can anyone tell me how the midwest connect routes from mke to clt and rdu are doing?
Its been a money losing operating the last few quarters. There plans are to get rid of the 1900’s, which for whatever reason are costing them a lot to maintain. It’s grown a lot with the addition of the CRJ’s from skywest and the continued downgrades of YX mainline to regional.
the routes have been money loseing or the company in general?
Midwest Connect as a whole has been losing money. I am sure their are routes that are making money, but a large chunk are losing money. The problem with Midwest Connect is as it grows, the airline as whole has more connecting traffic (as it is a regional carrier and most regionals connect you to the hub and MKE or MCI are not desirable O&d markets). Also the average stage length has gone up a lot yet the fares go down. And YX is not really a low cost airline as it has big signature seats, yet they try to compete with other airlines that are packing seats into their planes. And add that the d-328 jets are not really that efficient.
I think when you see tpg take over, they will make a lot of changes like adding more seats to the planes, and maybe charging for the cookies. I also believe they will slash some of the Connect routes. Something has to change.
is midwest airlines mainline the same way?..i would like to see the 717s in clt
I’m guessing that they’ll sell the EAS routes to Northwest or Great Lakes Aviation then dump skyway’s B1900s and dump all 1900-only destinations that weren’t EAS. Then they’ll dump the 328Jets and have SkyWest or ExpressJet operate the remaining Midwest Connect routes with ERJ’s or CRJ’s.
You most likely won’t see 717’s going to CLT. It is a developing route for them and the 717’s are saved for high key business routes like LGA and DCA. They have however downgraded many 717 cities like PHL, MSP, and EWR. There are a lot of 717’s sitting around and a lot more CRJ’s flying around. I happen to believe that the future is bleak for YX. They can’t make a profit in the period when most airlines have figured it out, and as they downgrade planes (and add more seats to the 717’s), the product is no longer differentiated from others which offer more frequency, and lower prices.
MKE FUTURE…NWA…with 70 year old dc-9’s 
Didn’t know that the 1960’s were 70 years ago! That’s when the DC-9 first came out.
Why do so many people consider it downgrading when an airline goes from a larger aircraft to a smaller aircraft? To me, it’s “right sizing.” Downgrading is when you go from any type of aircraft to no aircraft on a given route.
yeah they only put 88 seats on their 717s 
…they should put like a 100 or so with a 3-2 config not 2-2