Midwest grounding 12 planes

[Whataburger]

http://www.wisn.com/news/16668687/detail.html

This sux. One of the best airlines out there I think. Nice pilots and FA's. A joy to commute on. Good luck.

 

[Noserider76]

I'm not sure how they would feel about it but I'd like to see the planes, crews, and other employees rolled into the NWA/DL deal.

 

[IXLR8]

Noserider,
We'll be lucky if 1/2 of NWA is rolled into the DAL deal the way things are going...Steenland is doing a great job... Sorry, not stealing the thread, good luck to the Midwest folks.

 

[ACL65PILOT]

Talked to a Midex upper level manager this weekend and the echoed the same things. Basically they thought that they would get a better shake with the DAL boys.
There is going to be a need for lift to reach the west coast out of there. I think that DAL may have plans for that. If not I am sure that Airtran will be up there very quickly.

 

[PCL_128]

There is going to be a need for lift to reach the west coast out of there. I think that DAL may have plans for that. If not I am sure that Airtran will be up there very quickly.

I'm not so sure. Our management is talking about scaling back trans-con flying because the yields aren't sufficient. I don't know what will happen to the slack in MKE, but I don't think we'll be filling it all in.

 

[TAWS]

MEH will be used as the whipsaw - watch, classic NWA move!

 

[CitationLover]

MEH will be used as the whipsaw - watch, classic NWA move!

only if the dal/nwa/meh pilots allow it to happen. the 'tude of the MEH pilots now is "no concessions".

 

[ACL65PILOT]

All the trans cons that I have been flying sans two of the have been filled to the brim. Only ones that seem to be low are the ones that leave at 11:00 AM out of the East Coast before the International arrivals. I agree until the JetBlue and VA issues are dealt with it is going to be a yeild nightmare, but it is one of those routes that needs to be done. Plus the majority of MEH's traffic to the West coast is O and D.

 

[clickclickboom]

All the trans cons that I have been flying sans two of the have been filled to the brim. Only ones that seem to be low are the ones that leave at 11:00 AM out of the East Coast before the International arrivals. I agree until the JetBlue and VA issues are dealt with it is going to be a yeild nightmare, but it is one of those routes that needs to be done. Plus the majority of MEH's traffic to the West coast is O and D.

Jetblue issues?

Last flight i checked JB was $25 more than DAL out of JFK...

 

[~~~^~~~]

The yield out of ATL got killed when AirTran started service with a couple of leased AirBus. I think ACL65 was just trying to be nice in deference to PCL.

 

[Copydat]

I hate it for the Midwest employees. One of the MD captains commutes with me.

Let me know you where you are coming from with your thoughts that they would be "rolled" into the NWA/DAL deal. Northwest did not and could not exert any operational control over Midwest. To my knowledge there was never any allowance for employee integration. Northwest merely made a chess move to aid Midwest in staving off the Airtran deal. In fact if Midwest loses value Northwest looses their investment. But maybe I am wrong.

 

[ACL65PILOT]

As of now there are no "plans to integrate" the companies. You know how those plans go. Talking to a few in the know, and the death spiral that MEH is in (financially) something will have to give. I do not foresee DAL/NWA giving up a MKE market. It is a perfect arena for them to use their 737-700 in. MEH looked at them as well. They may still get them, and that would be the DAL answer to parking the 80's, but as of now there will little or no West Coast lift.
Coming from the area, I can tell you that the MKE market is fiercely loyal to MEH. They are part of the reason the AAI bid failed.
NWA has always had a good presence in MKE. They grow and shrink. They finally bought a minority stake in MEH and stopped the fighting. NWA has a vested interest in MEH, as does TPG. I recall that TPG also has a vested interest in NWA. With all this money flying in close formation, I guarantee that the interests of TPG will be taken care of. They simply will not let the MKE market go to AAI. (If they do so it will be another of DAL's blunders.) I do not see that happening.
FWIW, they people that I know at MEH are hoping for the same. It appears that there is some positioning going on.
As with the DAL LOA, personally I think that DAL management was willing to give that to DALPA. The reason is this game plan is still a few years away. It is also good PR for DALPA to be willing to work with management (once again outside of section 6), get a few pay percentage points to their pilots bottom line and at that time come to a solution to the side letter dealing with MEH. As I have said before this part of the game is far from over.

 

[Saluki Dawg]

So let me get this straight. You're saying that the combined DAL/NWA is somehow going to absorb MEH into the new Delta, and continue to run the same number of flights out of MKE? Even though you would basically be poaching traffic out of DTW and MSP?

 

[Tanker Clown]

So let me get this straight. You're saying that the combined DAL/NWA is somehow going to absorb MEH into the new Delta, and continue to run the same number of flights out of MKE? Even though you would basically be poaching traffic out of DTW and MSP?

Saluki, with Delta all things are possible. An airline within an airline...I think we will all agree that Song was a success. Staying on taxiways in CLE....success. I'm sure if DAL wants to save Midwest then they can do it while maintaining the same amount of service in DTW and MSP.

 

[relief tube]

Jetblue issues?

Last flight i checked JB was $25 more than DAL out of JFK...

Thats cool...but that was one flight on one day a couple months ago..

Look up ATW's stats and you'll see that Jetblue has the lowest yields by a couple cents in the entire industry here. They make even airtran look like a crusty old legacy. Maybee if they'd quite flying regional jets at regional jet wages they'd force themselves to charge what everyone else is trying to charge.