You're right that the remodel of C is just being completed, and there doesn't not appear to be any obvious work done on the hammerhead of C yet. As far as I know the C hammerhead is *not* yet a go.

I'd suspect this map was put out there in error -- a map of projected gates but not actual facilities.

I find this map interestingly incorrect in two other areas:

--The gate changes on D, where construction IS well underway, will add gates 27 and 29 to the stem of D and (apparently) remove 31 / 33 / 35 /37. No sign of 27 and 29 on this map, and they should be in use later this year. No chance the C hammerhead would be ready by then.

--The low-number C gates 6, 7, 8, are a temporary addition added to take pressure off while C was being redone. Unless plans have changed significantly, those gates will not last.

Quoting Phuebner (Reply 10): This is interesting...what concourse is Midwest? Are they going to expand here? If not, I wonder what kind of expansion MKE is expecting

Midwest is concourse D.

Prior to the current D concourse construction, Midwest had 12 jetways for 14 parking spots. That's the entire left side of the D concourse, both stem and hammerhead. The cluster of small aircraft on the right side of the hammerhead are the Midwest Connect gates. The two full-sized gates on the right top side of the hammerhead are USAirways. The three gates on the right side of the D concourse stem were United.

United has moved over to C, and those three gates on the right side of the stem are now being reconstructed to serve as more Midwest Connect space. When C is completed (the current remodel, not the potential C hammerhead) then USAirways is planned to move to C, and the entire D will be Midwest.

As for other airlines, MKE has for at least 10 years lobbied Southwest hard with no success. Southwest has had a significant strategy shift in the past few years that may make MKE somewhat less likely. Southwest USED to aim for the smaller secondary airports and shy away from the big congested ones. That's no longer the case. Doesn't mean that Southwest WON'T come to Milwaukee in the next five years. But I don't think it's a "given".

Two other things hurt Southwest's propsects in Milwaukee:

--Not enough of Southwest's big emerging hubs are good markets from Milwaukee. Vegas and Phoenix, yes. But Milwaukee is far too close to Chicago for a flight. Baltimore and Philadelphia are geogrpahically not good for connectiong/thru flights from Milwaukee and are not particularly lucrative local traffic markets. When one thinks about the type of routes that Southwest might add from Milwaukee, things like MKE-STL-HOU come to mind. But that's definitely the "old" Southwest.

--The shortage of success for AirTran in Milwaukee confirms something that has long been thought...MKE is a fertile place for junk markets like Florida and Vegas, but it's a much harder nut to crack for business travel. Come in with $99 fares to Vegas and you'll have people climbing out of their graves to fill 747-400's. But in spite of prosiing loads you won't make much money doing so, and it doesn't mean you have any pull in the MKE market.

Frontier has done okay here with high load factors and low fares, but I think it is very telling that in spite of very high load factors they still have gone back and forth between 2 and 3 flights per day and that's it.

The airport definitely has to plan for other airlines to expand here. And as Chicago continues to move north, north, north, the number of passengers from metro Chicago using MKE is continuing to grow. But that's been the story for years, and at least so far no low fare airline has come to MKE and set the world on fire.

Quoting AirTran737 (Reply 14):

Quoting AirTran737 (Reply 14): The won't be any room for US to move to C unless the hammerhead goes through. Barry Batemann has said that the are going to continue with the construction of the hammerhead. The concourse E construction is slated to begin later this month.

Thanks for the update, AirTran737. Unless the temporarly gates are sticking around awhile, it seems that C is kinda tight for US to go there as well. C has traditionally had 8 gates:

DL needs at least two
AA needs at least two
UA/AC needs at least two
US needs at least two
That leaves none for F9 or any of the scheduled charters or similar like USA3000that operate from C. And two gates is already a little tight for AA and UA/AC, though that might be what they go with.

I believe at one time the plan was for Delta to move over to E with NW and CO, opening up more room for US on C. But without the hammerhead on C and without the temporary gates, C is awfully crowded.

Have you heard any more about the hammerhead? Or conversely have you heard that D51 & D53 are staying with US on a longer-term basis?

As for E, is there more work planned other than the security lane rework, or is that the bulk of it?

Quoting Mke717spotter (Reply 27): Quoting Mkeflyer717 (Reply 24): I believe Allegiant flies some charters into MKE from places like Punta Cana and Cancun and thats why its listed. really I had no idea, lasttime I was in MKE I dont remmeber seeing their ticketing counter nor anyaircraft

They don't have their own ticket counter...I believe you check in upstairs where you check in for USA3000 at the north end of the main terminal upper level.

When is MKE-CUN operating? I don't see it in the schedule for the next several Saturdays, which is when NW ran it in the past (Saturdays during Feb/Mar/Apr).