BlueHorseShoe2000

You shouldn't use generalized statements that can't be supported by facts. Not everyone hates Northwest. They're a very strong carrier in Milwaukee and have been in the market in one form or another long before Midwest was even on the drawing board. People could make the same statements about any other airline, including AirTran. You don't like Northwest, but many other people do.

FYI, the focus city didn't fail because "no one can stand" Northwest. There's a lot of reasons why, but I just don't feel like rehashing them again.

Tim34

Point taken. I am bitter. One of my flights got cancelled in the pilot controversy and NWA was less than accommodating. I will never fly that airline again.

Dick Ginkowski

The worst possible thing NW can do is tamper with YX. The best thing that can be done is for YX to function as a free-standing subsidiary.

Dick Ginkowski

Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports NW confirms its passive investor role.

LegalEagle

Focus on the three new Midwest directors elected as the pro-Airtran slate.

They voted FOR accepting the private equity offer. They had to. They have a fiduciary-type duty to act in the best interests of the stockholders and clearly an all-cash offer has less uncertainty than the stock-and-cash offer from Air Tran.

In my view, however, this offer is unlikely to close. It is clearly not in the public interest. IMHO, it is a thinly veiled attempt by Northwest to keep their fares to Minneapolis, Detroit, and Memphis high by keeping out a LLC. And a less thinly veiled attempt by Midwest's top management to keep their jobs.

They are not stupid at Justice. There are many career civil servants in Antitrust that really do believe in the Public Interest. And this clearly is not in the Public Interest.

If this doesn't close promptly and falls apart, those same three directors elected recently will be in a better position to persuade their colleagues to accept a new offer from AirTran --particularly if in the meantime AirTran moves in to offer low cost service to Minneapolis and Detroit from Milwaukee.

hazelrah

Ha, Ha, Ha, that is rich, especially considering all the naivete and foolishness surrounding the former proposed acquisition by Air Tran. To all those who so vehemently opposed the Air Tran acquisition let me say, you got played. You got played by Midwest management and Northwest Airlines.

Its NOT all about MKE you know, its also about maintaining the status quo of a few carriers having dominance in the Midwest and maintaining high ticket prices. The only thing I can think is that some don't pay for their own tickets and therefore you don't care about people in the upper midwest having limited flight options.

And congratulations (maybe premature) to NWA, who in their devious manner appear to have found a loophole around ant-trust concerns. It not surprising, seeing as how they constantly find loopholes with bankruptcy etc. So instead of a straight out merger they are taking an equity stake to avoid anti-trust - brilliant.

flyYX

I have stated early in the takeover process that AirTran is welcome to compete at MKE along with any other LCC that is willing to give it a try. If Midwest goes bankrupt because it can't compete, then let it happen. AirTran forced this sale upon Midwest. Midwest was obligated to take the best offer. Now that AirTran lost, they along with their supporters are acting like sore losers. AirTran saying they did the shareholders of MEH a disservice is laughable. Ocatavian and Lightspeed were only in it for a quick buck. Well, they got their quick buck and I hope they are happy.

rwinn

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/Palm-D052; Blazer/4.5) 16;320x320)

dupe post

rwinn

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/Palm-D052; Blazer/4.5) 16;320x320)

You could just connect, surely that would be less hassle than driving. Plus, if AirTran is right then you'll soon have jetBlue and Southwest to choose from.

Tim34

no connections. MKE is a big enough city. It can handle more flights. This private firm stated that they are interested in growing midwest. I wonder how they intend to do that.

CitrusMCO

Undoubtedly TPG will inject capital into YX. The question is how much patience they will have for the "steady as she goes" strategy. Other airlines are expanding quickly, while Midwest putters along. These sort of investment firms want to see significant profitability (not 2mn/quarter) quickly.

The danger lies in whether YX can build quicker and be more profitable. That could lead to cuts at YX in the short-term to lower costs, while also subjecting them to a sale or liquidation in the future if TPG becomes unhappy with the investment, so to speak. And, of course, TPG could always fire Midwest mgmt at some point and replace them with people from other airlines who might change the Midwest culture and style.

hazelrah

You are missing the point, several points even as follows:

Point 1- Just look at the so-called winning bid, what was it, $16.00 a share? This was just a little better than the Air Tran bid and its purpose was to give the Midwest CEO and the BOD cover. Air Tran didn't "lose", its bid was doomed.

Point 2- And saying that if Air Tran wants to be in MKE they can have few gates in pier C is a bad joke and naive. Anyone who can remember his college Economics 201 knows that any rival to Midwest and Northwest faces many barriers to entry both in scale and in the prevailing Monopoly power exercised by Midwest and Northwest. Northwest (and now apparently combined with Midwest) will brutally defend their monopoly against any entry by an LCC. Air Tran acquiring YX would have put it on a level playing field against Northwest-don't be deceived that's what this was all about.

Point 3- There is no magic about Air Tran; it could have been Jet Blue, Southwest, or Frontier, but it wasn't, it was Air Tran. The significant point is that the midwest and in particular the upper midwest needs more entry from LCC players. Had Air Tran succeeded, there would have been a reversal in traffic flow and you actually would have seen people driving from Chicago to fly out of MKE instead of vice versa! I can see the marketing pitch now, "Fly out of MKE, Chicago's best alternative". Now that I think about it, UA and AA probably hated this deal as well- wouldn't be surprised if they submitted bids as well.

Point 4 - MKE had a chance for real growth with only some disruption to the status quo. A historical example is appropriate. When Southwest came into BWI, BWI was also a hub for USAirways. USAirways tried to compete but in the end it could not - the the short term effect was truly ugly. Pier D was almost completely abandoned, lots of employee layoffs, it was bloody as markets can be in the short term. Air Tran acquisition would have spared all this.

All I can say in summary is, good luck with the status quo and hope that works out for all.

whlinder

Aren't these kind of contradictory points? A new entrant is going to face high barriers to entry and lots of competition, but yet Southwest laid waste to US in BWI.

Tim34

That was one airline. This is two. I do beleive that the prices at mitchell will stay high and that LCC's will continue to ignore MKE. Nothing is going to change.

hazelrah

No, I would be the first to say that Southwest is unique among the LCCs. It was a different time in the 80s and 90s and Southwest had at the time incredibly deep pockets. I think that Southwest alone among the LCCs is the best suited to be able to wage this kind of business warfare.

Also, there was a political and community commitment to support fair and open competition at BWI that I don't think exists at MKE. The was a political leadership that supported Southwest's expansion at BWI regardless of the short-term pain in a competitor. It is a sucess story and it never ceases to amaze me that we actually have people that drive from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Virginia to use our airport.

My point was more along the line that is disingenous to say "we have a couple gates in Pier C, if an LCC wants to compete they can use those". Well that would be possible, but I don't think the environment amongst other things is right.