While Milwaukee was once a one-horse town for local air travelers, a whole new ballgame begins this week.

Service to and from Mitchell International Airport continues to grow as AirTran Airways expands its local presence, Midwest Airlines, under the ownership of Republic Airlines, begins to resume service to a number of destinations and Southwest Airlines comes to town.

The expanded service is good news for Milwaukeeans, who will reap the benefits through competition-driven price wars and more options for travel, both business and leisure.

The airport set a record in September when 648,779 passengers flew through Mitchell, an increase of 16.85 percent from September 2008. The increase in traffic is almost directly linked to the leap in capacity as there were 19 percent more seats on flights coming in or out of the airport.

More than anything, though, low fares played a major role.

In the second quarter of 2009, average fares for flights to and from Mitchell were $28 less than the national average and $44 less than flights to or from Chicago's O'Hare International.

Overall, the average airfare out of Milwaukee was lower than 75 other airports in the country.

Attracting Chicago-area residents wishing to avoid the notorious delays at O'Hare or the travel hassles of Midway Airport has long been a goal of Mitchell officials and airlines.

But Mitchell is also quickly becoming a very large regional airport. Aside from drawing travelers from the metropolitan area and northern Illinois, Mitchell is becoming a more viable option for out-state fliers and those in Upper Michigan as well as Iowa.

"With 12 airlines offering 50 direct flights daily, people are more willing to drive to Milwaukee as opposed to O'Hare and Midway," airport director Barry Bateman says.

What's next for Midwest?

The current price wars are win-win for consumers, but could be a challenge for Midwest Airlines.

Midwest has long been the major player at Mitchell but has seen its market share slip in recent years. The airline at one time accounted for 50 percent of the traffic at Mitchell, but that number dropped to a little more than 35 percent in September.

The decline started after fuel prices skyrocketed in 2008, leading to a 40 percent reduction in service. The airline has also shed a lot of the amenities that set it apart from other airlines, including its trademark, two-across, wide leather seating.

The airline's $31 million sale to Indianapolis-based Republic Airlines was completed last month and almost all flight operations are handled by Republic crews. Midwest employees still handle some ground operations

The new owners have said that they plan to restore service to destinations cut by Midwest in the past, but requests for comment were not returned by airline representatives.

An era ended for Midwest Airlines Monday night, when the last legacy Midwest flight crew landed the last Boeing 717 at Mitchell. As part of Republic Airlines' purchase of Midwest, fuel-efficient 99-seat Embraer 190 and 136-seat Airbus 319 jets have replaced the 717s and are being operated by lower-cost Republic flight crews.

Industry analysts agree, though, that Midwest's market share could continue to fall as passengers flock to low-cost carriers like AirTran and Southwest, especially if Republic phases out the remaining signature services provided by Midwest.

"Because of the transparency of ticket prices on the Internet, you've got to provide excellent service and do things to fill those airplanes up," Mitchell's Bateman says.

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8 comments about this article. Post a comment / write a review.

Recent Talkbacks ...

Posted by rabid652 on Nov. 4, 2009 at 11:44 a.m. (report)

"Let the race to the bottom begin. Competition based solely on the lowest price will mean smaller seats, less legroom, fewer assigned seats, and generally a worse travel experience. " I've flown Southwest numerous times and have found it to be not only the most affordable, but perhaps the most comfortable. Hopefully, they can keep this up as the airline industry continues to evolve. A much more troubling (and direct result of super cheap tickets) developement is the gross underpaying and overworking of airline pilots and outsourcing of criticle plane maintenance. This is bound to catch up with the industry sooner than later.

Posted by Mezzoid on Nov. 4, 2009 at 10:23 a.m. (report)

I always had a great experience flying Southwest when I lived in Baltimore, and have been looking forward to its arrival ever since I moved back here. I will fly Midwest whenever I can get non-stop reasonably priced flights and Southwest the rest of the time.

Posted by Mezzoid on Nov. 4, 2009 at 10:20 a.m. (report)

I recently flew AirTran and had a great experience flying Milwaukee to BWI but had a horrendous experience NOT flying BWI-MKE. Several other people flying to MKE (besides us) could not get through the line to the counter in time (half hour in line) and our flight was closed. We were put on standby but they had so oversold all their flights that we could not be guaranteed a flight home that day (and our initially booked flight was at 6:50am). We had a family emergency at home and were told to talk to a supervisor but we couldn't find one and he didn't respond to pages. We wound up renting a car and driving the 14 hours to get back home. AirTran's response to our complaint was that they can't let us board if we don't check in in time. We were there in plenty of time and we asked if they could prioritize in order of the flights' departure times and were told they were understaffed. And we were offered $25 vouchers as a "goodwill gesture."

Posted by alba on Nov. 4, 2009 at 10:08 a.m. (report)

leprechaunshawn - I think you're being hurt by Spring Break demand. I see flights for as low as $190 from MKE to FLL in March using Orbitz's flexible search option, but the prime dates are definitely more expensive.

Posted by leprechaunshawn on Nov. 4, 2009 at 8:35 a.m. (report)

I'm not seeing much benefit to this extra competition. My wife and I have spent the last couple weeks looking for roundtrip airfare to Ft. Lauderdale. We're going in mid-March and airfare right now looks to be around $325 per person. A couple years ago I flew Frontier to San Diego via Denver for $260 round trip. There is no reason airfare should be over $300 to get anywhere in the U.S. from Milwaukee.