So I knew a lady who drove a huge SUV, then gas prices went to 4.29 a gallon. After a few weeks of paying those prices, she traded in her SUV for a Hyundai Sonata. As i see it, Midwest had a SUV and they were hemoraging cash. They needed an IMMEDIATE change. They couldnt afford to buy a more cost effective aircraft and shut down half of their operation while the pilot group and the MX got aquainted with the 170.
Quite possibly one of the most naive analogies (if you can even call it that) I've ever seen. First of all, it was RAH's management that approach Midwest not the other way around. According to your logic, the industry should be a short term reactive machine, as in if gas drops tomorrow to $40 a barrel now airlines should now buy 777's; however, if gas continues to go up next week, now they should dump their narrows and get 170's.
First of all, in an operating environment of gas above $120 a barrel, most legacy carriers will not make any money on anything smaller than a 757...that's just basic math based on CASM as taken from multiple quarterly reports from DAL to UAL to CAL. Second, what Midwest needed (same as Frontier) was an infusion of cash, and a reorganization of the structure of the product itself, both which could have been accomplished without outsourcing 100's of jobs. Again, how familiar are you with this situation? No offence, but you seem to be trying to justify a disgusting act by a very unethical management group.
Some of you guys should think before you post.