AirTran, Midwest gear up for battle at MKE

The new hotbed of low-cost carrier competition in the Midwest could be Milwaukee. Southwest Airlines last week announced it will begin service at the city’s General Mitchell Airport “later this year,” offering service to “multiple destinations” from MKE, although it has not yet identified the markets it will serve. Later, Southwest’s CEO reportedly told a Milwaukee newspaper that the service will begin November 1, with eight to 10 daily departures. It’s the third new market for Southwest to be announced in recent weeks, along with New York LaGuardia, where service starts June 28; and Boston, where Southwest will start flying August 16.

Milwaukee has already been gaining plenty of new service from AirTran Airways, which has been building up its schedules there ever since it failed in an attempt to take over Milwaukee-based Midwest Airlines. Just this month, AirTran began seasonal service from MKE to Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, Boston and San Diego, as well as year-round service to New York LaGuardia, Minneapolis-St. Paul, St. Louis and Denver. AirTran also flies from MKE to Atlanta, BWI and several leisure markets. Meanwhile, Midwest Airlines last week inked a deal with Republic Airways Holdings that calls for the latter company to start flying two 100-passenger Embraer 190s under the Midwest banner, starting in August and September. Republic’s subsidiaries include Chautauqua Airlines, Republic Airlines and Shuttle America. The two aircraft “will provide us new flexibility in terms of our route network and range, with the potential to once again fly non-stop to the west coast from our Milwaukee hub,” said Midwest CEO Tim Hoeksema – although he stopped short of saying which routes the planes will actually fly. Republic currently operates a dozen 76-seat Embraer 170s for the Midwest Connect network.