Republic may drop Midwest name
 

Republic Airways plans 'unified' brand, may drop Midwest name

By Tom Daykin of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Feb. 26, 2010 |(64) Comments

One year after marking its silver anniversary, the Midwest Airlines brand appears headed for retirement, a move that could cut costs and create a more focused marketing approach for Midwest's new owner.

Indianapolis-based Republic Airways Holdings Inc., which bought Midwest in July and Frontier Airlines in October, plans to announce this spring its "unified brand plan," company spokesman Carlo Bertolini said Friday. He spoke after Republic Chairman Bryan Bedford said a new brand is coming soon, suggesting it might not use either the Midwest or Frontier name.
"We will get to a unified brand," Bedford said, during a teleconference to discuss Republic's fourth-quarter earnings.

"Now, that's different than saying we're going to pick one or the other, and keep one and lose one," said Bedford. "We believe both Frontier and Midwest bring great brand value to us. And we need to work in a path of fusing these brands that retains as much customer loyalty as we can."
"Fusing" the brands involves providing a more consistent product, including customer service, Bertolini said.

One brand for Midwest and Frontier also would help the combined airlines operate more efficiently and cut costs, Bertolini said.

Republic is conducting surveys of its customers, and it plans to complete that process by mid-March, Bedford said. Company managers will then talk to front-line employees of both Midwest and Frontier, which is based in Denver.

Sometime after Labor Day, Frontier and Midwest passengers will be booking tickets on one reservation system for both airlines, Bedford said.

"Again, I do believe that we're going to keep the best of both of what is Frontier and Midwest because both markets are just critical to us and to our long-term success," Bedford said. "But we're going to be very deliberate and cautious as to how we unify those brands."


'The brand is dead'

The loss of the Midwest brand name, which started with the airline's launch in 1984, will be of little consequence, said Steve Eichenbaum, who operates Milwaukee advertising firm Eichenbaum and Associates Inc.
Eichenbaum said the extra-wide seats and other characteristics that used to distinguish Midwest from other airlines are gone.

"The brand is dead," Eichenbaum said. "The Midwest brand . . .  isn't going to work for them. They're not the best care in the air. They're no different than anyone else."

"It's no longer Midwest in products and people," said Jay Sorensen, a former Midwest marketing manager. "It's a small degree to drop the name."
Frontier is a stronger brand name than Midwest, said Sorensen, who operates IdeaWorks, a Shorewood marketing consulting firm. He said Frontier is a better known name throughout the United States than Midwest and that it has a good reputation for customer service.
"But I think that this management team wants to have more control in creating a new brand," Sorensen said about Bedford.

Eichenbaum said the combined airline might simply be called "Republic." But, he said, that's a name that "doesn't mean anything" to Midwest customers.

Since buying Oak Creek-based Midwest, Republic has restored nonstop flights from Milwaukee to destinations such as St. Louis and Los Angeles. In November, Bedford said Republic would double its local workforce, adding up to 800 jobs in Milwaukee and Oak Creek over the next year. About half of those positions are to be shifted to the Milwaukee area from Frontier operations in Denver and elsewhere.

Hundreds of former Midwest flight attendants and pilots remain on furlough. They lost their jobs when Republic dropped Midwest's Boeing 717 fleet and replaced the planes with jets flown by lower-paid flight crews.
The Midwest crews might eventually fly on Republic-owned aircraft. But that depends in part on negotiations to combine the seniority lists of the different unions that represent employees from Republic, Midwest and Frontier.

They should drop it. YX is gone. Everyone that made YX the great airline that it once was is gone. Pax know that.

RIP Midwest Airlines. :( :(

I think that is why they are doing it. BB did not realize the loyalty was not just to the name but to the service and the people. Because of this little fact, the name is worth nothing.
Add to it they need to rid themselves of it so that the passengers to not identify the old MEH with what republic is not.

The real eye opening statement to me was that RAH was looking at dropping the Frontier name. I'm sure there will be speculation as to why, since there is some brand recognition still available, but IMO it would be a huge mistake. The new airline would just become another "startup" with a large structure, but no brand loyalty especially when competing with other large airlines. It would be a HUGE public relations nightmare for RAH to convince the public what the new airline brings to the customers. It brings up the example of Independence Air as they tried to explain what their airline represented. I think they burned through a lot if cash in their advertising budget, which was necessary for them since the didn't have an established name. It will be interesting to see how RAH approaches the change.

I think BB found the new name for his airline. After the serveys were turned in from the disgruntled Frontier passengers, he is going to call his new airline "Mid-Tier Airlines". You heard it here first boys............. (sorry fellas' I couldn't help but start the day off with a joke or two).
-Aloha

Republic can probably close up shop in MKE with that announcement. That D concourse is depressing these days, compared to a few years ago...

From another article:

"One name being considered is MidFrontChitLicCa."

Since the first couple of name resuscitation attempts failed, does anybody want to give odds that it will "Pan Am?:D

Eh Airtran will soon be the home town airline and do damn well I personally think!

Ouch...I hope not! Since DAL-NW didn't pick up the name, I'm still holding out a potential Continental-United merger would bring back Pan Am to overseas flying. Heck...CO already has a globe on the tail....

Sigh.

Republic. He loves that name.

Here's to Air Tran kicking the living "You Know What" out of the trash haulers called Republic. And all you Frontier people who are still in denial better start looking for work elsewhere. You're next.

republic was a good airline.
who bought them, NWA or TWA?

Republic was merged with NWA. TWA bought Ozark.

Here's my non-flame-bait educated guess on how this will all play out.

5 years from now:

Midwest brand, service, name and original hub (MKE) gone. Midwest Legacy crews all gone, in part due to the awful deal they will get on the integration, and the fact that Republic as a whole will shrink.

Fleet reduction, most 50 seats gone, some 70 seaters gone. UA and DL don't renew due to the obvious competition that the new and improved Frontier will bring into their markets. Most buses will go away and replaced in some ratio with either 190's or BB's new toy the C-series.

Frontier is the new name for all integrated branded operations. However, due to continued pressure from other LCC's (SWA, Airtran, possibly even JetBlue), the business model shifts from a service driven product (Legacy Midwest, current Frontier), to a wholesale lesser quality product.

End result:

RAH will be about half the size it currently is, but still around. Most Frontier and Midwest Legacy crews gone due to decaying QOL, pay, and issues with SLI. Most of the buses gone with a 1-2 or even 1-3 ratio of replacement. Most market share shifting over to Airtran and Southwest. All and all, a bad thing for everyone involved and everyone in the industry.

Uptimistc (yet unrealistic) result:

SLI goes through without a scratch, everyone is happy, the company thrives without much resistance from competition, and the new and improved Frontier integrated pilot group negotiates an industry leading contract.

Time will tell, again, this is just a humble opinion, and educated guess.

goaround

What's the fuss? Delta is consigning the NWA name to history just as AA did to TWA.

Who remembers Western Airlines? Allegheny? Pan Am?

Is RAH really breaking new ground here? I think not.

That's awesome. And the airline's slogan will be changed from "Best care in the air" to "We suck less than everyone else."

The question is will DAL be stupid enough to let the "one-way" code share live on and adjust the agreement to the "new" MEH name? If so we have to approve it at D-ALPA.
Lets hope we are not that gullible.

Why is it "stupid" ?

If Delta thinks it can't operate it's own feed effectively, then why not facilitate an offline passenger's flow into a 767?

We need to develop a business model that allows us to perform our own flying profitably. Until then, this makes sense. That must be why we (both ALPA and Management) keep facilitating outsourcing.

Hence the reason anyone who desires improvement in job security provisions must resist the "outsourcing is good" logic as the never ending tactical retreat that it is.

Outsourcing is not good. It is a short term fix to a failed business model. When you need to survive you do business deals that will offer up some sort of cash flow until (you hope) someday you are financially strong enough to retreat from your mistakes.

Like I have stated, there will be a time when airlines are shown that outsourcing their product, (not just SJS but code shares and JV's) will result in the business failing.
JAL would have been a good example and Alaska may put a huge dent in to DAL's West Coast Model. DAL better be mindful of the AS deal or they will get burnt by all of the flying they are allowing them to perform. (we do not have the assets to cover that flying so if the code (feed) becomes unavailable we stand to let many international flights die on the vine)

Just a side note but Midwest wasn't a Legacy. I've seen it referred to a few other times.

I think he is referring to the Midwest pilots that were part of the original Midwest (ie not the pilots flying aircraft in Midwest colors now), not the status the airline held.

Oh gotcha.

Very astute.

Drop the name...go with Frontier.

Combine the names... Mid-rear.

Sill amazed that the Frontier folks turned down SWA. Wouldn't it be better to be at the bottom of SWA's list than anywhere on RAH's?

Especially when the writing is on the wall that RAH plans to phase out the Airbus. That will put them in the same position as the Midwest and Lynx crews. Such as it is working for the scum of the airline industry.

I was starting to get worried that a Republic/F9 thread was going to make it over three pages without someone pointing out how silly we were for "choosing" Republic over Southwest. That was a close one.

As for the name...

Braniff....Believe It!

Still amazed that there are people out there that don't bother learning the facts about the deal. Frontier didn't "choose" RAH over Southwest. Our deal was worth more in the end and the judge "chose" our deal over Southwest. No matter what SWA guys want you to believe, the deal wasn't killed because of the integration issues.

Facts...gotta' love 'em!

Well, I suppose you could say that the judge made the decision, but that ignores the fact that the decision by Southwest not to bid any higher was based on pilot integration. Six of one, half dozen of the other.

4 hours isn't enough to broker a seniority integration, no doubt about it. There will be a lot of revisionist history in the next year or two, based on how this all plays out. It's always good to see where you've been, what you were promised, what has been done since then, and review your reasons for making a decision.

If you want a real eye opener, go back to the threads from when this was all emotion driven.

http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/ma...tegration.html

From a Wall Street Journal posting:

"The Frontier Airlines executives and unions officials returning home from last Thursday’s auction in which Frontier was sold to Republic Airways Holdings Inc. were hailed as heroes.

"After landing in Denver, Frontier’s hub, their airplane taxied beneath a “water cannon salute” and was greeted at the gate by 200 cheering Frontier employees. “It was awesome,’’ recalls John Stemmler, president of Frontier’s pilots union.

"The deal with Republic has people in Denver celebrating because it prevented Frontier from being sold to Southwest Airlines, which would have likely resulted in thousands of job cuts. Republic, which is a contract flier for other airlines, will likely keep more Frontier jobs because it doesn’t currently employ ticket handlers or do route planning.

"The Frontier pilots were key to the outcome because they balked at a proposal by Southwest’s pilots union that would have put the Frontier pilots at the bottom of the seniority list of the combined companies. Southwest was unwilling to negotiate and handed the keys to Republic."

"DENVER, August 13, 2009 - Frontier Airlines Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB: FRNTQ) today announced that Republic Airways Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: RJET) has been declared the winning bidder in the auction to acquire Frontier. The auction was conducted under procedures established in Frontier’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases.
Republic submitted the highest and best bid, which included substantial improvements from its original investment proposal. Republic waived virtually all conditions precedent to closing and has advised Frontier that it yesterday received Hart-Scott- Rodino antitrust clearance for the transaction. Republic also agreed to waive distributions on its $150 million prepetition unsecured claim, which is expected to result in a 94 percent increase in the distribution to Frontier’s general unsecured creditors. The selection of Republic’s bid was made in consultation with the Creditors’ Committee appointed in Frontier’s Bankruptcy Case."


The reason you do not see any reference to FAPA in the above paragraph is because FAPA did not "choose" anyone in the auction. The CEO, and then the UCC, and finally the judge, chose the highest and best bid. Prior to the BK filing, the CEO has a fiduciary responsibility to the share holders. After April 10, 2008 that responsibility shifted to the UCC.



I really wish that FAPA had the power to choose one bidder over another, unfortunately that just isn't how it works.

I agree, some midwest pilots were the scum of the industry, luckily those few scumbags are out of the game now.

Let's see, a Republic pilot calling a Midwest pilot scumb even after you replaced him and threw him out in the street. Your words reflect your place in the aviation sewer. Next in line please.

......Thank you for proving my point........

Yup. This whole deal is going in the history books as one of the greatest business blunders in aviation.

Don't feed the fire. If you drop to that level you're no better. DR hasn't been very accurate. Don't waste your "street cred" on that.

I would say you are partially correct and partially incorrect. If FAPA had agreed to an integration plan with SWAPA, there is no way anyone could predict how this would turn out. SWA may have upped their bid, or still pulled the bid if the price became too high. To some extent the FAPA pilots held some, not all, but some control. An integration plan would have given SWA freedom of uncontrolled bidding. There is no telling what price SWA was willing to pay because it never got that far. They offered a competitive bid (regardless of what they felt F9 was worth) with a "requirement" that a seniority integration plan be in place before they proceeded further. So, if FAPA had agreed to something then things may have turned out different. Since the only bid left because of the integration stipulation was RAH it went to them by de facto. So although the judge selected the winning bidder, if a seniority plan would have been decided upon, then SWA may have been the winner.

Really? I guess the quotes below don't count and it really wasn't up to the Pilot Reps?

Are there any Frontier Pilots on here who can honestly tell me they are happier where they are now versus holding a spot on Southwest's seniority list?