The new Midwest Airlines route map, which takes effect in September, represents a back-to-business approach, even though it involves some serious cuts. After the airline decided to get rid of all of its dozen MD80s, it fell back on its Boeing 717 fleet, a far more fuel-efficient fleet but one with less range. The MD80s that Midwest is retiring have ranges of between 1,570 and 2,050 nautical miles, while the Boeing 717 gets 1,430 nm. Therein lie the decisions that Midwest has made: end the longest routes and the leisure routes.
So it will cease all service at Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers in Florida, make Orlando a seasonal route and end San Diego flights. While it keeps West Coast service on its schedule, people have to stop in Kansas City to get to Los Angeles and Seattle. They now have to stop at MCI to get to San Francisco. At the start of 2008, Midwest served 47 cities; it will be down to 32 after the cuts. The moves take it back to the 1980s.
It also ends flights from its Milwaukee home to BWI, Hartford, St. Louis, San Antonio, and Louisville, KY, cities it had served through its Midwest Connect contract with SkyWest. Skywest will also end Midwest Connect service at Muskegon, Michigan, and Wausau/Stevens Point, Wisconsin, two small towns that had long had service from the carrier when it was Midwest Express.
MCI retains its status as a focus city, but losses some of its focus and all service to San Diego and San Antonio, Orlando, and Madison, Wis. The carrier ended service from Kansas City to Pittsburgh and Austin the other week. It has already ended service at Austin, Charlotte, Colorado Springs, and Duluth. Midwest did say it was expanding its code share with Northwest to add some 100 city pairs. And Northwest said it would start non-stops between Milwaukee and Los Angeles.
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