US LOW-COST CARRIERS, Midway and ValuJet Airlines, are establishing new hubs. Chicago-based Midway has reached agreement with American Airlines to lease gates at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, North Carolina, while Atlanta-based ValuJet has begun operations from Washington Dulles International Airport.
Midway plans to shift most of its operations from Chicago Midway to Raleigh-Durham where, on 2 March, it will begin operating 22 daily departures to Chicago and six US West Coast destinations. It has leased seven gates at American's terminal and plans to add five more gates and six more routes on 15 June, taking daily departures to 42.
American is reducing services at its loss-making Raleigh-Durham hub, which it opened in 1987, and has reached an agreement under which Midway passengers will earn American frequent-flyer miles. The airline will reduce its schedule of 60 daily departures to 17 by mid- June.
Midway will scale down its unprofitable Chicago operation, in which there are 19 daily departures, to one, and plans to offer at least 60 daily departures from Raleigh-Durham within a year. The airline operates seven Fokker 100s, with one more on firm order, and says that it is looking to acquire additional aircraft to support its Raleigh-Durham expansion.
ValuJet has begun operations from Dulles with 14 daily departures to five Florida destinations. Services to Hartford, Connecticut will begin on 8 February and the airline has applied for permission to serve Montreal's Dorval International Airport from Dulles.
With the addition of the Dulles-Hartford route, Valujet's system-wide daily departures will increase to 164 on 8 February, by which time the airline will have 24 McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31s in service. Valujet, which began operations in October 1993, plans to have 27 aircraft in service, by the end of March.
Source: Flight International
