NWA Moving into MKE with Pinnacle

[Longhorn]

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040414/cgw012_1.html

Any thoughts?

 

[Lequip]

Thinking Midwest Express is gonna bleed even worse. Weeding out the week so the strong will survive. Who will go away 1st, Mid Exp or USAir?

 

[ShadowFlight]

Thinking Midwest Express is gonna bleed even worse. Weeding out the week so the strong will survive. Who will go away 1st, Mid Exp or USAir?

You may want to check out Yahoo Finance message board under MEH. There's a guy who posts really good info about Midwest. He believes, and it makes sense, that NW isn't really going after Midwest. There is a big fight in Madison about tax relief for WI-based airlines and NW was on the losing end. Long story short, the WI legislature was giving Midwest and Air Wisconsin tax relief/credits but not to NW which angered Northwest. NW's position is that because they've been in WI the longest with the most flights they are entitled to the same relief. WI legislature said no because NW isn't based in WI and doesn't have a hub here. MKE is only a "mini" hub which means it's really only a place for NW to park about eight planes overnight.

Also, Midwest load factors out of MKE were higher than Northwest. They may be adding flights from MKE but that doesn't mean their load factors will increase. AirTran came to MKE and their loads (mostly MKE-BWI and some ATL flights) are going down.

Check out the Yahoo board. There is really good info out there from a poster named Knope.

Peace

 

[metroplex]

NW load factors are absolutly terrible out of MKE (besides DTW and MSP}. It was said that Skyway had no chance to beat NW in going to MSP. SYX has 4 flights and they are doing absolutly great. They are getting more and more NW pax, because they hate NW service. if NW would bring in mainline equipment maybe there would be a problem but CRJs , the most uncomtortable RJ out there , no chance.

 

[Propsync]

I would imagine NW is losing money on every flight except for DTW, MSP, and MCO (that one flight is full). But the game is frequency, and NW does not come close to MA (Midwest). All the others were once a day. You can add flights, but if you don't have enough to sway all, you are at risk to lose. I agree with shadowflight that they are just looking for a tax break. But , is it cheaper to operate these flight with a tax break and no PAX, or do something somewhere else?

US Air Exp. will be the first to go around Oct. I imagine. If MA started to CHT, I bet it would quicken the change.

If MA gets the Delta deal, they can weather any storm. NW going to BWI is a play on AirTran, NW to MCI is a play on MA. We'll see.

BTW- Not to be too biased, but we're always full out of MSP to MKE on Skyway. We've done great on that market. We could succeed on MEM and DTW, too.

 

[flap operator]

Keep in mind that NW has served MKE for most of its 75+ years of service. MKE is the largest non hub city for NW only second to SEA. This includes o&d folks, frequent fliers etc... Bottom line is that MKE is a very important city for NW. With extra capasity flying around, it only makes sense for NW to focus on cities where they can make money outside their hubs. Hence the FNT and GRR FL flights.

Loadfactors are a hard way to tell the viability of a flight... just as full flights don't necessarily mean profits, rather empty flights don't mean a loss.

While NW plays a VERY good game of hardball, I seriously doubt that their main objective here in MKE is to shut Midwest down. Competition probably... but not out for murder. Just blood.


FO