They're flying...

I saw something odd today. N500LJ replacing their usual aircraft.

Since this isn't a Pentastar aircraft this could get horribly expensive to sub aircraft.

For the month of May One Jet had:

81 Enplaned | 75 Deplaned | 28 r/t flights

So roughly 2-3 passengers/flight.

28 to 42 percent loads on a small jet. Thinking this won't last. N500LJ is still being used for that route. Pentastar's Hawker must be out of service?

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N500LJ

MKE-PIT??

The inner baggage claim roadway is now open to parking lot & hotel shuttles, Coach USA & Badger Buses, etc. It appears the final bit of roadwork is being done on the outer roadway.

Anyone know what the construction project is next to Gate C17, across from Chili's and the business center? There is a walled off area there but no signage indicating what's going in there.

It will be a Vino Volo

http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee...aking-bid.html

I never even noticed gate C17. I've been flying DL lately which they did block off the eascalators to D54 and D55. Those new fixed jetways I can 99% bet American is going to take.

C17 was removed when the hammerhead was constructed. Door is still there as is the base so it could resurface when C11 is removed and C15 is straightened out. It would be a tight fit for a 737 but possible. Removing the former Airtran crew lounge area could expand seating between C15 and C17. Whether C9,15 and 17 could all fit 737s? On the other side with C10 removal C12 and C14 could. OTOH use as swing gates for RJs plus being able to have mainline aircraft could be very useful to United when diversions from ORD happen.

Airtran and later Southwest use C17 as an extra CS counter during extreme Irops when staffing allows.

AA will join US on D sometime after that project is complete. Maybe some temporary US moves during that construction as it probably will impact the seating area near 52 and 56. I assume that plugging the hole will be a permanent design as there's plenty of ground boarding potential on the lower of D.

MKE traffic down 45.2% since 2011
 

The downtrend obviously greatly related to mergers/acquisitions in the industry.

http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee...r&t=1437683337

MKE had the third greatest decline among the airports studied.

From the WSJ...
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-citi...hts-1437585049

From what I know DL was going to take over most of the YX/F9 flights besides the ones going to DEN. But due to two large DL hubs (DTW and MSP) having flights from MKE less than an hour there was no need for DL to expand at MKE. This is also why Delta closed its former hub at MEM due to ATL so close. And because of all the merging going on, airports like MKE see deep declines.

This is all news that I have never heard about. Where did you get this? I don't think that was ever in the cards.

Thats what I know, you know the Midwest Airlines convention center was renamed the Frontier Airlines center and then it was renamed the Delta Airlines Center for a litttle bit just after Frontier took their name away. If it was named the Delta Center then its obvious that Delta would've taken over the former YX/F9 flights:

http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/delta-air-lines-naming-deal-to-end-at-milwaukee-convention-center-pc9pq4i-205705641.html?ipad=y

From what I see Delta has actually grown in MKE since 2011.

In 2011 Delta flew 1,382,856 passengers, while in 2014 they flew 1,707,568. That's a 23.5% increase, not to bad if you ask me.

I wonder how much of that was from up gauging. I can't remember the last time being on a CR2. Been on a lot of 717s and CR9s lately.

I believe the 2011 period was when Rjet tried unsuccessfully to recreate the old YX routes with Rjet flying them of course. Those routes are all gone... That was IMO the biggest hit in flight numbers. As I recall that was something like 110 flights per day.

DL is flying more, WN less than FL/WN combined. Both are often flying larger aircraft than before.

DL 752 and 753s are now pretty regular in MKE. That's a big up guage.