The Midwest Airlines name is going away.
Republic Airways Holdings Inc., which owns both Midwest and Frontier Airlines, said Tuesday that it will use the Frontier name for its traditional airline business. The name of the company remains Republic, and it will continue to run feeder carriers operated under contract for other airlines.
Republic CEO Bryan Bedford said in an interview that travelers associated the Frontier name with low fares, while Midwest was seen as more of a high-price airline. That was an important consideration at Midwest's Milwaukee base, which has become a hot spot of competition with low-cost carriers Southwest Airlines and AirTran.
Bedford said travelers may see the Midwest name on some jets until October 2011. The company is also merging the two frequent-flier programs.
Republic bought Midwest last summer, and then bought Denver-based Frontier out of bankruptcy protection in October. Bedford said at the time that it planned to keep both brands. But on Tuesday, he said every technology or customer service change was multiplied by two.
"We just can't have double the spending in order to actually run our business," he said. "Maintaining two brands is just not cost-effective for us."
Midwest grew out of the travel department of Kimberly-Clark Corp., and began flying as Midwest Express Airlines in 1984. The next year, one of its three aircraft crashed just after taking off from Milwaukee, killing all 31 people on board.
Midwest survived that disaster, and the operation grew to 341 flights a day and 3,500 employees by 2007. That year, it fought off repeated takeover attempt by AirTran Holdings Inc. The fuel price spike over the summer of 2008 hurt its finances more.
