blehman

The face lift to concourse E was fine, but they didn't touch or add to the food service. That has to be the most dingy, unappealing airport tavern I know of. We have to have the bereft airport of any national chain food that I have been to(at least at the size of MKE). It will be interesting when the new "hammerhead" in Concourse C opens.

MKEbound

Amen to that. They REALLY need to update the current vendors or find some new and better options to eat after Pax have passed though security.

MKEbound

Parking rates have been raised on all lots. The surface lot is also now $11 per day and the long term lot has increased to $8 per day.

OP has been up dated.

ENIAC

Does anyone know the story of the "International Arrivals" building signposted from the road and visible as you drive around the airport. I assume it is not in use, but did Milwaukee once have flights with immigration screening?

alphaeagle

That is used mostly for charters. Midwest has an agreement with I think it's apple vacations for flights to Cancun and some other places.

MKEbound

There are a couple of flights from Mexico and island nations in the Caribbean like the Dominican Republic to MKE on Apple, FunJet or USA3000.

wahooflyer

MKE is one of the few airports where individual airlines are responsible for cleaning their gate areas (I believe the airport is responsible for the corridors, though). I'd imagine YX would hire a cleaning service, but AirTran's gates (E60 and 61) are supposed to be cleaned by their own ramp employees every night. AirTran's attempt at cost cutting doesn't work too well, though, as I fly them out of MKE every week and the gate area is usually filthy, with the trash cans always full. Let's hope they don't expect rampers to continue cleaning the gate areas if the buyout goes through.

Cornroaster

Midwest does have scheduled non-stop service MKE-Toronto, but I don't know whether this uses the International Arrivals area or regular Midwest gates, as I have never flown on it.

MKEbound

Regular gates. US bound PAX clear customs and immigration in Toronto.

MKEbound

A decent article talking about the safety of MKE's runways after a NW plane skidded of the runway on Sunday:

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=555543

"...When a plane skids off the end of some runways at Mitchell International Airport, as this one did Sunday, it has less than 1,000 feet to stop and often not much to keep it from striking street traffic or railroad tracks.

When an airliner skids off the end of a major runway at Mitchell International Airport - as one did Sunday - it has less than 1,000 feet to stop and often very little to prevent it from slamming into a busy street or railroad tracks.

It's a situation that airport managers and elected leaders should correct as soon as possible, Jim Hall, a former top federal safety official, said Monday.

The solution could be years away, however, because the airport must navigate through environmental, financial and technical issues as it weighs the options in a federally mandated study, Airport Director C. Barry Bateman said.

No one was seriously injured when Northwest Airlines Flight 1726 came to rest 400 feet past the end of the runway after an engine problem suddenly interrupted the DC-9's takeoff.

But two other crashes - one at Chicago's Midway Airport and one at Mitchell - illustrate how fortunate the passengers and crew were that the flight did not end much worse.

In December 2005, a Southwest Airlines flight was landing at Midway when it slid off the end of the runway and then crashed through a fence and into a street, where it hit a car and killed a 6-year-old boy.

In September 1985, a Midwest Express Airlines flight crashed in Oak Creek shortly after taking off from Mitchell, killing all 31 people aboard.

Like Sunday's incident, the Midway crash drew attention to the hundreds of major airport runways that lack federally required safety zones at each end. The 1985 crash, meanwhile, on the airline now known as Midwest Airlines, demonstrated the added danger of a mechanical failure in the critical moments after takeoff - a takeoff that was seconds away for Sunday's Northwest flight.

A week before the Midway crash, President Bush signed a law that gave U.S. airports until 2015 to ensure that every runway used by airliners either has a 1,000-foot safety zone at each end or a bed of crushed concrete to stop careening aircraft.

Three of Mitchell's five runways are out of compliance, according to a Federal Aviation Administration study released in November. Nationwide, that's a problem at 507 of 1,017 major runways and at 325 of 573 commercial airports, the report says. In Wisconsin, the safety zones are lacking at 16 runways at eight of the state's top 10 airports, the FAA says.

Of the three Mitchell runways without adequate safety zones, one runway, with its west end pointing at S. Howell Ave., could be reclassified to exempt it from the federal requirements, because airliners do not use it as frequently as the other two, Bateman said. But the other two are Mitchell's main east-west and north-south runways, and together they handle nearly all of the airport's airline traffic, he said.

The east-west runway was where the Northwest flight was aborted, stopping about 250 feet from an embankment that is topped by Union Pacific railroad tracks. It's just 650 feet from the runway to the tracks, and S. 6th St. is at the runway's other end. The north-south runway, meanwhile, has W. College Ave. on one end and W. Layton Ave. on the other.

Hall, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, finds that unacceptable.

"There is no reason that . . . any airport that doesn't have an adequate safety area wouldn't have an arrester bed" of crushed concrete at the runway's end, said Hall, now a consultant. "The Milwaukee airport and the elected officials should be doing everything they can to get an arrester bed there."

Bateman said officials are doing what they can but it's not that easy. Consultants considered about 20 options and ruled out the most difficult - such as moving the railroad tracks - before focusing their study on the most likely choices, he said.

But some of those choices require moving runways, and the airport can't move runways without an environmental impact study that includes public hearings for Mitchell's neighbors to comment on how the change would affect noise levels in the areas surrounding the airport, Bateman said.

.....snip...

Once a solution is chosen, the federal government will pay 75% of the cost, with the state and the airport evenly splitting the rest, Bateman said. Like other airport expenses, Mitchell's share would be covered by fees from airlines and other airport users, not taxpayers.

Sunday, the Northwest passengers may have been fortunate that the engine failure occurred a few seconds before takeoff, instead of a few seconds after. In the 1985 Midwest crash, an engine component failed 13 seconds after takeoff, when the jet, also a DC-9, was still trying to gain altitude..."

MKEbound

This article about the last hijacking out of MKE 36 years ago was in the MKE paper a few days ago. A good read.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=555062

"We know from the horrifying events of 9-11 what airplane hijackings look like now.

The only successful hijacking of a jet out of Milwaukee - 36 years ago tomorrow - is almost quaint by comparison.

The hijacker, Garland J. Grant, who eventually tired of Cuba and returned to the United States to serve time in prison, walks free in Milwaukee again.

And the 59 passengers, who sat down to a steak dinner and cold beer in Havana and even had a chance to shop, all returned safely and went about their lives..."

mlsrar

I agree about the food situation having been improved, but the restrooms (sans the NW WC ones) were a disgrace. I've seen the Metrodome have cleaner restrooms after a losing Vikes game. A vast improvement.

Just food for thought, there really aren't any flights longer than 2.5 hours that leave from E anymore, now that NW has abandoned it's mini-hub strategy. I would think a healthy snack/wrap vendor would be an appropriate choice. Get rid of that nasty bar and set it up there, like a Kurt Schulz deli or something?

wahooflyer

For those of you who want to smoke inside the "sterile" area at MKE, the E concourse has a new smoking lounge, right next door to the snack bar but in a completely separate, enclosed area toward the NW/CO gates.

I've also noticed when flying YX that the bar on the D concourse also has a small smoking area. Not sure about smoking on concourse C.

TommyD2

Did you go in the smoking lounge?

Last time I was thru there, 2 or 3 weeks ago, I did notice the door with the 'Smoking Room' sign on it, but it was locked.

TD

MKEbound

Was still locked when I flew in yesterday.