We are today notifying the Department of Transportation that we will
terminate our nonstop Des Moines-Reagan National service after June 30,
2004. Midwest Airlines has offered this once-daily service since October of
2000, using slot exemptions specifically allocated to this market.

Unfortunately, this route has posted increasing financial losses in the
nearly four years we have offered the service -- resulting in our decision
to return the slots and discontinue service. We will continue to offer
connecting service between Des Moines and Reagan National over Milwaukee.

In conjunction with this decision, we will also discontinue our Des
Moines-Kansas City service. This short route existed to provide Kansas City
passengers with one-stop service to and from Reagan National over Des
Moines, and will no longer be needed with the upcoming launch of a third
daily nonstop roundtrip flight between Kansas City and Reagan National. In
fact, much of the traffic on the Des Moines-Reagan National route actually
originated in Kansas City, so performance on the route would likely have
further deteriorated.

With the elimination of the Midwest Airlines flights, the Des Moines
station -- which is a Skyway station -- will offer only regional jet and
turboprop service. No employee displacements will occur as a result of
these changes.

I'm surprised they are planning on returning the slots, or, was that accounted for in the addition of the third MCI flight?

I think it comes out as an even exchange doesn't it? -1/+1 = 0

Yet another airline discontinuing mainline service to Des Moines. It's been nice seeing those 717s at the terminal. I'm going to miss them.

I am surprised that they held out this long with the service. I have been on that flight a few times over the years and the O&D from DSM seemed to be exceedingly dismal. My most recent trip a few weeks ago was really, really, really dismal with the load factors. Really, really light loads.
On a related note of sorts, didnt they at one time have nonstop DCa-Grand Rapids service?

Des Moines is about the last Iowa airport to get any mainline service anymore. Cedar Rapids is all RJ's, and Dubuque and Sioux City i believe are the only other airports other than DSM and CID that get RJ's. Waterloo, Fort Dodge and Mason City all get wonder full Saabs  .

I always wondered what the point in that MCI-DSM run was.

Im surprised they put up with looses for 4 years.

Midwest isn't the first carrier to not succeed in the MCI-DSM route. I remember several years back US Airways Express flew a turbo prop on that route, but that didn't last very long. I'm not sure how long after that service ended that Midwest started flying the route, but you'd think they'd get the idea since US Express wasn't even able to sustain service with a small turbo prop.

DSM to DCA is a reasonable route for "institutional" traffic. In this case, government traffic. Still that doesn't justify much.

I'm sure in some crazy round about way this is all NWAs fault right? I mean, they are the largest carrier in DSM and have to be conducting some sort of predatory pricing thing... to shut Midwest down. CALL THE AUTHORITIES!


AZJ

where the hell did that come from? Midwest and Northwest don't even really compete on the DSM-DCA route anyway...i don't think NWA even has same plane service to DCA anymore (with a stop in DTW or MSP)... In MKE it could be said that Midwest and Northwest compete directly, but i wouldn't say DSM.

NJ also served the MCI-DSM route several years back. The flights continued on to MDW.

Northwest is hardly the largest carrier in DSM. In 2003, Northwest carried 17% of pax in DSM, United had 28% and American had 27%. If it was anyones fault, I'd think it would have more to do with United and American.

In today's Des Moines Register...
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040518/BUSINESS04/405180346/1029

"Losing Des Moines' only nonstop flight to Washington, D.C., is big, but talks are under way with another carrier about picking up the route being abandoned by Midwest Airlines, officials said Monday."

Wonder who that other might be...


[Edited 2004-05-18 18:36:16]

"Wonder who that other might be..."

Great Plains, with a stop in Belleville  

Lightenup people... it's called SARCASM. ANd NW and Midwest most certainly compete on the route... it's called a connection in MSP, DTW or MEM on NW vs. nonstop on Midwest.



AZJ

yes but they compete as much as United(ORD), American (ORD,STL), Comair(CVG,ATL), and ATA(MDW). NWA just had 3 cities you could connect out of instead of 1 or 2. Midwests departure wasn't until 430pm (end of the business day) so if you wanted same day service (to and from) it was just easier to connect elsewhere.

Planespotting:

SPOT THIS! Pinnacle Jets at ALO.

ahhh yesss that is Waterloos 2nd attempt at getting jet service. I believe they are subsidizing 6 months worth of CRJ Pinnacle service to try and show northwest that it can support an RJ. I'd like to see it happen but frankly im doubing it. THey tried this once before a few years ago by subsidizing 6 months worth of DC9 service. Immediately after the subsidy ended, they pulled out. I say they send everyone who wants to fly out of ALO to DBQ...hehe.

Hmmm....another mainline jet is leaving Des Moines. I think that we are down to the two NW flights from MSP, Allegiant's flights to Las Vegas (five times a week?), and United. Sure miss the days of having American 80s or 100s to DFW and a full slate of TWA D9S, 717s, or 80s down to STL. Quite frankly, I am not surprised. Every time that I have flown a Midwest mainline jet into DSM, it has been almost empty.

Also, as someone mentioned, United is the largest carrier in Des Moines and has been for quite some time. American closed the gap significantly when they purchased TWA, and may have taken the lead, but are back down to second with the reduced capacity due to the elimination off most of their STL flights...including all mainline service a while back. I think that they are up to 4 flights a day to DFW (two with CR7s and two with 145s), but the total capacity is still less than the 3 80s that used to fly long ago.

Some people also mentioned USAirways Express and Vanguard flying from DSM to MCI. Keep in mind though that the purpose of these was not to carry people from DSM to MCI, but rather to connect to the rest of their networks out of MCI. Vanguard was based out of MCI and offered connections to LAX, SFO, NYC, ATL, etc. USAirways Express actually operated the route for a long time....quite a few years in fact. USAirways had tried to make a focus city or mini-hub out of MCI in the early 90s and Air Midwest provided all sorts of feeder service with Beech 1900s to communities in the area. USAirways never really amounted to much in the MCI market though, so there was little feed to/from DSM.

I am not really sure who DSM is thinking of to replace Midwest on the DCA run. Only two of the majors are operating mainline jets here, so why would they start. Plus, USAirways (largest operator at DCA) no longer serves DSM, so that rules them out. I doubt many low fare carriers would even think of coming to DSM given our past record of not supporting other low fare carriers. Sooner or later, the people of DSM have to realize that if they want lowfare carriers in DSM, they need to fly them instead of the majors when they respond with low fares. It was the same story with Vanguard, Air Tran (the one in Florida before the merger), and Accessair. All I can say is thank goodness for the regional jet. Although many people prefer mainline jets, it beats having nothing or props...plus it gives us some more flight times during the day.

I have an idea. lets all of us in Iowa make our own airline. rj's will originate in

SUX, DBQ, ALO, and MCW

and move inside the state starting at 6am.

DBQ-MLI-DSM (and back same order)
SUX-OMA-DSM (and back same order)
ALO-CID-DSM (and back same order)
MCW-FOD-DSM (and back same order)

Mainline jets will go from Des Moines to all corners of the United States. 717's from DSM:

ORD, MSP, DEN, STL, IAH, MCI, MCO, EWR, BMI, PHX, LAS, and ATL.

and 73G's from DSM:

LAX, SFO, HNL (via SFO), SEA, MIA, BOS, DFW, JFK, IAD.


well it would never work. but it's fun to think about at 122am.

Planespotting,
You forgot the Boeing BBJ flights to Europe and Asia!  

ahhh yesss that is Waterloos 2nd attempt at getting jet service. I believe they are subsidizing 6 months worth of CRJ Pinnacle service to try and show northwest that it can support an RJ.

Recently there has been 2 CRJ's Daily into ALO. 

CO Ex recently added a flight from IAH to DSM. That should make up for some of the loss from Midwest.

I have a feeling that the airline that would takeover Des Moines-Washington, D.C. service would be Independence Air to Dulles, if they see the route viable.

MAH4546,
I could see them as being one of the most viable candidates, but the question remains would they bother. As I mentioned, we have a bad history here in DSM with how we treat low fare carriers. Perhaps they would give it a try with a CRJ.

I think 1 or 2x daily on a Independence Air CRJ would be worth a try into DSM and CID. Otherwise the only other airline i could see have a flight to IAD would be United, but that's pretty unlikely.

[Edited 2004-05-20 01:41:28]