Midwest ungetting new aircrafts

[1800 RVR]

As a 2-time MEH furloughee, I feel for you guys. I wish all of you luck. Keep your heads up. If you can find other work, run far, far away from the Cookie Monster and never look back. My a$$ lost 10 pounds from not eating the cookies...

 

[CitationLover]

Our Midwest spokesman just said in the local new that there are no plans to increase the # of 717 fleet, so no worry PCL

see my sig to see how midwest "spokespeople" seem to not know whats coming.

 

[CitationLover]

Wow you are a dork...

you need to get laid, and not by your "celly".

 

[metroplex]

heard from a buddy who works there that it is all just bluff. There is replacement coming in 2009, signed already, airbus are coming. training dept said it will cost them so much money to retrain everybody that that alone will take them out.....If United has to train 100 guys no big deal, but an airline with about 360 active pilots, good luck. And the restucturing firm I guess said that 25 aircraft is not enough to survive.But that's just what i heard

 

[CitationLover]

heard from a buddy who works there that it is all just bluff. There is replacement coming in 2009, signed already, airbus are coming. training dept said it will cost them so much money to retrain everybody that that alone will take them out.....If United has to train 100 guys no big deal, but an airline with about 360 active pilots, good luck. And the restucturing firm I guess said that 25 aircraft is not enough to survive.But that's just what i heard

It's all a plot to furlough as many MEH pilots to staple to the bottom of the new DAL using Nicolau as precedent.

 

[deadstick]

heard from a buddy who works there that it is all just bluff. There is replacement coming in 2009, signed already, airbus are coming. training dept said it will cost them so much money to retrain everybody that that alone will take them out.....If United has to train 100 guys no big deal, but an airline with about 360 active pilots, good luck. And the restucturing firm I guess said that 25 aircraft is not enough to survive.But that's just what i heard

One theory base on the DAL/NWA deal...
Taking into account these pieces:
-The rumor of a replacement coming in 2009
-DAL/NWA will come together in 2008/9.
-NWA just announced they are parking DC9's.
-NWA cannot assimilate MidEx and take the MKE gates until after the merger (to help DOJ feel good about signing off on the deal).
-Parking the 80's by Sept is after the heavy summer travel season.

---Conclusion: This is a move to put MidEx in a hold until NWA takes over. Parking the 80's is to stop/slow the bleeding. Besides, NWA doesn't want them. I imagine it will be hard to operate economically with only 25 planes, but if they can take Midwest into Ch11, break the Skywest, as well as other contracts, then NWA can walk in. The 2009 replacement rumor is just to pascify the public/employees until it's announced "NWA has purchased the TPG share of Midwest and all the airplanes are going to get a new paint job tonight. Tomorrow, NWA is Milwaukee's 'Hometown Airline'."

Time will tell.

 

[fam62c]

I still don't get the strategy, though. There's no way that NWA will get most of the gates. Their entire strategy was to keep competition out of MKE. If they bankrupt MEH, then competition will flood MKE. The DOT/DOJ will never let them have a monopoly on the gates/slots after a bankruptcy.

Their strategy was to keep competition out of MKE before fuel prices went up 100%; I think they have much bigger problems now, survival being the big one. Also, I don't think there would be a big rush of competitors flooding MKE in this environment; airlines are shrinking not growing. NWA/Airlink and AAI will skim off the cream and , frankly, in this environment there's lots of markets that just won't work out of MKE anymore. Unlike the good old days when fuel was cheap you just won't be able to find enough customers willing to pay the high prices to make many of the routes profitable. Until fuel prices recede there will have to be a big increase in ticket prices and this will cause the demand for air travel to crash in the short term. Capacity will need to come way down to meet the new (lowered) demand. Cities like MKE are going to lose a lot of direct service if these fuel prices continue. MKE passengers will need to get used to having a connecting flight or driving to Chicago to get to some of the cities that have direct flights to now. It will be interesting to see what the Midwest route system will look like with 25 planes. In the end, I just don't see Midwest as being a viable, stand alone carrier. The economy of scale was bad enough with 37 planes and with 25 planes it's even worse. You need to achieve "critical mass" or your fixed costs kill you. After the layoffs Midwest will have a high concentration of expensive, senior employees and that's not good.

 

[GOULET!]

The Midwest route structure will consist of only non-stops from Milwaukee to the East Coast and possibly Florida. All the West Coast traffic will stop in KC....if they keep the West Coast destinations. Midwest can not shrink and be profitable.

 

[carl p]

Shrinking to profitability is nearly impossible.

 

[Propsync]

All the West Coast traffic will stop in KC....if they keep the West Coast destinations. Midwest can not shrink and be profitable.

I'm with you there. The 'PR' person said they'll stop in KC to pick up more passengers. Right.

Can't help but apply logic here. Say you have two round trips on a 150 seat airplane that goes to, uh, let's say LAX. They're full. You decide to replace those with two round trips with 88 seat airplanes. Oh, and add a fuel stop. So you cut capacity almost in half and added two stages. What has been gained? Half-full aircraft to KC to pick up the rest that beat MKE origin PAX to the tickets to get to LAX. Brilliant, just brilliant.

I put another vote on the West coast getting cancelled, too. Once again, fleet decisions are killing Midwest.