We can’t say we didn’t see this coming. When you combine bad business decisions with lackluster customer service, you get failure. So when Frontier announced major Milwaukee cutbacks in staff and service last week, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise. In my opinion, it was doomed to fail from the beginning.
When Republic bought Midwest airlines and replaced it with Frontier, they immediately began implementing their bare bones approach, cutting onboard service, cutting flights and throwing smaller, less efficient, less comfortable planes – “regional jets” they call them – on most routes. Things have gone downhill ever since.
Last week, Frontier announced that they were eliminating 446 jobs in Milwaukee as well as cutting their daily flights out of Mitchell from 32 to 18. In the summer of 2010, when they took over Midwest, Frontier had 67 daily flights out of Mitchell. Now 18. Let’s face it, it is really hard to screw something up this bad. The president of the local pilots union recently said, “We think it’s tragic but not surprising. This management group has been very long on talk and short on a business plan to make it competitive. They squandered an opportunity.”
It only took Frontier two short years to squander that opportunity. In November 2011, Frontier eliminated 213 jobs in Milwaukee, and followed that up with another reduction of 120 jobs in January. Do the math. Frontier won’t be around here much longer. The airline has stated that they want to be more of a presence in Denver, hence them bailing on Milwaukee, but guess what? They are number 3 in Denver right now, behind giant United Continental and Southwest. Good luck.
I’ve made light of Frontier’s incompetence a time or two before in this space, but this is a serious situation for Milwaukee for a whole bunch of reasons.
First, we no longer have a ‘home-town airline’. We used to and it gave us bragging rights, which was good for our image and better for our local economy.
Another concern is what the heck to do with this huge convention center downtown.
Originally the Midwest Airlines Center, it then became the Frontier Airlines Center, which gave us short-lived hope that there would be some home cooking with Frontier. Not to be. So what to do with it now? It can’t be AirTran Center, because Southwest bought AirTran. It can’t be Southwest Center because that makes no sense in a Midwestern city. And it can’t be Delta Center because there already is a Delta Center at the University of Iowa. United Continental Center is too long and too confusing. So what will we call it?
Second, there is also a major impact on local employment. Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett said about the layoffs, “The loss of 500 jobs is a setback for the region. My hope is that other airlines will step in and fill the void in this critically important market.”
And third, and the one that will affect air travelers the most, is that with reduced competition on routes, fares will go up. Frontier’s recent cuts include important destinations like Newark, Philly, Dallas and Phoenix, all routes that they shared with other airlines, which kept fares competitive. Now there is no competition, so fares inevitably will skyrocket.
Remember when AirTran’s attempt to take over Midwest was rebuffed? Hindsight is 20/20, but AirTran taking over Midwest meant they would have created a hub in Milwaukee and been our largest carrier. And even though they probably would have dumped the chocolate chip cookies, that would have been far preferable to this situation.
Things are bleak for Frontier overall as well. The airline lost $74 million in the first three quarters of 2011.
And Republic, Frontier’s owner, doesn’t even want them. Republic is seeking a buyer, but in Journal Sentinel business columnist Tom Daykin’s article last week, a former Midwest Airlines marketing manager is quoted saying that won’t happen: “The airline will fail. There’s nothing left to buy.”
I won’t miss the hard as brick seats, and the painfully uncomfortable Embraer 145 and its sister regional jets. I won’t miss the ridiculous animals on the tails of the planes and in the even more ridiculous commercials. I won’t miss the total lack of local customer service and no local number to call when you have a problem. And I won’t miss the absurd attempt to continue what little heritage could be found from Midwest with the stale, thin, wimpy and tasteless excuse for a chocolate chip cookie.
So, Frontier, good riddance. I’m hopeful that with Southwest growing rapidly in Milwaukee, they’ll pick up some of the routes. Maybe we’ll even have a local number to call.
