Midwest Airlines is off my deathwatch.  Why?  Because it is dead, Fred.  Republic Airways has shocked no one by announcing that it will be the Frontier brand that will represent both Frontier and Midwest going forward.  See news on the anouncement HERE.

No one will be really surprised by this because at the end of the day, two brands wasn’t going to work with one shared fleet and the Frontier brand is the stronger national brand.  In addition, what national recognition Midwest did have has eroded tremendously in the past 2 years.  Finally, Frontier was just the bigger airline. 

Are the animal spokespersons sticking around?  Yes.  Not surprising since the person leading the branding now is the person who developed the aninal campaign for Frontier originally.  The next new animal will be the badger, an animal icon for the state of Wiscosin.

Midwest?  I am sorry the Midwest brand is gone now if only because Milwaukee is my birth town and I always felt that the people working for Midwest really did put something special into their airline.  It wasn’t the cookie for me.  It wasn’t the large seats.  It was the nice people.  When you called to make a reservation on Midwest, you got a very friendly and very knowledgeable person.  That had a lot more value to me than a cookie.  

Unfortunately, an airline based in Milwaukee isn’t a recipe for success.  An airline based in Milwaukee and using Kansas City as a focus city isn’t a recipe for success either.  I do wish Midwest had gone over to Airtran.  While the brand would have been gone still, I believe the people working for Midwest would have been appreciated more.

With the Frontier brand sticking around, I do hope we’ll see a return to a more focused and innovative Frontier identify that, in my opinion, has been muddied quite a bit already.  That Frontier was competing very well in Denver and could continue to compete well so long as we see its unique offerings come into focus again.

Filed under: Airline History, Airline News by ajax