Good money, bad money. Midwest Airlines, which used to be Midwest Express and is sometimes dubbed the bottomless money pit of Milwaukee, has saved itself from bankruptcy with yet another investment by TPG, the Texas Pacific Group. It's about $30 million. What's different this time is that it's lured another airline, Republic Airways, into putting money into its future, even though the last airline it won over, Northwest Airlines, had to write off all of its $213-million investment in Midwest (for a 47% stake). Republic puts in $15 million in a one-year loan, and agrees to another $10 million if Midwest meets some performance criteria. But Republic also gets a home for the dozen 76-seat Embraers it has been trying to place since it had to take them back from Frontier (which hasn't avoided bankruptcy) in late June.
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