Airstud From United States of America, joined Nov 2000, 1855 posts, RR: 1 Posted (3 years 8 months 2 days ago) and read 1733 times:
I seem to remember, either from video monitors in the termimanal, or maybe from looking at a route map in their magazine on my one-and-only YX flight (precisely 5 years ago now), that they had an awful lot of flights in and out of Omamaha.
Whereas it seems that today, not so much.
I checked wikipedia before I posted this, but whenever I check wikipedia I always find myself having to check with better sources. (See my Northeast Airlines "flew abortively" thread.)
I like the midwest. Wide open plains, friendly folks...
AA737-823 From United States of America, joined Mar 2000, 5338 posts, RR: 11 Reply 1, posted (3 years 8 months 1 day 23 hours ago) and read 1718 times:
I wouldn't call it a "hub," per se, more of a "focus city."
But yes, they did have several routes to/from Omaha.
Knope2001 From United States of America, joined May 2005, 2555 posts, RR: 31 Reply 3, posted (3 years 8 months 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 1681 times:
Omaha was never anything like a "hub" for Midwest, but was a focus city. There was a small number of crews based there, and for a time it had a couple of operations people who did things like load planning.
The "classic" Omaha schedule for several years was this:
3x to Milwaukee
2x to Washington DC
2x to Los Angeles
1x to Newark
1x to Kansas City
This was pretty much it for the last half of the 90's, with the following exceptions:
--1x/week nonstop Orlando trip ran on-and-off for years.
--For a fairly short time, also only on the weekends, San Diego was added to the LAX trip, flying OMA-SAN-LAX-OMA or the reverse.
--A red-eye to LAS, flying MKE-OMA-LAS-OMA-MKE ran for a few months several days per week.
--In 1996-1997 there were a 3x additional Beech 1900 OMA-MCI.
After 2000 things changed:
OMA-LAX ended right after 9/11, reinstated for several months in 2007.
OMA-EWR ended after Continental Express came in with multiple daliy RJ's
OMA-MCI was increased to 3x/day shortly after 9/11 to feed the growing operation there, but that reduced and ultimatly ended months later.
OMA-DCA has been very steady as 2x/day, and OMA-MKE has increased to 4x/day, today three E170 and one CRJ.
Knope2001 From United States of America, joined May 2005, 2555 posts, RR: 31 Reply 5, posted (3 years 8 months 1 day 18 hours ago) and read 1546 times:
IND only ran for several months, with nonstops to Boston, La Guardia, and Des Moines. Long story about why that did not work.
GRR over the years had some on-again-off-again point to point flying:
EWR ran 2x/day, then 1x/day, with DC9 for perhaps 2 years
YYZ 2x/day BE1 ran for several years
DCA 2x/day FRJ ran for a couple of years
CMH 2x/day BE1 ran for about a year
LGA 2x/day FRJ ran only a few months
DAY 1x/day BE1 ran for more than a year
A couple of key things to note, however:
(a) In the 20 years Midwest has been at Grand Rapids, most of this point-to-point flying did not happen during the same period. For example, GRR-EWR was gone for years before GRR-LGA started. YYZ was gone before DCA came, etc. Most of the time over those 20 years, Midwest's service to Grand Rapids has been multiple flights to Milwaukee, plus during certain periods one or two additional destionations.
(b) Nearly all of the GRR flying operated as thru flights to/from MIlwaukee. So at one time Midwest had three flights between Milwaukee and Dayton, one of which stopped in Grand Rapids and two of which were nonstop. The Grand Rapids stop was not so much about serving a lot of local DAY-GRR passengers, but rather is was a time of day when a DAY-MKE nonstop (early morning) wasn't very full, but GRR needed another flight to MKE. So they made the DAY-MKE flight stop in GRR.
So GRR was never really any sort of organize huub or focus city in the way that Omaha was a focus city. Never at once did GRR have anywhere near the web of nonstop destinations suggested by the list above. But several times over the years Midwest (usually through Skyway) has tried to capitalize on an unserved point-to-point market out of Grand Rapids, and usually it did not work long term. The best of the bunch, GRR-YZZ on the Beech 1900, lasted for years until Air Canada came in and pushed Midwest out.
JettaKnight From United States of America, joined Feb 2007, 193 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (3 years 8 months 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 1419 times:
Quoting Knope2001 (Reply 5): Long story about why that did not work.
I think I speak for many on a.net when I say that we love your stories, Knope. Whenever you have time, I'd appreciate hearing it.
Joeljack From United States of America, joined Feb 2005, 872 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (3 years 8 months 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 1386 times:
Quoting JettaKnight (Reply 6): I think I speak for many on a.net when I say that we love your stories, Knope. Whenever you have time, I'd appreciate hearing it.
Knope2001 From United States of America, joined May 2005, 2555 posts, RR: 31 Reply 8, posted (3 years 8 months 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 1369 times:
Thanks...myl ong-winded postings probably come in handy when you can't fall asleep at night.
I've written about YX and IND before, and if I were more orgainzed I would have it saved off someplace. But perhaps tonght I'll have some time to go into it.
MKENut From United States of America, joined Jul 2007, 687 posts, RR: 1 Reply 9, posted (3 years 8 months 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 1362 times:
Quoting JettaKnight (Reply 6): I think I speak for many on a.net when I say that we love your stories, Knope. Whenever you have time, I'd appreciate hearing it.
I agree! I think the short story on IND is that NWA had a fit when Midwest tried some P2P routes in that market. Midwest just couldn't withstand the onslaught of NWA protecting their turf at IND. I think the good news is that Republic calls IND their home. They may have more stamina to stand up against the likes of Delta/NWA. Midwest or Frontier may start some P2P routes out of IND in the future.
Of course knope will have a better detailed picture of IND and YX history.
JohnMKE From United States of America, joined Jun 2009, 70 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (3 years 8 months 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 1328 times:
I think back to the original question thanks to Knope2001 massive knowledge, and a trip down memory lane (thank you for that), you can almost make two conclusions.
One is that YX was never a major Hub and Spoke system airline, most ops were local (non-connecting flights), and that OMA Pax depended on MKE to get to multiple destinations. Were not all cities served by OMA also served by MKE?
Two that it was a hub city but to get that answer you would include information that passengers flew to OMA, got off one plane onto another plane to get to the final destination. If that was done, It is a hub, if there were not connections and only stop overs, I think it will still be a focus city.
OzarkD9S From United States of America, joined Oct 2001, 4680 posts, RR: 23 Reply 11, posted (3 years 8 months 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 1316 times:
[quote=JohnMKE,reply=10]
Two that it was a hub city but to get that answer you would include information that passengers flew to OMA, got off one plane onto another plane to get to the final destination. If that was done, It is a hub, if there were not connections and only stop overs, I think it will still be a focus city.
I think I read in an "Airliners" article back in the '90s that the YX folks referred to it as a "base". As what defines a "hub" is debated endlessly on here, I'll go with what YX itself called the OMA operation.
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