Airtran Opening B737 MKE Pilot Domicile.

[Frequency]

From company memo..

"On Tuesday, December 29, 2009, the Company will publicly announce the

opening of a pilot domicile for Milwaukee effective April 2010. The domicile will​

support B737 flying. A Flight Attendant “Virtual Base” will also be established."

 

[lookin4better]

I hope they increase their flying in MKE and push out that "airline" posing as Midwest. Heck... that airline posing as an airline...

Say what you want about Air Tran, but I would rather have them be MKE's new airline as opposed to pseudo Midwest (RAH).... many people will enjoy seeing RAH fail in MKE.

 

[Colonel Savage]

Guess there's no point in opening MCO or BWI bases when Southwest already has 'em.

 

[Metro752]

Best news of 2009.

 

[poor2thecore]

Considering over half of the pilots are AirTran commute, will it go senior? Do you think local ATL guys junior on the 737 will bid off and over to the 717 to stay in ATL? This is somewhat surprising. Most thought BWI or MCO would have come first... maybe soon?

 

[maxblast72]

Considering over half of the pilots are AirTran commute, will it go senior? Do you think local ATL guys junior on the 737 will bid off and over to the 717 to stay in ATL? This is somewhat surprising. Most thought BWI or MCO would have come first... maybe soon?

Kind of surprising since MKE only has about 40 departures a day and BWI/MCO are both around 60-70. They wouldn't have pulled the trigger on a base unless it was going to save them money and we are going to be there for the long run.

I doubt there will be any involuntary 737 displacements to MKE. They were going to be 3 or 4 more months of vacancies to increase staffing for summer of 2010. Instead of doing ATL 737 CA and FO vacancies of the next couple of months, now the vacancies will be in MKE. I would imagine it could get real expensive (training costs) if they started doing involuntary movements.

 

[GuppyWN]

If Gary Kelly is smart he will step back and let The Tranny do his dirty work for him. I've never been to MKE but I doubt it's worth going to the mat over.

Hell if he's smart he's funding the crew base. Destroying RAH on their "home" turf will hand us Denver.

Give 'er he!! Airtran!

Gup

Gup

 

[c9skytrain]

It is only 25 737 crews. That includes reserves. Not a bid deal, but a first step.

 

[Colonel Savage]

Maybe this will stop any further flying going to Skywest.

 

[DonVerita]

There is a secondary storyline here.

Management had been asking the former worthless in-house union (NPA) for a concession to open up pilot "virtual" bases instead of Full bases. They (NPA) actually were considering this! Then they (NPA) got removed.

We vote ALPA in and Management again makes the same request. ATN ALPA tells Management to go pound sand.

Now we, the pilots, will have a Full MKE base with Full protections and infrastructure while the F/A's will have a Virtual base with practically nothing.

This is what leadership and solidarity gets you; and in the case of the F/A's - what the lack of leadership and solidarity doesn't get you.