KCI Flight Schedule Adjustments

[dangerboy]

groan... YAKHT (Yet Another KCI Hub Thread)

[NVJunkie]

When i worked at Midwest in 2002, we were told at orientation by CEO Tim Hoeksema that the long term plan was to grow Kansas City to the size of their Milwaukee operation (60+ flights). Who knows if that has changed, but the number of flights are back to an all time high, 22--vs. 21 in 2002, and the meager 14 they got down to in 2003. It would be nice to see some new markets, and with the former CEO of Vanguard holding an executive position up in MKE, I definitely see some former Vanguard routes coming back in the mix. Possibly Colorado Springs, Denver, Las Vegas, Buffalo, Seattle, Reno (never started), Dallas. Who knows what will happen, it seems Midwest is doing much better lately, so if they continue making money and recieve the rest of the 717s, the expansion will continue here in KC.

[ignatius]

I thought the former Vanguard CEO went to Frontier.  Or was it another exec?

Glad to see MW expanding in KC.  They could use a couple extra flights to Boston though.  I had a vendor in from Boston recently who wanted to fly back same day but had to fly out next morning.  Wasteful in many ways.

[hartliss]

Ignatius you are right Jeff Potter who used to be CEO of Vanguard is now CEO of Frontier airlines.  Who NV Junkie is referring to is Scott Dickinson I believe, he was CEO of Vanguard at one time and now is the head of the Planning and Scheduling department at Midwest Airline I believe. 

Traffic for MIdwest at MCI has definitely rebounded in many ways.  All of the new routes added in the past few months are performing very well, as noted by the LAX expansion.  I was looking at the T100 numbers from March of 2005 (which are the latest figures available) and all of the routes were performing exceptionally well.

Here are some numbers to chew on:             
MCI MKE             Midwest Arilines, Inc      13688 9510 69.48%
MCI DCA Midwest Airlines, Inc. 7128 5535 77.65%
MCI SAT Midwest Airlines, Inc. 5104 4151 81.33%
MCI LGA Midwest Airlines, Inc. 5016 3471 69.20%
MCI SFO Midwest Airlines, Inc. 3596 2920 81.20%
MCI MSY Midwest Airlines, Inc. 2728 2364 86.66%
MCI SNA Midwest Airlines, Inc. 2728 2344 85.92%
MCI FLL Midwest Airlines, Inc. 2728 2262 82.92%

The first column is Available seats, the second column is revenue passengers and the third column is the load factor.

  

[KC0KEK]

Is there an industry average load factor?

[hartliss]

The load factor is the percentage of seats filled with paying passengers.  Each airline has a break even load factor which means in order to make a profit they have to exceed that break even point.  I would say industry wide the load factors rest in the 70-75% range. Just an educated guess though.

[KC0KEK]

I recently read an article that said most hotels break even at 50 percent occupancy.

[hartliss]

That is probably true.  Most hotels have a relatively stable break even factor because everything they own are fixed assets.  Airlines on the other hand have to worry about oil prices which is pretty much the only reason why no carrier is striking a profit.

[NVJunkie]

Thanks for the numbers hartliss, very surprising! It's great to see midwest doing so well on markets like SAT, FLL, and SFO, markets which YX is the only carrier running Nonstops from KC! Hopefully we can see one or two more flights to SFO, FLL, and BOS, increasing connection opportunities and options for us here in KC. SAT has always done well, lots of Military traffic from all over the country. Never quite understood why they cancelled New Orleans, after Vanguard went under, that flight left full nearly every day, with2 daily flights, nice to see it doing tremendously well now that it's reinstated. A hell of a change from the flights i worked with 3 passengers (out of 84) going to places like ATL, IAD (DC Dulles), OMA, and DSM....those flights lost a TON of money. IIRC, the break even for the 717s have about a 70% break even load factor, one of the main reasons they are in service.

[nota]

We have a good friend who is a Midwest pilot. He is working right up to the max all the time now and says almost all if not all of their pilots have been called back.

Midwest is a great airline to fly.

[tat2kc]

yea, midwest is awesome, but i miss the great food. 

[bahua]

KCI will never be a hub, as long as it's a complete pain in the ass to change planes there. Unless they put some bathrooms, drinking fountains, and shops inside security, it will remain an origin or a destination.

This, however, does not bother me.

[ignatius]

KCI will never be a hub, as long as it's a complete pain in the ass to change planes there. Unless they put some bathrooms, drinking fountains, and shops inside security, it will remain an origin or a destination.

This, however, does not bother me.

I was a little annoyed that the airport upgrades did not address amenities in secure area.  When KC voted for the upgrade, these upgrades were specifically stated.  Instead we got an aesthetic upgrade with more amenities outside security.  Nice, and I like it, but the basics were not addressed.  Restrooms in secure area is a must.

KC shouldn't be a dominant hub for one carrier (and will never be with the current terminal layout).  To keep competition up, a mini-hub for 3 carriers would be ideal and we have 2 so far, Southwest and Midwest.

[hartliss]

Bathroom construction has already begun within the secure area.  I believe Midwest's hold room will have bathrooms by summers end. That is what I keep hearing at least.

[Missionite]

I flew Southwest to Indy last month and construction has begun in their portion of Terminal B with signs saying completion by fall. Not sure about the other terminals, but from what I heard, they are only working on one terminal at a time.

Matt

[NVJunkie]

As for the restrooms, why they weren't put in every gatehouse to begin with baffles me...with the exception of the US Airways area, which still serves as a connection point for many passengers. Some vendors in the gatehouses for Southwest and Midwest would be nice for connecting pax....something as simple as a hot dog stand even.As for food on midwest, the free lobster and steak-type meals used to be absolutely amazing, unfortunately under that approach they lost more money than it was worth. People want cheap tickets, now they can get them, they just have to shell out $5-10 to get a meal. They still serve the fantastic cookies on afternoon/evening flights, as well as snack mix and granola bars, so they don't leave you totally hungry (no flight lasts more than 3 hours from here anyways). In addition, midwest recently privatized their catering, with facilities here at MCI and up in MKE to allow more gourmet choices, and keep costs under control. Here's what their menu looks like as of now:



Beverages (and cookies)

Complimentary
Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, Diet Dr. Pepper, Ginger Ale, 7 UP, Diet 7 UP
LaCroix Water
Apple Juice, Bloody Mary Mix, Cranberry Juice, Orange Juice, Tomato Juice
Regular/Decaf Coffee, Milk
Warm, baked-onboard chocolate chip cookies
(on flights scheduled after 10:30 a.m.)

For Purchase
Miller Genuine Draft, Miller Lite, Leinenkugel's$4
Coastal Ridge Chardonnay (split), Coastal Ridge Merlot (split) $5
Baileys Irish Cream, Kahlúa $5
Bacardi Light Rum, Chivas Regal Scotch, Coronet Brandy, Crown Royal, Jack Daniel's Black, Jim Beam Bourbon, Smirnoff Vodka, Tanqueray Gin $5
Signature Service

Breakfast

-Freshly baked croissant
with sliced ham and orange pecan cream cheese. Served with bread sticks and fruit garnish.
$5

-Chorizo mushroom frittata
with pepperjack cheese and tomato concasse. Served with creamed leek and spinach sauce, and fresh yogurt parfait.
$7

Lunch

-Fresh tomato and buffalo mozzarella salad with grilled beef tenderloin
Served with fresh bread and fruit garnish.
$10 (also offered with dinner)

-Grilled chicken panini sandwich
with roasted red peppers, onions and artichoke aioli. Served with a cup of white chili with andouille sausage and Monterey jack cheese. Fruit garnish and chips.
$10

Dinner

-Soy ginger glazed salmon fillet
with wasabi cream, Asian noodles and stir-fried vegetables. Served with Napa cabbage salad.
$10





Note: Best Care Cuisine is being phased into our service beginning May 10, 2005. Some flights may still offer other meal selections.

[hartliss]

Midwest Airlines announced today plans to serve Pittsburgh, Orlando, and San Diego.  All of these flights will be N/S and flown once daily.  Good to see our hometown airline boosting their presence.

[Missionite]

It's great to see the addition of all three of these cities. Since U.S. Air dropped Pittsburgh last year, I figured Southwest would be the one to fill the hole left in the MCI-PIT market. I was surprised to see that Midwest took advantage of the opportunity instead. Very nice. The press release also said that the airline was tweaking their KC schedule to allow for more connecting traffic from all Midwest Markets.

Orlando is probably my favorite addition. I fly Southwest to Orlando at least twice a year and love the non-stop convenience. Now that Midwest (ultimately, my favorite airline) is flying this market non-stop (and with signature service), I'll be on board soon.

With the addition of PIT and SAN, and the May addition of LAX, Midwest is going head-to-head with Southwest in a few markets. It'll be interesting to see if there's any reaction on their part in the coming months/year.

Honestly though, I was surprised that Houston, Dallas or Minneapolis weren't on the list. Midwest has been really expanding their presence in Minneapolis lately and I thought for sure that they would add at least one MCI-MSP non-stop. They just added Houston to their route map from Milwaukee, so they might be waiting to see how loads are for that market. But Dallas? With Southwest fighting for flights from KC to DFW and only having American as competition on this route, I figured this would be a viable route for Midwest. I believe this is also a popular business route.

Anyway, it's always good to see expanded service from KC and it's always good to see the addition/return of non-stop markets. Now, let's just hope the rumors of MCI-Miami on American pan out. I'd also like to see somone add MCI-Columbus, OH in the near future.

Also...we've got the rumors of Frontier looking to expand their presence in KC in the near future with point-to-point flights. 

Matt

[KC0KEK]

Honestly though, I was surprised that Houston, Dallas or Minneapolis weren't on the list. Midwest has been really expanding their presence in Minneapolis lately and I thought for sure that they would add at least one MCI-MSP non-stop. They just added Houston to their route map from Milwaukee, so they might be waiting to see how loads are for that market. But Dallas? With Southwest fighting for flights from KC to DFW and only having American as competition on this route, I figured this would be a viable route for Midwest. I believe this is also a popular business route.

Agreed. I go to Dallas at least a couple of times a year on business, and I'd take Midwest in a heartbeat. Whenever I fly to Boston, NOLA or NYC, they're my first choice.

[hartliss]

Matt,
  I think they would love to expand more in KC, however they are strained for extra aircraft.  As you can see they added three new destinations, however we only gained 2 daily flights overall (they dropped one of the LAX flights to compensate). What we can and should hope for is when Midwest starts receiving their ERJ's, this will allow for more of a hub operation at MCI, as they will be able to ferry passengers on those RJ's to MCI to make connections.

Frontier, I heard as well they are looking to expand with more point to point.  They did receive approval for MCI-PVR which is great news.  I did notice however that July traffic was down 3.5% from last July which is a little dissapointing because I feel like we didn't lose that much capacity from last July.  Overall, good news for the airport.  I was up there on Thursday flying to Omaha and the lady at the counter said that Mesa is going to add a N/S flight to  Hot Springs, AK (WhoooHooo, I know)  but either way it is another destination.  She also said that America West is going to move next to US Airways as part of the merger.  That is another airline that might take advantage of their gate space and add new service.  My two cents.