Midwest Express Airlines was a US based airline with their roots in Milwaukee. Midwest Express Airlines was the name before it was rebranded as Midwest Airlines. The latest news of the airline reports that it will be merging with Frontier Airlines and that the Midwest brand will vanish. Mostly known for their renowned service and standards, customer reviews also suggest the Midwest Express Airlines to be the best with its luxurious seating arrangements.
The airline runs across 18 destinations with news in the past of 1997 reporting a nonstop flight between Kansas and New York. Not only is it the seating but also the customer service by the host and hostesses and the food that makes travelling by Midwest Express Airlines a remarkable experience. After the transformation from Midwest Express to Midwest Airlines, skyway is responsible for the ground activities of the airlines.
Given 2009, the airlines stopped operating except for the usual destinations under the Republic Airways Holdings, its parent company. The history of Midwest Express Airlines has been eventful given the change of name, take over, acquisition and the incidents involved.
Among its incidents, the 2000s have constantly seen trouble for the Airlines. In 2001, the airline managed to miss a collision and strike the South Tower of the World Trade Centre proving fatal for all passengers. Further to this, in 2005, another one of the incidents happened resulting in the emergency landing of their aircraft. Though no one was injured, the rear of the place was severely damaged and was shooting sparks that could get aggravated without the landing. Lot of research and checking on the technical side shows a problem with wheel 4.
In the 90s, The Midwest Flight 105 from the fleet had only taken off when it crashed down and proved fatal for everyone on it i.e. 31 people. The reason was mainly wrong directions from the pilot and incapability to handle controls. In the 2000s again, the Midwest connect airline under TGP missed another collision with a Unite Jet but this time avert danger and maintain their passage later.
Very close after which in 2008, MD-81 from Midwest charter saw an emergency landing with Barrack Osama as the passenger due to plane balance problems. Same year again, in December one of their airplanes made an emergency landing.
Knowing so, makes the history of the air fleet dangerous but given the good work put in so many years; the brand has managed to uphold itself. Beginning in 1948, the Midwest Express Airlines worked a good 14 years before it started facing financial problems. The period problematic proved to be after the September 11 crash in to the world trade center. Over the 14 years, the fleet grew substantially by adding new and expert planes to it. Before the change and the start of this airline is attributed to KC aviation and Kimberly Clark.
In 2002, it is when the change of name came about from Midwest Express Airline to just Midwest. The use of the term Express was seen to imply rationality and not a full connect airline. This time also saw the Skyway changing to Midwest connect. The signature collection was mainly launched with the Midwest Express Airlines but with the coming about of Midwest, buying onboard meals were introduced as the finances had really been affected.
Midwest then became one of the top airlines at Mitchell Airport with at least 21 long duration nonstop flights. Midwest connect was a more regional airline with around 30 destinations to cover. The Midwest Express Airlines now Midwest has to its name a few awards from Traveler magazine of Coned Nast.
Among its public trade off, TGP won the bid for the airlines and promptly converted it in a privately funded organization. The bid took place in 2007 and was said to reach an approximate value of $450 million, though the shift of the airline did not stop at this. In 2009, Republic Airways Holdings, decided to acquire the brand for $31 million which was cleared and Midwest decided to outsource to Republic its fleet. 2010 saw the announcement of merger of Midwest with Frontier planned to be held in 2011.
The brand of Midwest Express Airlines has come a long way and yet not to be totally forgotten. Republic decided to keep the slogan and the term Midwest instill by announcing Midwest Cookie ‘the best care in the air’.The Midwest Express Airlines still held as case study for a strong brand and high recall of quality of service had introduced Midwest Miles as a frequent flyer program.