Once upon a time Midwest quietly flew the best product in the sky between Milwaukee, Kansas City and a select lucky cities. The ticket price was competitive, the employees were happy, the wine and steak were plentiful, and you could eat as many cookies as you wanted too because you were lounging in giant seats. All of this took place on Midwest's workhorse, the MD-80.
Midwest started peeling away the service years ago. Now the plane is gone. Late Friday the company broke the news (without a press release) that it would be quickly grounding its 12 MD-80s. It now will be left with 25 717s. So, the quick math on that is about 1/3 of its fleet. But, when you factor in the seat differential between the two aircraft, the move knocks out a whopping 40% of Midwest's capacity.
In a recorded message to employees the "CEO Mr. Hoeksema said Midwest Airlines put together a good plan to cope with $115 oil two months ago. 'That was a good plan for the situation.'" But, he goes on to say, that the game has changed entirely too quickly.
The blunt remarks are telling and I encourage everyone to check them out (via the Dallas Morning News Blog).
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1 comment:
This video was painful to watch. But one thing has always been true about the airline business -- no carrier has ever moved into profitability by shrinking. Should be interesting if Midwest can pull it off.
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