Midway to return, but smaller
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Midway to return, but smaller
Extract from "The Chronicle", Durham, NC.
"Midway Airlines, albeit a smaller incarnation, may be back in business within a few weeks, airline officials announced Friday.
Midway, which was Raleigh-Durham International Airport's largest carrier until declining business travel revenues and repercussions from the Sept. 11 attacks forced the airline to suspend operations, has been declared eligible to receive $12.5 million in federal airline relief funds, CEO Robert Ferguson said.
That money, combined with an $8.5 million loan from a lender in Connecticut, will allow Midway to resume operations "around Christmastime, maybe a little bit before," Ferguson said, adding that the time will allow the airline to work out the operational logistics. "We've got to bring the employees back and ... start advertising and selling tickets," he said.
The airline will start back small, with only 12 round-trip flights per day, to six destinations -- a fraction of the flights it operated before August, when it first declared bankruptcy and cut back on its operations, and before September, when it suspended flights completely.
"Maybe 10 percent at most" of Midway's workforce will be rehired, Ferguson said. He added that it is too early to know if the airline will ever make it back to operating at its former level.
Midway's $12.5 million grant is part of a $15 billion federal bailout program for airlines hurt by the aftereffects of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Initially, the U.S. Department of Transportation had hesitated to approve Midway's request for funding because it was not clear whether the airline, which had already filed for bankruptcy and cut back on some operations even before the attacks, qualified under the legislation administering the funds.
But Friday, DOT spokesperson Bill Mosley confirmed that Midway would be eligible for the grants -- though he added that the DOT must still approve Midway's request to resume service before any planes take flight.
"We have to make sure that they have adequate financing, that they have management qualified to run the airline and that they [comply with the law]," Mosley said. "Now that they are planning to restart service, that did enable us to look at their request."
"Midway Airlines, albeit a smaller incarnation, may be back in business within a few weeks, airline officials announced Friday.
Midway, which was Raleigh-Durham International Airport's largest carrier until declining business travel revenues and repercussions from the Sept. 11 attacks forced the airline to suspend operations, has been declared eligible to receive $12.5 million in federal airline relief funds, CEO Robert Ferguson said.
That money, combined with an $8.5 million loan from a lender in Connecticut, will allow Midway to resume operations "around Christmastime, maybe a little bit before," Ferguson said, adding that the time will allow the airline to work out the operational logistics. "We've got to bring the employees back and ... start advertising and selling tickets," he said.
The airline will start back small, with only 12 round-trip flights per day, to six destinations -- a fraction of the flights it operated before August, when it first declared bankruptcy and cut back on its operations, and before September, when it suspended flights completely.
"Maybe 10 percent at most" of Midway's workforce will be rehired, Ferguson said. He added that it is too early to know if the airline will ever make it back to operating at its former level.
Midway's $12.5 million grant is part of a $15 billion federal bailout program for airlines hurt by the aftereffects of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Initially, the U.S. Department of Transportation had hesitated to approve Midway's request for funding because it was not clear whether the airline, which had already filed for bankruptcy and cut back on some operations even before the attacks, qualified under the legislation administering the funds.
But Friday, DOT spokesperson Bill Mosley confirmed that Midway would be eligible for the grants -- though he added that the DOT must still approve Midway's request to resume service before any planes take flight.
"We have to make sure that they have adequate financing, that they have management qualified to run the airline and that they [comply with the law]," Mosley said. "Now that they are planning to restart service, that did enable us to look at their request."
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Word is that it is the 737 fleet that will be returning. That should be good for a pretty short run.
Lets see....A marginal airline to start buys a bunch of RJ's. They start making some money, and then promptly spend all of it and more on 737's which cause them to lose their shirts. They were almost completely down the tubes well before 9/11, and now they are planning to bring back the cause of their downfall in an attempt to make another go of it. There's nothing wrong with the 737's if that's your market, but clearly it wasn't theirs.
Can anybody see the logic in the U.S. feds financing this scheme?
Lets see....A marginal airline to start buys a bunch of RJ's. They start making some money, and then promptly spend all of it and more on 737's which cause them to lose their shirts. They were almost completely down the tubes well before 9/11, and now they are planning to bring back the cause of their downfall in an attempt to make another go of it. There's nothing wrong with the 737's if that's your market, but clearly it wasn't theirs.
Can anybody see the logic in the U.S. feds financing this scheme?
SkyGod
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Why not?
Braniff did nr.1, nr.2 and nr.3 before it went all the way down the tubes.
Pan-Am is still flying for the second time.
If the investors like it, give it a go.
$12,5 mill should buy a few months.
Braniff did nr.1, nr.2 and nr.3 before it went all the way down the tubes.
Pan-Am is still flying for the second time.
If the investors like it, give it a go.
$12,5 mill should buy a few months.
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Sounds like another Bob Ferguson scam.
He nearly destroyed Continental after we came out of our second bankruptcy with his
ill conceived CAL LITE
But he'll keep going back to the trough till its empty, a true Lorenzo disciple.
Pity the employees.
He nearly destroyed Continental after we came out of our second bankruptcy with his
ill conceived CAL LITE
But he'll keep going back to the trough till its empty, a true Lorenzo disciple.
Pity the employees.
