Full new schedule out
 

The new schedule has been loaded with the modified Midwest fleet.

The flight frequencies are the same as the current schedule which took effect 9/8 except there is an additional MKE-PIT flight added for a total of 91/day at MKE and 16/day at MCI.

A couple of notes:

--All the remaining 717's serve Milwaukee except for a single LGA-MCI-SFO-MCI-LGA. Kansas City's only other 717 flights are thrus to or from Milwaukee (MKE-MCI-SEA-MCI-MKE and MCI-MKE).

--Omaha becomes all E170 and CRJ.

--The 170 will do MKE-MCI-LAX-MCI-MKE

--The higher-volume leisure markets of LAS, MCO, TPA, and PHX all remain 717.

Here are the details.

31 tota lines of flyiing
9 717
11 170
11 CRJ

Miilwaukee schedule
91 departures per day
..........717..170..CRJ
3 ATL …. 0 … 3 … 0
3 ATW .. 0 … 0 … 3
3 BNA … 0 … 0 … 3
4 BOS … 3 … 1 … 0
3 CLE .… 0 … 0 … 3
4 CMH … 0 … 2 … 2
2 DAY … 0 … 0 … 2
5 DCA … 3 … 2 … 0
2 DEN … 0 … 2 … 0
4 DFW … 0 … 4 … 0
3 DSM … 0 … 0 … 3
3 EWR … 0 … 0 … 3
3 FNT .… 0 … 0 … 3
2 GRB .… 0 … 0 … 2
4 GRR .… 0 … 0 … 4
3 IND ..… 0 … 0 … 3
2 LAS .… 2 … 0 … 0
5 LGA .… 4 … 1 … 0
6 MCI …. 2 … 4 … 0
1 MCO … 1 … 0 … 0
4 MSN … 0 … 0 … 4
5 MSP … 0 … 0 … 5
4 OMA … 0 … 0 … 4
4 PHL .… 0 … 2 … 2
2 PHX .… 2 … 0 … 0
4 PIT ….. 0 … 2 … 2
1 TPA .… 1 … 0 … 0
1 YYZ …. 0 … 0 … 2
91 total . 18 . 23 . 50

Kansas City

1 BOS … 0 … 1 … 0
3 DCA … 0 … 3 … 0
1 LAX … 0 … 1 … 0
3 LGA … 1 … 2 … 0
6 MKE … 2 … 4 … 0
1 SEA … 1 … 0 … 0
1 SFO … 1 … 0 … 0
16 total 5... 11 ...0

Why no more FLL-MCI/MKE? :confused:

MCI-FLL was dropped back in May, and MKE-FLL ended in July.

Both FLL routes were among several high volume / low yield leisure markets that were dropped as part of the restructuring.

With only 31 lines flying systemwide, and just 91 departures per day from Milwaukee, do they really need 20 gates at MKE? Heck, they could park two-thirds of their fleet all at once at MKE under this scenario.

They have 14 jetways at MKE, and in the morning block they have 21 aircraft on the ground at once, meaning some CRJ's get jetways and others must use ground boarding. A number of other banks are almost as busy.

Their current schedule generally has them using all their jetway gates, plus some ground boarding of the CRJ's at D29. Nothing at the old mass Skyway gate of D52 (Great Lakes is alone there) and nothing at ground-level-boarding D27 or D28.

The only difference I see from the orig post is OMA is not just CRJ or 170. On the schedule that I have they are still showing 717 flying on there OMA-DCA 2 flights a day. Is this correct or do you have a schedule that I have not seen.

Knope,

What's the utilization like for the remaining 717s? At first blush it doesn't seem all that impressive. At one point the goal was to have all mainline planes in the air at least 11 hours per day.

A couple of other quick questions:

1) Does OMA-DCA become all E170? If so, I wonder if this is more of a demand issue on the OMA or MKE side. I say this because the OMA-DCA and OMA-MKE 717 flights currently loop together. Perhaps it's a case of keeping fares artifically high be reducing capacity.

2) I really question the economics of sending the E170 on MCI-LAX. That's a long flight for a 76 seat aircraft. The 717 would appear to be a better option considering stage length and traffic composition.

OMA-DCA goes to 170 11/3. If you book on the web site you can see that change.

I knows WN already announced new routes from FLL-MCI. Also, FL already previously announced from MKE-FLL, too. That's why those routes has been discontinuation service to FLL due to high cost of fuel.

Knope,

Do we know an effective date? I am doing LAX-MKE on 10/12 and it is still showing 717.

The weekday 717 utilization is 12.11 hours per day. I didn't work through the weekend schedule yet. I'm sure that it is somwhat lower and will pull the average down some, but it's probably around 11 hours.

What probably makes it seems light is that nearly all the shorter hops are gone. This time last year there were 12 flights under 450 miles flown on mailine, and all but two of those are replaced by 170 ro CRJ. That makes the total number of 717 flights fewer, but the utilization is high.

The utilization would be even higher if in the 9:45pm outbound block they still had 717's to OMA, MSP, and MCI instead of the planned 170s. However those departures rarely exceed 65-70 passengers even in the summer peak, so the 170 is a better fit.

Yes, OMA-DCA becomes all-170, however OMA-MKE is all-CRJ.
That means that the 1:30pm MKE-OMA flight (which will become a CRJ) will turn right around and come back to MKE, arriving MKE at 4:30pm....too late for the classic 345pm eastbound block. They could easily swap the 170 on that MKE-OMA-MKE trip (at that same time of day there are 170 trips to both CMH and PIT that could go back to CRJ) and that would preserve the aircraft switch at OMA. But as it stands now, the 170 sits at Omaha from 1:10pm until 3:40pm...by far the longest time any 717, CRJ or 170 is idle.

I was definitely surprised to see the 170 on MCI-LAX. I suppose, however, that they're working to concentrate the 717's on the main Midwest east-coast destinations from MKE. Were the MKE-MCI-LAX-MCI-MKE trip kept on the 717, that would mean two more round trips from MKE to/from BOS, LGA or DCA would have to be shifted to the 717.

It looks like the 170's are all in by 11/3.

never minds! Please deleted it for me. Thanks!

Actually AirTran isn't bringing any of their MCI-Florida flights back either this winter except for a single daily Orlando flight that AirTran added back after Midwest pulled theirs.

Other than that single AirTran MCO flights, Southwest has the Kansas City nonstop markets to Florida all to themselves, with all other recent nonstops from Midwest, AirTran and Delta gone.

Weekday is 12.11 hours
Saturday is 8.90 hours
Sunday is 10.41 hours

Total average daily utilization for the 717: 11.41 hours per day

MKE to MCO for the Holidays?
 

Can anyone tell me if YX had been flying the MKE-MCO route last year around the holidays? We are looking for a flight around Thanksgiving and the times/connections and fares are just terrible on any other airlines.
What is the likelihood that Midwest will add this route?

As things stand right now, Midwest will be operating MKE-MCO flights this Thanksgiving.

MCO was converted to seasonal service last fall and I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see them drop the route for the month of September (one of the weakest travel months of the year, especially for leisure travel) but flights should be back in place by October.

Any thoughts on when those flights will be available to be booked. Currently they show no flights available the +/-3 days around our travel days. (not even NWA flights) :confused:

Oh, and that is why DH and I love traveling in Sept :) Unfortunately the family members refuse to take their kids out of school.

I just noticed that myself. It's very strange that Midwest doesn't have those flights loaded yet as there is definately demand for Orlando service over Thanksgiving.

Looking at their route map, Midwest indicates that Orlando is "seasonal through September." I'm not really sure what that means.

As a follow up...

After my last post I called YX to ask. The first guy I talked to didn't seem to have a clue about anything; so I hung up and called back. The woman I spoke to said they have not determined the routes and they have no idea when they will. She got kind of snotty in saying "well, this is the first year we have been seasonal. we have been year round the last 12 years and need to determine our schedule". So, it sounded from her like they will, but who knows when! It also worries me that YX will jack up the fare since all the other airlines are so high. I assume Airtran is so high b/c they have no competition on the non-stop and the other airlines are getting fully on their the connecting flight.