This afternoon, 9/3/08, Tim H announced the lastest screwed plans for Midwest Airlines. His major plan now, this week, is to cut down the 717s from 25 to 9 (that is not a typo). While hiring Republic to fly 12 EMB-170s to replace those 16 returned 717s. So the new fleet for "Midwest" is planned for:

9 717
12 EMB-170 (Republic)
12 CRJ-200 (SkyWest)

Ground services are already contracted out at MKE and almost all outstations. Midwest Connect RJ flying is all contracted. I think this very well may be the first attempt to run an airline with just an HQ and the rest contractors.

The dominos have been tipped.....

What kind of scope protection does midwest have in their contract? Must not be too much if this is for real.

I wish I could type what I really feel, but that is total bs. These corporations have got to go. They have no respect for the American worker anymore.

If this trend continues we all should bolt. (Hisss!)

Shut it down! That's just ridiculous. PUKE~~

No clue about the scope clause but I would be suprised if it is only 88 and higher.

Nope, UAL and USAir have been slowly making this same transition for quite a while.

This latest Midwest deal will be closer than UAL and US.

How about this: Midwest will be the first to fully convert to a corporate logo shell game.

How long will it take UPS and FedEx to figure this out and take steps towards becoming a "virtual" airline?

I don't know if it is good or bad for the Midwest or Republic pilots but it is my understanding that Midwest can convert the agreement into an aircraft lease and be operated by Midwest Airlines. Does that mean they would bring their 717 pilots back from furlough to fly the 170s?

It doesn't sound like a good deal for either pilots other than it saved a few RAH pilots from going on the street next month. It also seems odd after Midwest cancelled a lot of the SkyWest flying only to sign a deal with Republic less than 2 months later.