Midwest starting 717 service to MSP

[HowlinMadMurdoc]

Midwest Airlines Announces Service and Schedule Enhancements
Thursday March 31, 11:26 am ET - Airline Takes Its Hallmark Signature Service to Minneapolis; Adds Flight Frequency to Several Midwestern Cities

MILWAUKEE, March 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Travelers flying Midwest Airlines and Midwest Connect will benefit from enhanced and more convenient service between Milwaukee and a number of Midwestern destinations beginning in June.

Midwest Airlines today announced that beginning June 1 it will fly new Boeing 717 aircraft on three of its five daily roundtrip flights between Milwaukee and Minneapolis-St. Paul -- an equipment upgrade from the smaller regional jets currently serving the market. The flights will feature the airline's hallmark Signature Service -- two-by-two leather seating with adjustable headrests and footrests; extra legroom; comfortable, attentive and professional service; and baked-onboard chocolate chip cookies. Minneapolis travelers will be able to make convenient connections in Milwaukee to more than 30 destinations nationwide.

"We're very pleased to be bringing our Signature Service product to passengers traveling to and from Minneapolis-St. Paul," said Scott R. Dickson, senior vice president and chief marketing officer. "We began serving Minneapolis in 2002 and have experienced tremendous customer growth. Using larger aircraft allows us to be responsive to the growing demand, and more importantly provides us the opportunity to offer our loyal passengers the level of service that earned us our reputation as 'The best care in the air.'"

In conjunction with the June 1 service enhancement, Midwest will move its ticket counter and gate facilities at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport to the modern and expanded Humphrey Terminal. The Humphrey Terminal, located off 34th Avenue, offers covered parking and easy access to taxis, hotel shuttles, rental cars and the new Hiawatha corridor light rail system that connects the airport with downtown Minneapolis, the University of Minnesota and the Mall of America.

"Customers will really appreciate the convenience of the Humphrey Terminal," Dickson added. "It's only a short walk from the parking lot to our new counter and gate -- much closer than our current location."

Midwest Connect

Also effective June 1, Midwest Connect will add an additional daily roundtrip flight between Milwaukee and Des Moines, La Crosse and Rhinelander. With the added service, the airline will offer four daily roundtrip flights between Milwaukee and both Des Moines and Rhinelander, and three daily roundtrips between Milwaukee and La Crosse. The added Rhinelander flight -- which makes a stop in Wausau in the northbound direction -- will be provided seasonally to accommodate increased demand during the summer tourist season.

Dickson pointed out that the new Midwest Connect service reflects the airline's ongoing commitment to provide superior air service throughout Wisconsin and the Midwest. In addition to offering travelers more choice of flight times, the new flights will provide improved connections via Milwaukee to destinations throughout the Midwest Airlines and Midwest Connect route system. Several existing flights in these markets will also be retimed to improve their connectivity. The new Midwest Connect service will be offered on Beech 1900 aircraft, specially fitted with 19 contoured leather seats and featuring stand-up cabins.

Today's announcement is part of a series of product and service enhancements focusing on customer value and convenience that America's top- rated carrier is launching throughout 2005. These enhancements provide passengers with enhanced service, more frequent flight schedules and better nationwide connections. They also reinforce the airline's commitment to its Milwaukee hometown -- where it is the market share leader -- and reflect its roots as a Wisconsin company.

Schedules and fares for all Midwest Airlines and Midwest Connect flights are available at http://www.midwestairlines.com .

Midwest Airlines (NYSE: MEH - News) features jet service throughout the United States, including Milwaukee's most daily nonstop flights and best schedule to major destinations. Skyway Airlines, Inc. -- its wholly owned subsidiary -- operates as Midwest Connect, which offers connections to Midwest Airlines as well as point-to-point service between select markets on regional jet and turboprop aircraft. Together, the airlines offer service to 50 cities. More information is available at http://www.midwestairlines.com .





Source: Midwest Airlines

 

[Dizel8]

Wonder what NWA will do, after all, not the first time these two have sparred!

 

[njcapt]

Wonder what NWA will do, after all, not the first time these two have sparred!

They're still trying to figure out how to get out of IND after ATA abandoned it almost overnight. Maybe they can spare a couple of 757's to 'compete' with MidEx.

 

[Snake]

Northwest should not take Midwest to lightly. NW has tried to move in on YX in MKE and has had little success in doing so. They have gone head to head on most of the routes that YX flies. YX has been kicking their ass and NW has replaced most of their routes with the RJ's. I look for Midwest to eventually announce Seattle from MSP. It's coming.

 

[HowlinMadMurdoc]

Northwest should not take Midwest to lightly. NW has tried to move in on YX in MKE and has had little success in doing so. They have gone head to head on most of the routes that YX flies. YX has been kicking their ass and NW has replaced most of their routes with the RJ's. I look for Midwest to eventually announce Seattle from MSP. It's coming.

More like SEA from MCI, that way Midwest could use the 717. I've heard MSP and SEA are the numbers 1 and 2 cities requested by our Frequent Fliers. Also, I wouldn't be surprised to see MCI-MSP soon either now that we will have our own gate(s) away from NWA.

HMM

 

[Kharma Police]

I'm not sure Snake if the 717 or MD-80 has the range to do non-stop MSP to SEA. Maybe you should ask your friends at AirTran

 

[fam62c]

Midwest has an advantage with labor costs and no DB pension plans to deal with. Unfortunately, they undo their advantage and end up with high CASM's because they take a 717 and put only 88 seats in it. By replacing 3 of the Skyway flights they are adding 168 seats each day into the market, only time will tell whether there is the demand for the seats. Skyway had high load factors and a low total trip cost although high CASM with a small plane. Keep in mind that even if Midwest fills up a 717 it's only a 76% load factor based on the 115 seats that the plane would normally have in it. If they trigger a NWA fare war they will end up with full planes and still lose money. Midwest sells service more than tranportation and needs a fare premium to offset the reduced seating in the planes. Fare premiums are tough to come by in this economy and I don't know whether or not people will see that value of more comfortable seats for a 50 minute flight. Another option that Midwest/Skyway may have at some point is MKE-DTW or maybe MCI-MSP and/or MCI-DTW. Skyway is also an interesting airline in that is one of the few regionals that never gets bigger and seems very underutilized. Midwest has other problems due to the cancellation of the 717 and the Bankruptcy of Fairchild/Dornier they are stuck with 2 orphan airplanes and have no viable fleet plan for the future. It's a company that offers an excellent product but makes very poor long-range strategic decisions.

 

[Snake]

I think people in MSP and to some extent MKE are fed up with the lousy service and treatment they recieve on Northwest. I think they will welcome the option and will be willing to pay more for a better ride that they will recieve on YX. True YX hurts themselves with 88 seats instead of 115 but they only need to fill about half those seats to actually make money on the route. They have very little or no debt, and labor cost at YX is not as big a factor as it is at NW. I say, kick ass Midwest.

 

[fam62c]

Say What?

I think people in MSP and to some extent MKE are fed up with the lousy service and treatment they recieve on Northwest. I think they will welcome the option and will be willing to pay more for a better ride that they will recieve on YX. True YX hurts themselves with 88 seats instead of 115 but they only need to fill about half those seats to actually make money on the route. They have very little or no debt, and labor cost at YX is not as big a factor as it is at NW. I say, kick ass Midwest.

Midwest needs to sell a lot more than 50% of the seats to make a profit. 44 seats in a plane designed to have 115 seats in it is a 38% load factor for the plane even thought it's 50% for Midwest. Midwest had a company load factor in excess of 50% for 2004 and the company had record losses. What would lead you to believe that with today's fare levels, the current cost of fuel, and a market where there is competition that Midwest can make money selling "about half" of the seats? As I said in my previous post, if NWA lowers fares to put pressure on Midwest I would bet that Midwest will lose money at a 100% load factor with only 88 seats. Low fares, high costs and reduced seating is a lethal financial combination.

 

[ShadowFlight]

MSP is one of our top performing markets and load factors on the 328 are high. In time, load factors on the 717's will be good too. Recently, I've flown several MSP flights and most were full. Other MSP flights were mostly full too and not just because of Spring Break. Did we make money? Hopefully, we did.

Peace

SF

 

[StaySeated]

Little to no Debt? MEH has encumbered every asset over the last two or three years. They are loaded to the gills with debt. I still wish them luck, its a shame they didn't pick the bus or 73 instead of the 717 when they had the chance.

 

[njcapt]

I'm not sure Snake if the 717 or MD-80 has the range to do non-stop MSP to SEA. Maybe you should ask your friends at AirTran

Vanguard did MCI-SEA just fine in the MD-80, I think the 717 might be on fumes over the same route, though.

 

[jobear]

Midwest needs to sell a lot more than 50% of the seats to make a profit. 44 seats in a plane designed to have 115 seats in it is a 38% load factor for the plane even thought it's 50% for Midwest. Midwest had a company load factor in excess of 50% for 2004 and the company had record losses. What would lead you to believe that with today's fare levels, the current cost of fuel, and a market where there is competition that Midwest can make money selling "about half" of the seats? As I said in my previous post, if NWA lowers fares to put pressure on Midwest I would bet that Midwest will lose money at a 100% load factor with only 88 seats. Low fares, high costs and reduced seating is a lethal financial combination.

Service also sells seats . As SF said the loads out of MSP have been high since Skyway started doing them and not just recently.
Is it friday yet?

Jobear
Oh my neck!!!

 

[fam62c]

Service sells seats...true.

Service also sells seats . As SF said the loads out of MSP have been high since Skyway started doing them and not just recently.
Is it friday yet?

Jobear
Oh my neck!!!

True, service does sell seats but most people still won't pay extra for it. What does this mean? What it means is that Midwest will sell their seats like hotcackes as long as their price is at or below Northwest. In order to provide the "service" they have taken seats out of the aircraft and lowered the ultimate revenue making potential of the airplane. The solution to this problem is to charge more for your seats like Midwest did in the 1990's. Unfortunately, this doesn't work today and this is part of the reason Midwest is losing it's a$$. At the fare levels that Northwest will probably force in the MKE-MSP market Midwest will probably need a load factor of near 100% to break even with only 88 seats in the plane. The 328's did fine because they had high load factors and the plane has a small total trip cost (not the same as CASM). Northwest was willing to overlook a few 32 seat airplane flights per day and didn't bother with a severe competitive response because it would have cost them more than Skyway; this allowed fares in the market to stay at a reasonable level. The 717's may provoke a major fare reduction in the market by NWA. A 717 with 88 seats in it is not designed to fly around with discount passengers. If Midwest had 115 seats in the planes they would have a cost advantage and could prevail even at low fare levels.

You have to look at what the successful carriers in this economy are doing. Southwest, JetBlue and AirTran don't remove seats from their planes. If they took 25% of the seats out of their planes they would be in financial trouble. Ever wonder why Midwest doesn't do better financially than they do given their rock bottom labor costs? Do the math.

 

[ShadowFlight]

fam62c,

I think for a company that has historically avoided competition, this is a definite change in strategy for the better. I agree with Jobear that service, for some passengers, is more important than price. Not everyone likes flying on NWA and we fill that niche. Will NWA start a fare war in an effort to win the battle? Maybe but I think it's good we are making these changes as it's a step in the right direction.

After years in the business world, I've discovered there's enough business to go around for everyone. NWA has their niche and we have ours. We can both exist in the same environment.

Peace

SF

 

[Jimdandy]

SAD to say If you don't learn from the mistakes made in the past you will be condemended to repeat them.

Its all about the money Wal-Mart proved that. The losest bidder will always win.

 

[fam62c]

fam62c,

I think for a company that has historically avoided competition, this is a definite change in strategy for the better. I agree with Jobear that service, for some passengers, is more important than price. Not everyone likes flying on NWA and we fill that niche. Will NWA start a fare war in an effort to win the battle? Maybe but I think it's good we are making these changes as it's a step in the right direction.

After years in the business world, I've discovered there's enough business to go around for everyone. NWA has their niche and we have ours. We can both exist in the same environment.

Peace

SF

Shadow,

I hope you're right, I've got nothing against Midwest. My point is just that, at least the way things are now, The Best Care in the Air Strategy doesn't seem to generate enough revenue to cover costs. I wouldn't think that limiting the revenue potential of the aircraft with fewer seats would be the way to go. Surveys have been done in the industry and price far outweighs every other factor to passengers. Next comes things like frequency and schedule convenience. Midwest thinks they know what the customer wants but the customer really doesn't want better onboard service unless it's free. Maybe 1 out 10 will pay more for it. It's true that premium service has been their traditional mode of operation but it was designed for different times. Also, in the airline industry there is clearly NOT enough business to go around for everyone unless you want to sell tickets at a loss. If all the airlines priced their product at the levels necessary to turn a profit with the current fuel prices there would not be nearly enough business to go around for everyone. I wish Midwest the best and at least they are doing SOMETHING for once.

 

[climbhappy]

They narrowly averted BK when they failed to see the change in demand for their signature service. I read they spent 3 times per passenger on amenities than other carriers. Now that economy is picking up I think it is" testing the waters"

I think it's good move to go back to what made them unique as long the demnand is there.

 

[Snake]

Let's face facts here.
1. Northwest sucks. Service is lousy.
2. Northwest could not match the level of service that YX provides even if it wanted to.
3. Midwest has not posted a profit now for 3 years. But, they have plenty cash on hand and from what I am told, they have record future bookings. What those bookings are paying is another story.

Unlike everyone else, Midwest looks at a new market for a period of years before it starts service to that market. It knows what it needs to make a profit on that route and it knows what the competition will be and what their strategy will be. YX will not and has not backed down to Northwest. It will cost Northwest a lot more money and headache to try to run YX off the route. They were able to do that to Pro Air in Detroit but Midwest is not Pro Air. People will fly Midwest out of MSP because they want competition for NW and YX would be a great alternative. If given the choice, I would fly YX anyday over any airline in the country. There is a reason they win all the awards. They could use better name recognition. The company will survive and will be around. It is 21 years old now and its growth has been non existent since they finally got around to getting new aircraft in the 717. Heard from a good source that the only thing hurting them is the same thing that is hurting NW. High fuel prices. Northwest will counter them with preditory pricing but YX will stay the course and will eventually increase frequency just like they did on the MKE/MCI route with CO some years back. CO increased frequency to 5 round tripers a day and YX beat their ass in 3 weeks. People will fly the better product if given the choice and YX is by far the better product. Period.

 

[Ty Webb]

Midex has a good product, but no real strategy has emerged since the paradigm shift to price being king. They have encumbered much of their assets, including their corporate HQ, and have been too slow to adapt due to pigheaded management.

When FL entered MKE we apprpached them about a code share. After all, we're bringing pax to MKE, we had no long-range a/c at the time, and they were flying half-empty planes to the West coast. Their mgmnt wouldn't even talk to us about it. Now we have the long-range planes, more cash and more debt paid down, and they are burning the furniture to heat the house.

The shareholders should call for TH's head on a stick.

PS, FL operates the 717 with 117 seats, not 115, and the longest leg you would want to see is 3:30 + alt + reserve.

PPS. Snake lives in a fantasyland. Well, technically it's his parent's basement, but it sure explains a lot.