SWA at MKE

[airplane wizard]

Does SWA ever plan on coming to MKE I thought they would have been in there long before Airtran. Good competition for midex.

 

[fletch717]

20 plus gates 60 miles south they don't need mke.

 

[SWA/FO]

29 gates in MDW. Heard MKE was the "next city" before 9/11. Not anymore.

 

[MSNFlier]

Other than LA, might be worst 50 miles in the US...

Why wouldn't SWA come to MKE?

Even with Midwest's main ops there, MKE is still way underutilized, and it's a lot easier to get there from most anywhere in the Chicago area north of PWK east to Lake Michigan and west to I-90 than it is to MDW.

Let's go to the tape. Say you live in Waukegan, IL, or its environs - a fast-growing, generally wealthy area which likely generates plenty of customers for airlines

According the Mapquest, it's 50 miles to MDW from Waukegan, so you figure what? an hour or less? Not so fast my friend! Ever tried to actually drive that corridor, either through downtown Chicago and then out to MDW, or around on I-294? Most days, it's a total nightmare, even with the advent of open-road tolling. Easily a 1.5 to 2 hour drive from your front door to parking your car - so if you want to make sure you get to your gate on time, leave at least 3 hours before your flight. For ORD, give yourself at least 2 hours.

According to Mapquest it's 45 miles to MKE from Waukegan, all on 6 lane expressways with no tolls and nary a traffic jam. At 75 mph or more (common speeds on that portion of I-94), you can drive to MKE, park in the giant ramp directly connected to the terminal (currently charging $10/day with plenty of room to expand, by the way), go through security and be at your gate within 1.5 hours, no sweat.

I think a reasonable case can be made for SWA here because they could continue their huge presence at MDW, but also pick off customers on the north side of Chicago. Sort of "stealth-competing" with the legacy carriers at ORD for domestic routes while avoiding a direct fare war - something every carrier, including SWA would like to avoid. A northern front, if you will, in SWA's war on the legacies in a top three market. At the same time, Midwest would probably fold like a wet noodle on any directly competing routes from MKE.

Who knows? Just my humble two cents.

Fly safe,

 

[Alcatraz]

I'll second what MSNFlier said about the drive being a pain... driving from MKE to MDW every time I go to work I would know. It would be an affordable airport to effectively pull at the "other half" of Chicago and SE Wisconsin that considers MDW "too far." Plus, there's the Amtrak that goes from Union Station in Chicago to the MKE airport with a few stops on the way... done this a bunch, too, and it's a nice way to travel.

I've also heard what SWA/FO said about it being our next destination before 9/11. I'd keep it in the top ten of new destinations even now for the above reasons, but somewhere around #9 or #10 (non satellite airports like MSP, CLT, EWR, LGA, and/or JFK are at the front of the pack I think). Which means we ain't going there any time soon...

 

[Flydaplane]

SWA buys Midwest??

Maybe SWA will buy Midwest just to spite Airtran again like they did in MDW. They'd get gates, East Coast slots, and a bunch of crappy planes, and they'd stick it to Airtran. They'd probably be able to sell off the 717's and ditch the 80's. Hopefully they'd at least keep the pilots...