I follow this city pair pretty closely because Milwaukee is my birthplace and I continue to have a lot family there and because I’ve never really understood why this route has so often been the ugly step-child given the demand between the two cities. 

I took a look at what service airlines were offering (non-stop) between the two cities and thought I would give a summary since its so reflective of what is going on in Milwaukee in general.  Just to keep things interesting, I looked at flights in mid-April.

American Airlines will have 5 flights spanning each day starting early in the morning and ending each evening.   Every one of those flights is an Embraer ERJ-140/145 aircraft flown by American Eagle.  American is competitive on price and even currently the low fare leader this far out but only by quite literally a few dollars. 

Airtran has its flights for April now.  They have 2 flights a day with one morning and one evening departure and both are very convenient to both business and leisure travelers.  These flights will be on CRJ-200 equipment flown by Skywest Airlines.  I still expect that these will quickly transition to Boeing 717 aircraft if Airtran finds this a popular route segment.   Oddly enough, Airtran’s offerings are just over $100 more than what AA is offering. 

Midwest Airlines has 4 flights spread over the day and all at convenient times ranging from early in the morning to the evenings.   These flights are competitive with AA and are currently flown on Republic Airways E-170/190 aircraft, certainly the best equipment on that route presently. 

Frontier Airlines now has codeshares on every Midwest Airlines flights and at the same prices.  So, if you want to fly Frontier, uh, I guess you can.  At the end of the day, it is neither Frontier nor Midwest Airlines (although the aircraft are painted in Midwest colors), it’s really Republic Airways. 

That makes 11 physical flights and 15 flight offerings on 4 airlines between the cities for non-stop flights. 

Now, here is the interesting development.  Southwest Airlines will be offering direct flights (one stop, no plane change) between Milwaukee and Dallas come April.  So far, I cannot discern where that aircraft stops along the way but it has to be on the way.  Perhaps Kansas City or St. Louis because the duration of those direct flights is only 3.5 hours which is nominally one hour longer than the non-stop offerings but if you allow 40 minutes to land, disembark passengers, embark passengers and take off again, it cannot be a long or bothersome stop. 

An hour longer seems like a lot, maybe, but you get to fly it on a mainline aircraft (Boeing 737) and on airline that does *not* charge luggage fees.  You also fly into Love Field airport instead of DFW which means (for many) a much more convenient airport to fly to and from. 

Best of all, Southwest is highly competitive on price.  AA remains slightly cheaper but advance purchase fares mean that Southwest is nominally a few dollars more, potentially as quick (doorway to doorway) and on a more comfortable airline with friendlier service and no baggage fees.   This may be the best deal offered if their flight times work for you.

Filed under: Airline Service by ajax
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