out becuase the branded Skywest operation is and is not AirTran depending on who you ask and under what circumstances.


January 2010 traffic and market share

….241,909 …. 34.7% …… Midwest + Frontier
….198,907 …. 28.5% …… AirTran + Skywest
........183,077 AirTran (26.2%).....15,830 Skywest branded (2.3%)
….106,450 …. 15.3% …… Delta
…...56,165 …… 8.1% …… Southwest
…...27,919 …… 4.0% …… USAirways
…...23,337 …… 3.3% …… Continental
…...20,344 …… 2.9% …… United
…...19,141 …… 2.7% …… American
……..1,813 …… 0.3% …… Air Canada
…….…..865 …… 0.1% …… other
………...645 …… 0.1% …… Great Lakes

Year over year traffic change, January 2010 versus January 2009

+108,308 AirTran + Skywest (+92,478 AirTran, +15,830 Skywest)
+57,896 Midwest + Frontier (+55,585 Midwest, +2,284 Frontier)
+56,165 Southwest
-11,456 USA3000 (flew to MKE in 2009, did not return this winter)
-697 all other airlines combined


Rough estimate of simple onboard loads based on average scheduled aircraft capacity for January:

70.4% Midwest
61.1% Midwest RJ
82.0% Frontier
73.3% AirTran
47.8% Skywest branded (STL, PIT, IND, CAK running, OMA and DSM started in February)
56.5% Southwest

WIRunner

Looks like Delta has pretty much abandoned MKE. Their market share is simply tanking.

mkenwayx

Not sure if this is true, but how much is them holding steady while FL and WN (and YX) have gained by adding seats and routes? If DL was and still remains fairly high load factors without much change in capacity, they would lose market share without a noticeable change in operations. I know they have cut capacity on MEM, but haven't been following their schedule as closely lately. Obviously they have long since abandoned any P2P flying, but their hub traffic has remained relatively steady (ATL has grown over the years, more MD80s than RJs), other than still no SLC.

US struck me as odd, given that they're flying mainline to PHX with RJs to PHL and CLT, yet only 4%.

Interesting numbers though...Quite a change from not too long ago!

knope2001

DL + NW's year-over-year traffic was lower about 4.5%, and a solid chunk of that was due to MKE-LAX nonstop being dropped (they flew it while YX did not.)

The DL market share dropped 7.6 points year-over-year:

1.1 points of that drop was due to flying fewer passengers
6.5 points of that drop was due to the passenger increase at MKE

So if MKE's traffic was flat year-over-year (nationwide traffic was slightly lower y-o-y), Delta's market share would have still been 21.8%.

Clearly Delta -- as well as most other carriers in Milwaukee beyond FL YX and WN-- did not participate much in the traffic boom at MKE in January. But that's not necessarily a surprise considering that the booming growth is of questionable profitability. It seems likely that other carriers will at most try to shore up their own traffic but choose not to leap into the bigger fray if they don't have to.

tvnwz

As a DL-D, I agree with Knope2001. You also, have less service to MEM with smaller CRJ-200's. Less capacity (smaller planes) to MSP, and on-and-off CRJ-900 service to SLC. But you also have Bigger planes to ATL with several flights upgraded from CRJ to MD-88 and did I see a 737 today?

Every flight I have been on has been packed. And it appears DL may have done the best job, and I would venture is the most profitable airline, in MKE. I know my tickets are a lot higher this year (averaging about $300) than last year. (averaging about $200)

mkenwayx

Thanks Knoppe! I figured you would have that info...that makes a lot of sense. Had forgotten about the LAX flight.

As for MKE-ATL, there is a once a day 737 now.

MKE joins SFO, MDW and BWI as the only 4 out of the top 50 US airports to see their traffic rise.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/fligh...&ak=83528.blog