money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/art … 2008-1.htm
Really sad for the people of MKE.
I think for the MKE passenger this might actually be a good thing. It means every FRJ route will be upgraded to 50 seats. While the FRJ is an interesting aircraft, it’s not terribly efficient and never delivered the performance it promised (kind of what you’d expect from bodging turbofans onto a turboprop airframe).
The article doesn’t mention what will happen to the EAS destinations that Skyway is flying with the 1900’s. The Midwest website is still selling them past April 5 and listing them as operated by Skyway 1900’s, but I can’t see how it is at all economical to operate a passenger airline that only flies 4 Beech 1900’s.
Summary of Order 2008-1-13 from the Department of Transportation:
By this order, the Department is: (a) selecting Mesaba Aviation, Inc., d/b/a Mesaba Airlines (Mesaba), operating as Northwest Airlink, utilizing 34-seat Saab 340 aircraft to provide subsidized EAS at Iron Mountain/Kingsford and Escanaba Michigan, at a combined annual subsidy rate of $2,251,767; and (b) requesting proposals by February 1 from carriers interested in providing EAS at Ironwood, Michigan/Ashland, Wisconsin, and Manistee/Ludington, Michigan, for a new two-year period, beginning when the carrier inaugurates full service, with or without subsidy. Mesaba will provide EAS at Iron Mountain/Kingsford and Escanaba, Michigan, for a new two-year term beginning when it inaugurates full service.
See the full docket for additional details on EAS at these communities.
I know that in this day and age of high fuel and operational cost, airline attrition and consolidation is a healthy thing for the industry, but I can’t help but think about the personnel. I was around for the demise of Chicago Express and especially those last 6 months were rumor filled, and tense. The most accurate info came from message boards like this. The job wasn’t work, I got to play airport every day.
I would check Airliners.net every day (kinda like watching a train wreck) and the posts would say “C8 has 30 days” “C8 on the chopping block” etc etc. At aerodromes such as mine and many Skyway flew to (especially w/ the BE1) there aren’t many options as far as other airlines to go work, so in that respect it really sucks. Hopefully the employees and crew memebers are able to overcome this real quick!
I’m kind of suprised that YX doesn’t outsource to Air Wisconsin. Air Wisconsin is right their in Wisconsin!
I’m kind of suprised that YX doesn’t outsource to Air Wisconsin. Air Wisconsin is right their in Wisconsin!
Another case of the lowest bidder.
It is ironic though, Air Willy has no Wisconsin routes with the exception of maybe MKE (correct me if I’m wrong). It kinda reminds of Great Lakes. (everyone thinks THE Great Lakes, they’re actually named after a small chain of lakes in IA), but they fly to neither those Great Lakes or THE Great Lakes.
I wonder if during the UA is dumping us and we’re looking for work days of Air Wisconsin, they approached Midwest at all. I was at Air Wisky during that time but didn’t hear much until the US Airways deal came through. Good airline, I’m sure Midwest would’ve been happy with their performance must have just had too high of a price if it were indeed discussed.
If you’re talking about outsourcing the EAS routes, I don’t think they can do that.
I used to fly Air Wisc alot during the 146 days and they were great. Also had what turned out to be a great trip on Great Lakes in a brand new E120’s first day of service from Chicago to Denver via Cedar Falls?, IA, Sioux City, IA and Grand Island, NE.
No, I am curious as to why Skywest got the job over Air Wisconsin (not EAS routes as they will most likely be dropped). I think another poster mentioned a lower bid price by Skywest as the reason.
Three Regionals at Risk in Merger Talks
Pinnacle, SkyWest and Comair may be at grave risk in any Delta/Northwest or Delta/United merger. Should the Northwest merger take place the likelihood that Cincinnati and Memphis will be de-hubbed is very strong. Salt Lake City could also fall victim.
Delta hopes to reach an agreement to merge with either Northwest or United within the next two weeks but industry insiders suggest that the United angle is a smokescreen to make the combination with Northwest look better.
However, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported that a DL/NW combination could be a done deal given the fact that Northwest hired a merger consultant before it emerged from bankruptcy last May. The newspaper said that insiders believe that major issues have already been resolved. For a complete analysis see the next issue of Regional Aviation News.
I think the regional aspect of the merger would be tough. If I am right, a lot of regionals have contracts with majors to fly so many flights. This becomes an issue as a combined DL/NW would have: Mesaba, Pinnacle, Compass, Shuttle America, Skywest, ASA, Comair, Freedom, Expressjet, and Chautaqua,
NW owns Pinnacle’s Aircraft - thusly those aircraft are staying. Nobody else has the extra crew right now to fly them and therefore Pinnacle is the safest.
Skywest has a very large operation for United and if there’s an NW/DL merger then SLC will definitely be staying and in fact may see MORE RJ’s (and less mainline). Also, they have a large number of CR7’s an CR9’s, which makes them very desirable to keep at least operating those aircraft.
DL has a very high fare premium at CVG. In the case of a merger they will only be dropping the small northern cities that are better served from DTW or MSP (such as LAN, FSD, AZO, FWA). Chautauqua has already taken over a lot of those routes. Comair’s LGA/JFK operation is as big as their CVG one these days.
I disagree, I think in a merger with DL and NW, CVG and MEM will be downsized significantly, to small hubs, or focus cities. There is no sense in operating 7-10 hubs. I think the best option might be to downsize them to a STL size hub (100 daily flights) that is to some extent big enough to keep out competitors but small enough to be cost efficent. They can also relieve other airports like ATL for the airline. I think the danger in these mergers is that the airlines cut costs by dropping hubs (yet thinking they can gain pricing power) and then another airline comes in and picks up the pieces (hint: WN WN WN WN 
)and then they are competiting in places they didn’t expect. These airline that fill the pieces grow and challenge the airlines that cut these hubs and routes, and then you see more consolidation…the cycle goes on
CVG and MEM have ALREADY been pulled down to about that size.
They KNOW that if they dismantle one of those hubs too far that WN, F9, B6, or FL will come in to replace them, meaning they won’t do it. Like I said, DL makes a LOT of money being the dominant carrier in the CVG market. They won’t seriously compromise that advantage by dropping mainline or large RJ routes.
Cincinnati Before and After Chapter 11 Statistics
flights (daily)
June 2005 606
June 2007 413
Destinations Served
june 2005:140
june 2007:123
400 isn’t 100 flights. The delta hub though using a lot of regionals is big, and Cincinatti is luckly to have a hub with the same number of flights (by a hub airline) as cities like Denver, and Philadelphia.
Memphis is hovering around 200 flights, which is pretty good considering it is in around 5th place in o@d (see: fargoairport.com/FAR071.pdf page 21). Pretty terrible for the hub of an airline.