Midwest won't hire pilots back

[GOULET!]

Boy I never saw this coming....

Midwest suspends plans to hire back flight crews

By Tom Daykin of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Mar. 18, 2009 11:42 a.m.
Midwest Airlines Inc. has suspended plans to hire back laid-off flight crews to operate regional jets the carrier began using last fall.
In September, Midwest hired Indianapolis-based Republic Airways Holdings Inc. (RJET) to operate Midwest Connect flights previously flown under the Midwest Airlines name. The move came after Republic agreed to provide up to $25 million in financing to Midwest, which helped prevent a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
In hiring Republic, Oak Creek-based Midwest laid off over 200 employees, including union pilots and flight attendants. Midwest said it would rehire the flight crews after they're trained to staff the Republic jets, but only if they accepted substantial pay cuts.
The unions have balked at that demand, so Midwest has suspended plans to train the pilots on flying the Embraer 170 jets, company spokesman Michael Brophy said. Those wage cuts are needed for Midwest to compete effectively, he said.
"Given the state of the economy, and the fact that we have not been able to secure a market-competitive cost structure, we have elected to stop the process," said a company memo to employees.
The pilots union doesn't agree with that decision, said Brian Jandorf, spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association's Midwest chapter. He declined to comment further.
An official from the Association of Flight Attendants couldn't be reached for comment.
The unions have requested mediation in their contract talks with Midwest. No further contract talks have been scheduled yet, Jandorf said.
Arbitrators ruled in January that Midwest's hiring of Republic did not violate the company's labor agreements with the pilots and flight attendants unions.
Republic flies a dozen Embraer 170 jets, each with 76 seats, under the Midwest Connect name. Midwest Airlines also contracts with St. George, Utah-based SkyWest Inc. (SKYW) to operate a dozen Bombardier CRJ200 50-seat regional jets under the Midwest Connect name.
Midwest Airlines operates nine 99-seat Boeing 717 jets, which use union pilots and flight attendants.

 

[CitationLover]

perhaps they want to void our recall rights too.........

fwiw, this is old news since the last round of layoffs where they laid off the 170 Fleet Manager. Tom Daykin is now finally reporting it.

 

[Donsa320]

Wow, it looks like you all have the same jackals that got you into trouible in the first place back in charge. Since you cannot find a true leader I guess you cannot expect much, huh? Pathetic.

 

[fam62c]

Unfortunately, I don't see anyone getting hired back at Midwest anyway. I see no indication that TPG has any desire to actually run an airline, they just want to find a way out that recovers some of their investment. I'm sure that by now TPG wishes they had never gotten involved with NWA to buy Midwest. I can understand NWA wanting to do a deal to block AirTran from having an instant MKE hub but I don't see how TPG thought there was any value in Midwest at the price that they paid for it. It will be interesting to see how this one plays out because it's been a strange (and very sad for the employees) drama up to this point.

 

[IdRtherBsailing]

Dammit, Midex is going under? I just got a Midwest Miles card in the mail, now what am I to do with all those points? Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I am furloughed from them too.

Can't those miles be applied toward NWA freequent flyer program?

 

[jravi8tor]

Dammit, Midex is going under? I just got a Midwest Miles card in the mail, now what am I to do with all those points? Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I am furloughed from them too.

Can't those miles be applied toward NWA freequent flyer program?

HR sent me card asking if I would be willing to contribute to Schifter and Hoeksema' retirement fund and in return I would receive a bakers dozen of delicious cookies every month for a year. They would obviously be last days batch that were thrown out.

Then I asked about my 5 year recall rights. "We can neither confirm or deny that your CBA will be followed to the T!" I decided to save my dollar!

 

[jkurtfly]

Unfortunately, I don't see anyone getting hired back at Midwest anyway. I see no indication that TPG has any desire to actually run an airline, they just want to find a way out that recovers some of their investment. I'm sure that by now TPG wishes they had never gotten involved with NWA to buy Midwest. I can understand NWA wanting to do a deal to block AirTran from having an instant MKE hub but I don't see how TPG thought there was any value in Midwest at the price that they paid for it. It will be interesting to see how this one plays out because it's been a strange (and very sad for the employees) drama up to this point.

I was at skyway during the summer of 2007 which is when this all went down. Basiclly NWA has wanted MKE for it own for a long time. Every flight in and out on NWA is full. And TPG at the time thougth it was a great investment. Build up the airline and then sell them off to make a buck. But then 2008 hit at all went to hell with fuel prices and the economy. So now basiclly it is buy buy Midex which I have a feeling will happen by the end of this year. It was a great airline at one point, but now they are just like any onther airline out there, except for the cookies which are good. When midwest does go under Delta will swoop in and take MKE for its own.

 

[Jetjockey]

As a former cookie eater, I can attest to the uncaring attitude that prevails from the Cookie Palace. Is anyone surprised that TPG is overseeing the dismantling of Midwest, and dividing up the route structure among future Delta Connection carriers?

I hope Tim and his crew enjoy their special place in Hell.

 

[maxblast72]

So now basiclly it is buy buy Midex.

I don't think you can buy MEH anymore. I believe Northwest/TPG took them private back in Jan 2008 for $17/share.

 

[scarlet]

What would Midwest be worth today?

What do the Midwest pilots think about ALPA and their resources?

Tell the Airtran pilots who think that ALPA's resources can provide what they need. You guys have had ALPA, what do you guys think? Airtran pilots are looking for people with real experiences

 

[maxblast72]

Tell the Airtran pilots who think that ALPA's resources can provide what they need. You guys have had ALPA, what do you guys think? Airtran pilots are looking for people with real experiences

Midwest needed a CEO with a good business plan that could actually grow the company and make money. I am sure ALPA and the Midwest pilots had nothing to do with the company losing money and not being able to compete within the industry. If anything just the opposite might have happened. Midwest had a bunch of professionals that put out a really good product from everything I have heard. But management was unable to use this to their advantage to grow and make money.

 

[Max Powers]

What would Midwest be worth today?

What do the Midwest pilots think about ALPA and their resources?

Tell the Airtran pilots who think that ALPA's resources can provide what they need. You guys have had ALPA, what do you guys think? Airtran pilots are looking for people with real experiences

ALPA is a union they negotiate contracts which determine how a pilot is to be utilized.......ALPA does not run companies. If a CEO or BOD or in this case a private equity company TPG can't make a profit than there is nothing ALPA can do about it.

 

[zman]

Scarlet why are you so anti-alpa give it a rest, its coming like it or not, cause the majority of the pilots want it. Dont get me wrong I dont think ALPA is going to "save" us but its better then NPA.

 

[d.fitz]

What do the Midwest pilots think about ALPA and their resources?

A union doesn't run the company, and in situations like this, has very little power. What do you think they can do? It sounds like you think they can make a phone call and none of this would have happened. Do you really think that? Or are you just jumping on the bandwagon?

 

[CopilotDoug]

ALPA...NPA...Same pilots.

Apparently ALPA is the better illusion

 

[Moustache]

I was at skyway during the summer of 2007 which is when this all went down. Basiclly NWA has wanted MKE for it own for a long time. Every flight in and out on NWA is full. And TPG at the time thougth it was a great investment. Build up the airline and then sell them off to make a buck. But then 2008 hit at all went to hell with fuel prices and the economy. So now basiclly it is buy buy Midex which I have a feeling will happen by the end of this year. It was a great airline at one point, but now they are just like any onther airline out there, except for the cookies which are good. When midwest does go under Delta will swoop in and take MKE for its own.

I don't think Delta has a hardon for mke like NWA does (did). Delta has turned their back on Airtran before...lets see if the do it in MKE

 

[Colonel Savage]

I don't think Delta has a hardon for mke like NWA does (did). Delta has turned their back on Airtran before...lets see if the do it in MKE

DAL will already have a hub in MSP; operating MKE as a hub will just mean competeing with itself for traffic, particulary from the central WI area.

AAI might consider configuring a part of their fleet for the same style service as MEH origionaly had (cookies and all), to differentiate itself from DAL, and perhaps recapture the same business traveler market MEH developed.

 

[fam62c]

DAL will already have a hub in MSP; operating MKE as a hub will just mean competeing with itself for traffic, particulary from the central WI area.

AAI might consider configuring a part of their fleet for the same style service as MEH origionaly had (cookies and all), to differentiate itself from DAL, and perhaps recapture the same business traveler market MEH developed.

The MEH business model was part of what killed them and even now I don't think that their CEO fully understands that, he fought change as hard as he could and it contributed to the destruction of the company. The vast majority of travelers simply are not willing to pay enough extra money for premium seating and amenities to make it worth it. This is especially true in periods of economic weakness when businesses are looking at every expenditure under a microscope. Taking seats out of the plane does more harm than good and it's one of the big reasons that Southwest and AirTran have succeeded where Midwest failed. AirTran has the perfect business model for this environment and removing seats and adding premium items that people are unwilling to pay for would be a huge mistake. Every airline that has tried a premium service model has either failed, or in the case of the majors, added the seats back in once they figured out that the premium the customers are willing to pay is not enough to offset the lost revenue from the missing seats. The people at AirTran understand how to run an airline, the people at Midwest don't which explains what's been happening in MKE over the past year.

Midwest was successful in the 1990's with their premium service model because they had cheap planes, cheap fuel, cheap labor, little or no competition from RJ's and LCC's on most of their routes and an unprecedented economic expansion where business travelers didn't care what airline tickets cost because business was so good. Even under these conditions I don't think that the premium service model was the key to their success, it was the fact that they had direct flights from MKE and they were the only ones doing it in most markets.

Midwest never figured out after 2000/2001 that the 1990's were an economic anomaly that may never be repeated. They were way too slow to figure out that things had changed and aggressively adapt their product to the new realities. The CEO killed Midwest through his lack of action and inability to realize that times had changed and Midwest needed to change as well. Midwest had great customer service coupled with a business plan that wasn't going to work and no amount of chocolate chip cookies was going to offset a CEO who didn't do what needed to be done when he needed to do it.

 

[Colonel Savage]

Very well then. You make some good points.

 

[maxblast72]

I thought United announced a month or two ago they were ripping out 25% of their business class seats on Trans-Atlantic flights and replacing with coach due to weakness in the premium product.

Our Flight Attendants (using the fare code off the seat maps) say that most of the people sitting in our Business class are airport upgrades not passengers that paid for full fare business class seats at time of booking.