Air Midwest gone!

[The Prussian]

High fuel prices claim Air Midwest
Regional carrier to phase out service through May and June


By Russ Britt, MarketWatch
Last update: 11:12 a.m. EDT May 14, 2008






LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- A retreating airline industry claimed another victim as Air Midwest will phase out operations, the regional carrier's parent said Wednesday.
Mesa Air Group Inc. , which operates Air Midwest, said record-high fuel prices, low demand and a difficult operating environment were to blame for the discontinuation of service. Air Midwest's routes served 27 cities throughout the U.S.
"Unfortunately under the current economic conditions there was no foreseeable way to achieve sustained profitability," said Jonathan Ornstein, Mesa Air's chief executive, in a press release.
"Even with subsidies from the [Department of Transporation], Air Midwest has been unable to sustain profitability for the last several years."
The company, which could not be reached for immediate comment, said in the release that it was working to minimize the impact on passengers. It was unclear what plans pre-booked passengers would have to make.
Air Midwest's East Coast operations, including service to cities in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Georgia, will shut down May 23.
West Coast operations in Nevada, California, Arizona and New Mexico will follow suit on May 31.
And central U.S. cities in Missouri, Nebraska and Arkansas are expected to halt service June 30.
Air Midwest operates 20 Beech 19-seat airliners. It was founded in Wichita, Kan., in May 1965.
It isn't to be confused with Milwaukee-based Midwest Airlines, a much larger carrier.
Shares of Mesa Air lost 7 cents to 66 cents in recent action.

Russ Britt is the Los Angeles bureau chief for MarketWatch.


Oops...sorry...should have posted on the Regionals...my bad..

 

[Ty Webb]

The headline had me thinking it was Midex . . .

Glad to hear it isn't Midwest Airlines.

TW

 

[spitfire1500]

Ornstein has been in the process of closing that place since 2000. They have tried to sell it numerous times and slowly knocked it down from about 75 planes to about 17 give or take few planes as the leases ran out.

 

[saab fixr]

Even with subsidies from the [Department of Transporation], Air Midwest has been unable to sustain profitability for the last several years.
What the hell about "GO"? they have been profitable?

 

[captain dad]

They helped nail the coffin shut on Aloha. What about Freedom being dropped by Delta? Is Mesa swirling the drain?

 

[crashpad]

The headline had me thinking it was Midex . . .
TW

I thought the same thing initially, but then remembered Midex Express
has some serious Jamaican MoJo Shaman in their corner!

 

[Colonel Savage]

The headline had me thinking it was Midex . . .Glad to hear it isn't Midwest Airlines.

No, but it is the end of a great name. I remember the origional Air Midwest from when I was in college in Denver in the late 70's. Nice outfit with Metros run by that Adams fellow who went on to run Frontier II up 'till recently.

Air Midwest, Rocky Mountian Airways, Aspen Airways and a few others were all good outfits based at Stapleton. They represented a big opportunity to anyone aspiring to become an airline pilot.

 

[flying zephyr]

Once again feel bad for those guys. I sure loved flying that beech. Wonder who is going to feed MCI or is that just over now??

 

[Bringupthebird]

No, but it is the end of a great name. I remember the origional Air Midwest from when I was in college in Denver in the late 70's. Nice outfit with Metros run by that Adams fellow who went on to run Frontier II up 'till recently.

Air Midwest, Rocky Mountian Airways, Aspen Airways and a few others were all good outfits based at Stapleton. They represented a big opportunity to anyone aspiring to become an airline pilot.

Huh???

Gary Adamson started Air Midwest which was based in Wichita KS. Stapleton was the westernmost terminus of an EAS route that went through western Kansas to DEN. They were the launch customer for the Saab 340 (s/n 2 "Bernice" named after Gary's wife).

Air Midwest was a great airline in it's prime. An unblemished fatal accident record for about 30 years until Mesa came along.

There will likely never be another success story in aviation like the original Air Midwest.

 

[Lear70]

This news has been coming for a while, the gate agents and pilots were telling me about it 3 weeks ago when I flew from MCI to somewhere else in Missouri (some small town, can't remember where right now, I was the only person on board besides a mechanic who was going out to fix another airplane).

Suffice it to say, when you bid a contract based on $2.00 a gallon fuel with government subsidies to operate your routes and fuel costs increase by 50%, you can only operate it for so long at a loss before you just write the operation off.

They said something about the contract getting put back up for bid and that Mesaba was on the short list to run it with Saabs out of Memphis (station manager mentioned it when I asked) but that's just a rumor, like everything else. I doubt she was high enough up the food chain to really know other than what she had been told, except she said the employees had known for over a month.