lebowski2222

My choices for Focus Cities/Hubs (This will probably never happen but interesting to think about)

STL would be a good Focus City, one of the Terminals is completely empty, AA has gutted there operations completely and there is no longer a real dominate carrier

DCA - There flights to DCA do very well

MSP - I think they could give NW a run for there money on a few routes

Regional Hubs -These airports have about the same passengers per year and a similar in population size to MKE, so it would fit there model

SAT - A Gateway to Leisure/Business Places like Cancun, Mexico City and Southern Cities

Buf East Coast Focus City

Sacramento - West Coast Focus City

midw-hilt

Those are some good locations! I would also be interested in going THEIR, but I don't know if THEIR will be enough flights to each destination on a daily basis. Maybe THEIR could also be more flights to SAN...but I don't know if THEY'RE other customers would like that as much as I would. Who knows what THERE thinking!

bestcare

I would really find it interesting and great if YX would expand to some international leisure destinations. I don't think this would happen until we get some new planes, but I think during seasonal routes, they could really cater to executives and families wanting to go to Nassau, Cancun, or the Dominican Republic???

What is everyone's thoughts on this? I know sometime Funjet vacations charters Midwest's planes to go to Cancun, i think this could really help YX and possibly open up the opportunities for some more international travel out of MKE....

Global_Hi_Flyer

SAT's interesting, but the leisure traffic is heavily dominated by WN (and CO/AA via IAH/DFW internationally). I think SAT's more of a destination (ala DCA, LGA, or PHL) as opposed to a gateway.

SAT is growing very quickly business-wise. New Toyota plant, heavy medical/biomed development, and a current fixation on data centers. AT&T runs it's own aircraft for top execs, but people doing business with ATT Corp need to find their way to SAT. Likewise, BRAC will cause expansion of a couple of major military bases in San Antonio (and the Brook Army Medical Center takes a lot of the wounded from the Middle East). USAA & Valero also generate a significant amount of traffic - either directly or from vendors.

To be a gateway to Mexico, one needs a partner airline. That's not to say it can't happen, but AeroLittoral and AeroMexico are running nearly all the international destinations out of SAT now. And some of those flights are RJs. I don't see YX entering that kind of partnership.

BlueHorseShoe2000

I agree completely! Now that Midwest has Saver Service, the economics of flying to seasonal leisure destinations are significantly better. Seasonal service to Mexico and the Carribean could do quite well.

It would be great if Midwest could parter with an airline offering service to Europe as well. As has been discussed earlier, I think a code-share with MaxJet makes a ton of sense. Perhaps Midwest management has been turned-off by the reliability problems MaxJet has faced recently??? I wonder how seriously they've looked into something like this? In order for this to work, though, the international carrier would have to start service to Milwaukee.

Does anyone know how the partnership with Virgin Atlantic worked-out? I'm guessing not to well since it's no longer in existence. IMO, the options were limited as you essentially only had lift from MKE and MCI. Who's going to take a double connection?

BlueHorseShoe2000

One other thing I just though of...what if Midwest joined one of the alliances??? This is probably wishful thinking, but can you imagine if the joined Star Alliance? Could that pave the way for possible Lufthansa service to Frankfurt (hubs on both ends) or would they simply be content with ORD operations and the relationship with United.

lebowski2222

I guess i would just like YX to grow a little more and take risks, the greatest risk is not taking one. I am really getting more and more angry with this merger, i would be for a merger if it was any other airline, I would even take Ghana Airlines at this point. I just think AirTran is very Unprofessional in the way they handle things and act very childish

Why does AirTran even need YX if they have all these new planes on order?
They will not get my business

MKEbound

Okay.

BlueHorseShoe2000

Hi lebowski,

I understand your frustrations. It's important to remember, though, that Midwest Airlines has been very conservative when it comes to growth. In the past getting 2 new cities in one year was a very big deal. With that being said, there seems to have been a noticable shift since 2005 as far as expansion goes. You have to look no further than Kansas City for proof. Looking back at some of the past routes from MCI, they all had one thing in common-Southwest didn't offer non-stop service. Midwest avoided Southwest like the plague. That's why you saw service to Orange County but not LAX; Ft. Myers but no other Florida destinations, etc. After the near bankruptcy filing in 2003, Midwest restructured its cost and became much more competitive. In 2005, they added MCI-LAX, which went-up against Southwest and the route performed very well. Suddenly, a lot more cities seemed viable and you quickly saw SAN, MCO, TPA, and now SEA added to the route map.

This year, Midwest is going to add at least 6 new cities. THat's unprecedented growth for this company and is a really big deal. They seem to be pushing the envelope a little as well, so that's definately a good thing. Some of the recent management changes appear to be working out well, IMO.

jetlagjunkie

What I do not understand is why there are better choices for non-stop flights from MKE-SFO. Seasonal flights in the middle of the day does not really accomadate the business traveler. I am on flights everyweek on NWA with passangers to SFO. I can't imagine that could not sell it... Any words of wisdom?

alphaeagle

I would think that with most flights to the west coast its just a simple matter of YX not having enough aircraft. I could be wrong, but I think only their MD-83's can make it to the west coast comfortably (compared to their MD-88's.)

Edit: Actually I'm not sure what they have any more, I think they got rid of the MD-83's. According to their site they only have MD-82's and MD-88's

BlueHorseShoe2000

I'm guessing it's just a matter of aircraft availability. The MD88 is the best aircraft in the fleet to fly from Milwaukee to the West Coast without havin g to take any payload restrictions. Right know they only have two MD88s.

Last year they ran the MKE-SFO flight at the same time. Loads hovered in the 90% range day-after-day, so it did quite well.

spampurse

So a week or so back I saw this post by lebowski2222 and I posted a comment (all in good humor) about how he shouldn't knock Ghana Airlines because they had the 2nd best baggage handling numbers in all of west Africa until one of their baggage handlers was eaten by a lion. It was a joke (possibly not as funny as it sounded in my head, but a joke nonetheless). So the next morning I notice that my comment has been removed and I have the following private message:

RE: Your comments
On behalf of Ghana International Airlines, I can assure you that despite your speculation, none of our employees have suffered fatalities due to encounters with wildlife.
Furthermore, while statistics on lost baggage are not tracked by AFRAA (African Regional Airlines Association), our internal tracking program highlights us to be significantly superior to most of our compatriot airlines in the region. We utilise advanced SITA BRS technology at both our longhaul stations in Johannesburg and London-Gatwick to ensure 100% HBS reconciliation at point of boarding.
I trust you will edit your comments accordingly to reflect the reality of the situation.
Thanks for your understanding.
Regards,
Xxxx Xxxxxx
Sp. Asst. to the CEO
Ghana International Airlines
[email protected]

So I just wanted to formally apologize to Xxxx Xxxxxx and all the employees at Ghana Airlines who have absolutely no sense of humor and were so offended by my post that they decided to throw free speech to the wind and remove my post, and I also wanted others to learn from my mistakes. If I have learned anything it is: don't mess with Ghana Airlines unless you want a stern warning from the special assistant to the CEO.

I will tell you this much, Ghana Airlines has lost a passenger for life!

lebowski2222

I actually got a message like that from some person at ghana airlines after i posted that message, haha, the message you got is pretty funny spam

CaptKornDog

I wouldn't mind seeing SWA and MEP duke it out at BWI.

How about seasonal ski destinations such as Vail/Eagle - lots of legacy carrier 757s fly into there and there is still demand...UA even operates DEN-EGE in a 757 occasionally for the 30 min flight.