Delta is running a pretty regular schedule of 757's to ATL. It's one per day and the second to last flight from ATL at night, overnights in MKE, and goes out first thing the next day. And DL is pulling out the big boy 757-300once a day from MSP to MKE and return. This goes out first thing in the morning from MSP and does a quick turnaround and back to MSP.

Maybe the added capacity can make up for the MEM loss as listed by Knope.

Been a long time I have seen this many 757s. used to get them all the time back in the NW days to MSP and DTW.

Interesting to see how long they stick around.

Starting 7/5 a second MKE-ATL trip is a 757-200 for the rest of summer in addition to the 757-300 to MSP. During the summer peak about 1 of every 9 departures at Milwaukee is an aircraft of 160 or more seats. Hopefully that's a response to ongoing strengthening of demand. Looking at March domestic stats (the most recent available) Milwaukee's seats per departure ranks high among other airports in the region:

average seats per domestic departure
112.8 Kansas City
107.8 Minneapolis
106.4 Milwaukee
102.2 St Louis
100.5 Omaha
98.3 Detroit
97.3 Pittsburgh
95.7 Indianapolis
91.6 Columbus
74.1 Cincinnati
73.5 Cleveland

Hopefully increasing demand translates into more flights down the road.

Well, DL is getting more mainline planes and they have to fly them somewhere. It might as well be MKE if they can fill them up with a reasonable fare. I can see the 717 coming in from DTW for a turn or two. Hopefully they could take out the CR2 (hate that plane) and the 700-900s that seem to go there more often.

It would seem with the history of DL (through NW and RC) there should be room to grow.

Back in the day I was about to get on a 757-200 to DTW and the gate agent made an announcement that "everyone but the five people not in zone one can board the aircraft." I thought it was a joke, but it was true. There were only 5 passengers who were not medallions. Thus was the strength of DL/NW at the time. I still think there is a lot of growth for them from thsoe that do not like the WN experience.

DL 717s have been showing up in MKE up to two times per day.

757 schedule seems to vary but they are overnighting one and as many as two turns per day.

MKE baggage claim is already a problem with more mainline flights..

Building construction got delayed over winter yet the airport assuming that will catch up in better weather has kept the conveyor contractor schedule on time. Currently only 3 (60% of former) are available for use. But carrousel 3 has been blocked by a temporary wall rendering it useless (40% of former) for anything but small regional numbers. (Yet UA the only carrier all regional insists on using 4 or 5 and let the mainlines wait)

It was supposed to be a distinct 5 phase plan... One at a time. DL should have had almost exclusive use of carrousel 1 by now.

If your bags are delayed it's not that the airlines aren't trying... They're just waiting their turn in line downstairs to off-load them.

DL is now scanning bags at drop adding to the delays unless they have two employees available for the drop which is rare.

It would be great to see Delta add a West Coast city such as Seattle, Salt Lake or even Los Angeles.

I also wonder if we will ever see JFK flights back. Not that I cherish flying into JFK Term 2, but it would be great to have JFK flights back once JFK Term 4 is expanded to include regional flights.

Delta told Salt Lake officials a few months back that expansion, including nonstop to RDU and MKE, were coming. However there's been no sign of that coming true yet. Raleigh and Milwaukee are two of the largest Salt Lake markets without nonstop service, and of course the DL westbound hub offers connectivity to places MSP does not.

Largest SLC markets w/o nonstop service for the most recent quarter (Q4 2013) daily passengers both ways combined:
147 Raleigh/Durham
102 Pittsburgh
101 Milwaukee
94 Columbus
84 Cleveland
73 Jacksonville

Delta keeps upsizing MKE-MSP aircraft, but it would be nice to have some of that west coast flow transit a MKE-SLC nonstop instead.

Possible, but JFK just proves to be a tough struggle versus LGA for Milwaukee and a number of other interior cities. As an international gateway Milwaukee has access to O'Hare nonstop plus Delta connections via DTW and ATL, so flights to Kennedy are not nearly as important as they were in previous decades. Though I would be happy to see MKE-JFK come back I'm not holding my breath for that any time soon. When MKE-JFK ended that flight moved over to LGA to operate a 5th frequency in that market, and I'm guessing it works better for Delta in that capacity.

DL offered SLC-MKE a few years ago. I remember taking it several times from either SEA or PSC. I also remember my upgrade clearing at the window with only 1 or 2 others in F, and most of Y empty. A CR9 was almost too big of a plane to fly it, and the CR7 would be pushing the limits of its range (especially in the winter.) The flights to LGA have been full, and I have seen, weeks out, F being sold out. I would love it if DL would move MKE-LGA to mainline. (I would also love it if UA would move MKE-EWR to something with F in it, but that will never happen in the near term.) MKE-LAX would probably happen if WN exits that market. NW and YX flew that, and aside from the time that Republic was doing all the flying for YX they were generally full.

If MKE is going to get DL service to anywhere, I honestly would vote AMS.

I agree that it would be great to have the MKE-LGA flights go mainline. However, I don't really think that there is enough capacity for mainline flights 5 times a day from MKE to LGA. However, It may be that in the up-gauging that DL is going through, that MKE-LGA will end up on a 4 times a day mainline on a 717.



I can't really imagine that Delta would put an international flight into MKE, much less to AMS. First of all, I don't think that we would have the international capacity in that we are so close to Ohare, and many people are comfortable with the extra drive time knowing that they can eliminate an airport. And ... I also think that the KLM folks would have a cow if Delta started competing with them on a principal route out of ORD.

This. Right now, the only good option (in my opinion) for west coast connecting flights is the US hub in PHX. The PHX hub is heavily banked--the 7am MKE departure will get you pretty much anywhere on the west coast around noon PT, and a 4pm departure from anywhere will get you on the midnight MKE arrival. I don't follow the AA/US boards closely, so no idea what the future holds for the PHX hub in light of the merger.

By contrast, the UA hub in DEN rarely connects well to MKE, and the MKE-DEN flights are not timed well for business travel.

One stop access to SLC would really open up the medium and small west coast destinations to and from MKE (SMF, FAT, EUG, GEG, etc.)

Delta has tried MKESLC over and over. It seems to never work. When they run it, I fly it if I am going somewhere that connects through SLC. But, IME, the loads have been pretty weak as WIRunner points out, which is why it never stays.

Late night rental cars?
 

I have a flight in July that arrives at midnight. Which rental car firms would still be open?

Most of them close at midnight, National shows that they're open until 1.

I've rented from Avis and have arrived after 12 and never had a problem, however, I called ahead to let them know as well as had my flight info in the reservation.

Always include your flight info in the reservation. Most of the majors will hang around for delayed flights.

There is one (not a major) that closes at 9pm no matter what. Arrive at 9:15pm and you'd have to pick it up next day.. (You can imagine what that would do to plans for a wedding next day in RHI)

As WIrunner posted National (Alamo/National are the same) closes at 1am.

If you're connecting to MKE and it's delayed a call to their local desk to make sure they know your inbound flight number and it's estimated time might help ensure things.

PS I've never had any issue with Alamo/National booking direct on their website. And I continue to prefer them over price. I've had nothing but great service... (no experience out of MKE though)

For a one week rental in July, the big three (Hertz, National, Avis) are about the same price, expen$ive! $320+ for 5 days.

Thanks for the local intel; I'll give Hertz another call tomorrow (perpetual busy tone).