Here comes the WHIPSAW


Republic may shift Frontier Airlines work to Milwaukee
By Tom Daykin of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Sept. 3, 2009 9:48 p.m.



The company that recently bought Midwest Airlines and is buying Denver-based Frontier Airlines might shift 150 to 400 jobs from Denver and elsewhere to the Milwaukee area.

Republic Airways Holdings Inc. executives are considering the jobs shifts and could make a decision within 30 days, Republic Chief Executive Officer Bryan Bedford said Thursday.

Frontier Airlines Holdings Inc. said this week that creditors have approved its bankruptcy reorganization plan, including its planned purchase by Republic. Frontier said it expects its Sept. 10 confirmation hearing in bankruptcy court in New York to be "largely uncontested."

The Frontier jobs that are in play include a customer service center in Las Cruces, N.M., with 150 employees; another 150 heavy maintenance jobs at Denver International Airport, and around 100 other Denver-based positions, Bedford said.

The Las Cruces customer service center will definitely be relocated to save money, Bedford said. Milwaukee, Denver and Indianapolis, where Republic has its corporate headquarters, are each being considered for that operation, he said.

The Denver positions that are in play could stay in that city, or could be moved to Milwaukee or Indianapolis, he said.

The Milwaukee area is being considered in part because both the Midwest operations center, at 6744 S. Howell Ave. in Oak Creek, and the Midwest maintenance hangar near Mitchell International Airport have a lot of available space, Bedford said.

That's the result of job cuts that occurred at Midwest over the past year or so. Most of the cuts, involving over 2,000 positions, occurred before Midwest was sold to Republic on July 31 for $31 million.

Midwest has about 1,000 Milwaukee-area positions but is laying off its union pilots and flight attendants while replacing their aircraft with Republic jets. Those Midwest flight crews could be rehired by Republic, but only after their unions and the unions representing Republic flight crews merge their job seniority lists.

Bedford made his remarks in a meeting with the Journal Sentinel's editorial board. He also repeated plans by Republic to add more Midwest flights from Milwaukee, including renewed service to West Coast destinations.

"There will be some news coming," he said.

Some of those new flights will be on Airbus A319 and A320 jets from Frontier, Bedford said. Republic is scheduled to complete its purchase of Frontier on Oct. 1.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.