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Midwest pilots think all 717s will go by next year

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Heavy Set

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 28, 2002
Posts
2,277
Friday, October 24, 2008


Pilot: Midwest’s remaining 717s could be grounded


The Business Journal of Milwaukee - by Rich Rovito




Midwest Airlines plans to eventually ground the nine remaining Boeing 717s in its fleet in 2009, according to a Midwest pilot.
Greg Uselmann, who has worked as a pilot for 25 years, including the past 10 at Midwest Airlines, said he believes it is Midwest’s intent to take the remaining 717s in its fleet out of service in 2009, a move he claimed could lead to even more layoffs at the airline.
Uselmann, who is set to be laid off from Midwest by mid-November, claimed that Midwest entered into short-term leases for the remaining 717s, which he said shows Midwest’s intent to remove the aircraft from the fleet in quick order.
Midwest Air Group Inc., Oak Creek, which operates Midwest Airlines, recently entered into an agreement with Indianapolis-based Republic Airways Holdings Inc. that eventually will result in Midwest replacing all but nine of the 25 Boeing 717s it had in its fleet with smaller Embraer E170 regional jets that it is leasing from Republic.
 
Did the Midwest guys really think Northwest/Delta would throw anymore money at Midwest to keep them around in any major form? Northwest threw in over $200 million earlier this year to keep Airtran from getting a foothold in MKE and building a 200 departure a day hub in MKE. Northwest and the declining economy have prevented Airtran from doing just that, so the need for Midwest is decreasing every day.

I would bet the plan now is to minimize losses in MKE. With the declining economy, I would bet the E-170's lose less money than the 99 seat 717's Midwest was using.
 
I guarantee the 717s will be gone in 2009. MKE will be nothing but a RJ hub for Midwest. Sad but true.
 
That seriously blows. The sad thing is that I remember many Midwest pilots adamently against the original AirTran merger proposal (they wanted to keep their independence). Who knows if that would have helped to preserve some jobs.

Good luck to everyone there...
 
There is a bunch of Delta employees going in and out of the 717 sims at the Airtran training facility. I'm sure Delta would rather start a new fleet type than let Airtran pick up more 717's at bottom prices.
 
Kinda interesting...

It seems Delta is willing to spend quite a bit of money to introduce 16-25 of these aircraft to their fleet. I imagine their primary motivation is to keep the aircraft away from AAI.
It would also seem that such a move would only increase their CASM. Their CASM is already higher than AAI's - increasing it further does not seem like it will help them.
 
I guarantee the 717s will be gone in 2009. MKE will be nothing but a RJ hub for Midwest. Sad but true.

Replace Midwest with Delta. TPG will sell the gates/slots soon. Then they'll pull the money out and shut Midwest down. Repaint the 170's again in Delta colors.
 
There is a bunch of Delta employees going in and out of the 717 sims at the Airtran training facility. I'm sure Delta would rather start a new fleet type than let Airtran pick up more 717's at bottom prices.


Sure they are not going into the 737-300 sim that is between the 717 and 737-700 sim?
 
I agree with you Propsync. It makes no sense that Delta would take Midwest's 9 remaining 717s. It would be nice if they helped out the pilots there but don't hold your breath for that either.
 

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