More AirTran Growth in Milwaukee

[Eagle757shark]

AirTran adds 5 destinations

Trips to coast cities to take off in May

By THOMAS DAYKIN
[email protected]

Posted: Jan. 28, 2008

AirTran Airways will begin offering non-stop service from Milwaukee to five West Coast and East Coast destinations, with today's announcement coming one week after AirTran announced new service to New York.
AirTran will offer seasonal service from Milwaukee to Los Angeles International Airport, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, San Francisco International Airport, San Diego's Lindbergh Field Airport and Logan International Airport in Boston.
AirTran also is adding additional flights to its Milwaukee-Las Vegas service.
The flights to Los Angeles, Seattle/Tacoma and San Francisco will begin May 6. The flights to San Diego and Boston will begin May 21.
The year-around service from Milwaukee to New York also begins May 6.
With the new flights, AirTran will provide up to 20 daily departures to 13 non-stop destinations from Milwaukee.
AirTran now offers 10 daily departures to seven destinations.
The new service brings a bigger challenge from AirTran to Midwest Air Group Inc., the dominant carrier at Mitchell International Airport.
AirTran Holdings Inc., the corporate parent of AirTran Airways, failed in its hostile takeover attempt of Midwest Air, which operates Midwest Airlines and Midwest Connect.
"We think the market (in Milwaukee) can be a lot bigger," said Kevin Healy, AirTran vice president of planning and marketing. "This is a good first step."
The sale of Oak Creek-based Midwest Air to TPG Capital and Northwest Airlines Corp. is expected to close by Thursday.

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[Eagle757shark]

AirTran adds 5 destinations


"We think the market (in Milwaukee) can be a lot bigger," said Kevin Healy, AirTran vice president of planning and marketing. "This is a good first step."
The sale of Oak Creek-based Midwest Air to TPG Capital and Northwest Airlines Corp. is expected to close by Thursday.

Looks like this isn't the end of expansion in Milwaukee, more to come. This summer is going to be very interesting up in Milwaukee.

 

[CitationLover]

so far they've "targeted" two high yield routes (LGA/BOS). i am sure the west coast has additional capacity to be had in MKE as we do not offer that many flights. LAS is primarily competing with LCC. the one thing we have going for us versus AAI is connections. there are a lot of people who enjoy our product flying from one coast to the other with one stop in the mix.

 

[Citrusflyer]

From what I hear, the goal is to connect the northwest and the west coast via MKE. Start with the "targeted" city pairs (LGA, BOS) and connect to the west coast without the grind of an ATL connection. It's starting slow and steady, but the goal is to grow it consistently.