Gone:
FLL, RSW, RDU, BDL SAN* (sorry, Blue), BWI*, SDF*, SJT*, STL*, MKG*, and CWA*

MKE-MCO cut back to 1X per day, seasonally

Cities with asterisk have no codeshare flights and are completely gone from YX booking engine, with the following nessage:

From JS Online:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=774305

Comments are from Randy Smith, VP of sales and distribution, and Greg Aretakis, vice president of planning and revenue management, not Mike Brophy.


New YX Route System Map:
http://www.jsonline.com/multimedia/g...estG072008.gif

From YX website:

As you've likely heard or read, Midwest Airlines is in the process of restructuring to adapt to extraordinarily high fuel prices. One key part of these efforts is making difficult but necessary changes to our flight schedule. The information below outlines these changes and lets you know what to do if you think your flight might be impacted.

What Does Not Change
We will remain true to our mission of serving major business destinations with the best schedule and more nonstop flights from Milwaukee than any other airline.

The following destinations remain part of the Midwest Airlines core route structure:
Atlanta
Boston
Dallas/Ft. Worth
Denver
Kansas City
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
Minneapolis/St. Paul
New York La Guardia
Omaha
Orlando
Philadelphia
Phoenix
San Francisco
Seattle/Tacoma
Tampa
Washington, D.C.


Retained Midwest Connect Markets
Appleton
Cleveland
Columbus
Dayton
Des Moines
New York Newark
Flint Green Bay
Grand Rapids
Indianapolis
Madison
Minneapolis/St. Paul
Nashville
Omaha
Philadelphia

Cities We Will No Longer Serve
Midwest Airlines
Ft. Lauderdale
Ft. Myers
San Diego
Midwest Connect
Baltimore
Hartford
Louisville
Muskegon
Raleigh/Durham
St. Louis
San Antonio
Wausau/Stevens Point


Other Changes of Note

Routes to the West Coast
With our MD-80s being taken out of service, flights to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle/Tacoma will be operated on Boeing 717 aircraft via Kansas City. Flights from Milwaukee to Denver, Las Vegas and Phoenix will be nonstop on a Boeing 717.

Kansas City Changes
We will continue to serve the following destinations nonstop from Kansas City:
Boston
Los Angeles
Milwaukee
New York LaGuardia
San Francisco
Seattle/Tacoma
Washington, D.C.
Florida

Longer flights to leisure market destinations are difficult to justify economically for Midwest and the rest of the industry. We realize that this will create complications for our customers with existing and future vacation plans for Florida.

Tampa will be the only Florida city we will serve on a year-round basis. Flights will be operated on Boeing 717 aircraft. We will continue nonstop service between Milwaukee and Orlando, but only seasonally. During the transition, we will suspend service Sept. 8 through Oct. 20, and then resume it Oct. 21, 2008 through April 30, 2009.

For a complete look at schedules and frequencies, visit midwestairlines.com and click on Timetable under the Travel Tools section on the home page.
What Should You Do Now?
If you booked your flight through midwestairlines.com or our Reservations center, you will receive a notification from us regarding flight changes.
If you booked through a travel agency or online service such as Orbitz, Travelocity or Expedia, the agent or online service will contact you.
If you are holding a ticket for flights to any of the cities being discontinued or routes where frequency has been reduced, we encourage you to click here to view your reservation and request a full refund. For travel agency-issued tickets customers must have their ticket number or Midwest airlines six-letter confirmation code available.
If customers need to contact us regarding the schedule changes, we request that they call our Reservations center directly at 866-613-1390 and not call our corporate offices. We thank you in advance for your patience when calling, as we're helping a significant number of customers with similar requests.
Reaccomodation Options
If your flight has been affected by the schedule changes, you will have the following options:
Rebook on a different Midwest Airlines flight, if possible.
Rebook on another airline, if possible (requires you to call the Reservations center).
Use the value of your ticket to purchase a ticket to a different Midwest Airlines destination.
Receive a full refund.

From MarketWatch:

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/stor...D6C}&dist=hppr

Article notes that more than 100 new city pairs added to codeshare with NW.

Milwaukee not having non stop service to the second largest city in the nation is a huge blow. Hopefully either NWA, Airtran, United or Southwest (I know I am dreaming) can fill the void.

I think these schedule changes are good. There ought to be consquences for those Milwaukeans who back failed strategies. Fewer direct flights, Fewer flights to liesure destinations, more code-sharing w/ NW metal, less meal service, not even a can of soda; these changes serve to underscore promises not delivered by Midwest management.

Enjoy your connecting flights and fewer non-stops MKE!

New "Midwest Class" seat maps now loaded in YX booking engine, but even with refundable fare requested, only the standard (aft section of cabin) seating is available for seat selection.

I would think that Signature seating would be available for advance selection with refundable tickets priced at 2 or 3 times that of a non-refundable fare.

Currently, if a flight is booked thru an agency or online with a booking site other than YX, Signature seating is available in advance with the purchase of a Business fare (usually more than refundable fare). Sites such as Travelocity, which use Sabre, no longer show Business class (C) fares available for YX's new schedule. At this time, seat maps are not showing, either, on their site.

How does a customer book Signature seating in advance for the new Midwest Class and what is the premium?

I agree with Hazelrah: In a market economy there ought to be consequences for those Milwaukeeans who backed failed strategies and a bankrupt business plan. Except it is not just the booster-types at the Milwaukee Journal who are suffering those consequences, but those of us frequent flyers who had enough foresight to see that AirTran's offer was the way to go.

Two questions:

1) Did you (or anyone else) foresee oil hitting $140+ a barrel this year?

2) How do you know the merged FL/YX would not be facing similar situations?

The one thing Midwest has going for it is private ownership. Unlike some of the other airline failures of the past 10 years, Midwest is owned by a private equity firm with very deep pockets and a good track record when it comes to turning airlines around. With oil prices starting to retreat a bit (lets hope they keep dropping... ^), there is a good chance Midwest can get back on their feet and work out a viable business plan.

If they have such deep pockets couldn't they just buy Midwest new planes or give them money so that they did not have to fire a good portion of their staff. Some help they are

Very mean spirited!

FL's lucky TPG kept them from continuing with their failed strategy of buying YX. Let's see if they come in and pick up the pieces. If their strategy is correct, it should happen soon.

Helpful. Not stupid.

Is there any reason why Milwaukee was chosen as a city to have nonstop flights to Los Angeles other than the fact that it was a hub for Midwest?

I don't understand why you would expect any airline that doesn't have a hub or at least focus city in Milwaukee to provide nonstop service to Los Angeles.

You're looking at it in the wrong direction (from the other companies' standpoint). Why would Milwaukee be a priority for nonstop service from Los Angeles for any cash-strapped airline?

And I think you're dreaming if you're listing NWA first. NWA provides no nonstop service from Los Angeles to anywhere in the US other than its hubs (and one mythical flifght to Las Vegas which is there only to provide connections from Japan). I don't think Airtran does either. United does, but to a high degree only in the West.

Meanwhile, be careful what you wish for. Southwest doesn't go into any city unless they can provide 8-10 nonstops (to a mix of distinations) from there. So likely if you see Southwest going into Milwaukee it's because they're ready to kill off Midwest. (And Southwest has been discontinuing long transcons like Los Angeles to Baltimore, so even if Southwest went into Milwaukee, Los Angeles would not be on its list of top priorities.)

It seems to me that Milwaukee's problem is MDW. If there wasn't an MDW, LCCs might be viewing Milwaukee as the alternative airport (to ORD) for Chicago, the way Southwest uses PVD or MHT in place of BOS. But with MDW available as an in-Chicago airport for LCCs, there's much less demand for a secondary airport as a substitute for Chicago than there is for secondary airports in cities an hour or two away from other major cities.

If people really want to go into the whole AirTran Should Have Purchased Midwest line again, could we perhaps open a separate thread for that?

It's one thing to talk about other airlines (like AirTran) pehaps backfilling the reduced or dropped markets from the new YX schedule. But if this is just going to devolve into the same old stuff, it probably makes better sense to try to move that into its own thread.

Little time to go through the new schedule today, but a few things of note:

(1) The new schedule shows 20 lines of 717 flying (down from 22 717 lines today) and 11 lines of CRJ flying (down by several, but I don't have handy how many CRJ lines there are with the current schedule)

(2) There is no significant slack in the 717 schedule when the MCO service returns.

(3) So much for RSW. A friend at YX had told me it was not decided yet as recently as a couple days ago, but the schedule they went with does not have any slack to allow RSW service unless something more gets trimmed.

(4) There are no red-eyes in the new schedule.

I'll do more digging later on.

Very true! Now we get to watch and see what AirTran will do if anything about Midwest's pulldown at MKE. There is a window of opportunity for them now lets see if they make their move. I still think AirTran is waiting for a legacy like United to go backrupt so they can get ORD gates.