Midwest Airlines

As I write this, some reporters are writing the obituary for Midwest Airlines. Midwest's management is more than a little distracted by a hostile buyout attempt by ATA, a Jacksonville, Florida based competitor.

In an unusual display of loyalty, a number of Midwest customers have registered their public trepidation over the deal. That concern is well placed when you ponder what sense there is for ATA a low fare, no frills economy airline to buy Midwest with its reputation of a high service and competitive, but not the lowest fares. Their routes overlap so much that it appears the most ATA would get is gates and equipment.

Midwest stockholders would get a premium for their stock. And the customers, well, that remains to be seen. But the claim that ATA would not discontinue Midwest's famous hot chocolate chip cookies is certainly indicative of how sensitive they are to the Midwest"s loyal and and almost cult like customer list.

As I see it here is the score card if ATA succeeds in acquiring Midwest.

• Midwest management is out on the street looking for jobs. Considering the animosity this deal has built there is no way anyone high up in Midwest would be retained for longer than a year or so.
  
  
• Milwaukee loses yet one more corporate headquarters. When the decision making goes to Jacksonville, the loss of high management people and blow to civic pride in losing a prestigious business headquartered in our backyard is terrible and especially hurtful to Milwaukee in this stage of it's rebuilding.
  
  
• Most of the decision making middle management jobs will be gone by the one year anniversary of the take over. Milwaukee will be left with gate workers and station mangers.
  
  
• Forget the cookies, service at the level that Midwest offered is gone in less than a year.
  
  
• If Milwaukee doesn't support ATA up to their expectations they will pare down and leave us high and dry without second thought. Please remember their expectations are based on someones guess as to how much money they can make if this takeover goes through. If that guy guessed wrong, you can forget all the pie in the sky promises about thousands of jobs.
  
  
• Local suppliers to Midwest might as well kiss their business goodbye. Alterra a local coffee roaster supplies premium product to Midwest. They and anyone local will lose their business eventually. The coffee contract and others like it will go to the lowest bidder regardless of quality, because that is ATA's approach to the market. I suspect most of the supply business will go to a large national distribution chain, kind of a B to B Walmart, or to suppliers they currently do business with in the Jacksonville area
  

Here is another thing Milwaukee might as well swallow early in the game, If ATA takes over Midwest it will be the major airline operating out of Milwaukee and your choices will be predicated on the rules of the game as they play it. So if your one of those loyal Midwest customers that say, if Midwest goes you'll will never fly ATA, than you might have to fly out of Chicago. If ATA imports their low fare philosophy any other carrier will have to follow their lead. If they can't compete they will abandon the market. Ask someone from the Twin Cites how they enjoy living with Northwest as the airline that calls the shots in Minneapolis - St Paul.

(Remember the Jordan Rule of Purchasing. Every purchase involves the evaluation of three aspects, Highest quality, adequate service and best price. You can only have two. Unless you shop at Walmart where you only get one.)

Trust me, I tried to find a plus in the circumstances where the deal goes through, but none are apparent unless you like flying on airplanes that are the equivalent of flying buses. If I want that level of discomfort and inconvenience, I will fly Southwest, the other airline with a cult following.

All in all the deal stinks. It's bad for Midwest, its customers and the City of Milwaukee. What's obvious is that the stockholders don't care for any of these entities. Ain't America grand.