Interesting article...
AirTran offers an opinion on Midwest Airlines
5:50 PM Wed, Oct 21, 2009 |
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Terry Maxon/Reporter
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AirTranAirways thinks the Midwest Airline we all know and love is gone, now that the brand is owned by
Republic Airways Holdings.
AirTran chairman, president and CEO Robert Fornaro said Midwest is now "just a name." He had this to say when the subject of Milwaukee came up during Wednesday's conference call with analysts to discuss earnings:
"Midwest over a 20-year period of time did a great job in the local market, and the community really rallied around them. "Republic's not going to fool anybody. I mean, Midwest is gone. You can call it what you want, but any business traveler in that part of the country knows that what used to be Midwest doesn't exist.
"And I think that's an advantage. They have no hometown advantage, and that now gives us an opportunity to make some in-roads in the local market."
Republic concluded its purchase of Midwest on July 31 from Fort Worth-based
TPG Capital. On Oct. 1, it acquired
Frontier Airlines. Republic jets have been replacing Midwest's previous fleet.
AirTran lost a bidding war for Midwest several years ago. Snubbed, it set out to build a sizeable operation of its own in Milwaukee, home of Midwest.
In the 12 months ended July 31, 2009, AirTran was the biggest carrier at Milwaukee, carrying 19.0 percent of passengers compared to 16.3 percent for
Midwest Airlines. However, independent of Midwest, Republic carried 8.8 percent of the traffic, and codeshare partner
Northwest Airlines carried 15.0 percent of the passengers.
On Nov. 1,
Southwest Airlines will also enter the Milwaukee market, bringing in some new competition.
AirTran CFO Arne Haak said AirTran is "solidly profitable in Milwaukee," while Midwest has had "some pretty disappointing margins, if you look at kind of where their pre-tax margins were for the first six months of the year."
We also have these comments from Kevin Healy, AirTran's senior vice president of marketing and planning:
"We've been in Milwaukee since 2002 and really have been developing the network steadily over time since then. I think one of the key pieces is we have the cost structure to be able to compete really with both Republic as well as Southwest, and we have a product that, beyond just I think as being superior, is consistent. We have the jets in the key markets and Wi-Fi on every flight and such. "So, we've been at it for a very long time. As we've said initially, we've built the leisure base, carry an awful lot of people there, now number two in terms of carriers in the marketplace and now are expanding into the business markets as you noted and I think we're very well positioned and feel real good about how we're doing."