Air Midwest

This article is about the regional airline that was based in Wichita, KS. For the article regarding the renamed Midwest Express, see Midwest Airlines.
Air Midwest
IATA ICAO Callsign
ZV AMW AIR MIDWEST
Founded May 1965 (as Aviation Services)
Commenced operations April 1967
Ceased operations June 2008
Hubs Kansas City International Airport
Frequent-flyer program MesaMax
Fleet size 11
Destinations 28 (see list)
Parent company Mesa Air Group, Inc.
Headquarters 2230 Air Cargo Rd, Wichita, Kansas
Key people Greg Stephens (President)
Website mesa-air.com
1970's Logo

Air Midwest, Inc., was a Federal Aviation Administration Part 121 certificated air carrier that operated under air carrier certificate number AMWA510A issued on May 15, 1965. It was headquartered in Wichita, Kansas,[1] United States, and was a subsidiary of Mesa Air Group. It operated flights as US Airways Express, including a code share with Midwest Airlines, and as Mesa Airlines. It served 28 cities in 12 states. Air Midwest was shut down by its parent company, Mesa Airlines, in June 2008.

History

Air Midwest was founded in Wichita, Kansas, in May 1965 by Gary Adamson as Aviation Services, Inc. Using a single Cessna 206, Adamson transported human remains for area mortuaries. Later, Aviation Services held out for charter and in 1967 began scheduled service flying between Wichita and Salina.[2]

As Frontier Airlines withdrew from the western Kansas market in 1968, Aviation Services moved in to assume air service. In 1969, it changed its name to Air Midwest and ordered Beech 99 aircraft to keep up with its expansion.

By 1978, it was operating a fleet of 6 Metroliners linking smaller cities throughout Kansas to Wichita, Kansas City, MO, and Denver, CO. With airline deregulation in late 1978 Air Midwest saw many expansion opportunities and made a bold move by ordering 10 more metroliners. On March 1, 1979, Air Midwest began operating several new routes in New Mexico formerly flown by Texas International Airlines. This new service to New Mexico was connected to the Kansas operations by serving Lubbock, Texas where Air Midwest partnered with Braniff Airlines. From Lubbock, service was started to Hobbs, Roswell, Carlsbad, and Albuquerque, New Mexico as well as from Albuquerque to Clovis, NM. Service was also started from Lubbock, to Garden City, Dodge City, and Wichita, Kansas. In July 1979, service was inaugurated from Lubbock and Wichita, to Ponca City, Enid, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In 1980/1981 Air Midwest again expanded with new routes from Albuquerque to Alamogordo, Silver City, and Farmington, New Mexico formerly flown by Frontier Airlines. A new link to Wichita was also created via Clovis and Amarillo. Routes were also expanded from both the Kansas City International airport and the Kansas City Downtown airport to new cities in Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and Oklahoma. In 1982 all Lubbock service was discontinued and transferred to Midland/Odessa, Texas. Beginning in 1984, competitor Mesa Airlines began aggressive expansion throughout New Mexico and Texas and Air Midwest made the decision to discontinue all routes in this area by early 1986. They then shifted their focus to building newly acquired code share relationships with major airlines listed below.[3]

In 1985, Air Midwest merged with Scheduled Skyways, a Fayetteville, Arkansas-based air carrier, in hopes of gaining a codeshare to feed Republic Airlines' Memphis hub. Air Midwest would expand by acquiring routes in Arkansas to complement its existing routes in the midwest. Both carriers operated Metros, and Air Midwest had an opportunity to win a codeshare with Republic.

Republic picked a different air carrier to feed its Memphis hub. Air Midwest discovered many hidden problems with the neglected fleet inherited from Scheduled Skyways, forcing the airline to perform a great deal of maintenance to keep the aircraft flying. The merger with Scheduled Skyways pushed Air Midwest to the verge of bankruptcy over the few years that followed.

On April 1, 1985, Air Midwest introduced the 30-seat Saab 340 aircraft with flights from Kansas City to Wichita, Omaha, and Manhattan, KS. By the end of 1985 the airline was operating 5 Saab 340's and 24 Metroliners.

Although Air Midwest was unsuccessful in gaining a codeshare with Republic through the Scheduled Skyways merger, it was able to acquire codeshare agreements in 1985 with Eastern Airlines as Eastern Air Midwest Express at the Kansas City and Wichita hubs and later with Ozark Air Lines as Ozark Midwest at that carriers' St. Louis hub, and American Airlines as part of the American Eagle (airline brand) at there Nashville hub.

Continuing money problems forced Air Midwest to sell its Nashville hub and Saab 340 aircraft to American in 1987. TWA acquired Ozark in 1986 and forced Air Midwest to surrender some of its St Louis routes because TWA already had a code share partner in St Louis, Resort Air (today's Trans States Airlines).

By June 1988, Air Midwest had built up the Kansas City hub with 89 flights per day to 20 cities. Eastern then abruptly pulled out of Kansas City leaving Air Midwest no one to feed. Air Midwest quickly negotiated a codeshare agreement with the second incarnation of Braniff (1983-1990) as Braniff was now building up Kansas City as a hub. However this happened just in time for Braniff to go bankrupt again.

After the collapse of Braniff in 1990, Air Midwest negotiated yet another new codeshare agreement, this time with USAir to feed the Kansas City hub.

On July 12, 1991, Air Midwest published a message to all employees, "St. Louis hub sold to TransStates, all else to Mesa."

A book on the history of Air Midwest entitled "Pioneer of the Third Level" was written by Dr. Imre E. Quastler, an authority on regional airlines.

Operations under Mesa Air Group

Mesa Air Group acquired Air Midwest in 1991.[4] From 1991 until 1997, Air Midwest operated 12 Beechcraft 1900s flying from its Kansas City hub as USAir Express. In 1997, Mesa Air Group underwent a corporate reorganization: Mesa Airline's FloridaGulf, Liberty Express, and Independent divisions were merged into Air Midwest.

Air Midwest operated to many smaller cities for Essential Air Service including an America West Express operation in Phoenix and Las Vegas under an agreement with America West Airlines. Also independent operations were run as Mesa Airlines brand with divisions out of Albuquerque, Chicago, and Dallas/Fort Worth. The America West Express operation was transferred to US Airways Express with the merger of America West and US Airways in 2007. Air Midwest further operated as US Airways Express at the major carriers' hubs in Charlotte, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh and with smaller operations at Omaha, Little Rock, and New Orleans.

On January 8, 2003, Air Midwest had its first fatal accident when Air Midwest Flight 5481 operating as US Airways Express and departing out of Charlotte for Greenville-Spartanburg crashed 37 seconds after takeoff. All 19 passengers and two crewmembers were killed in the accident.

For a period of three weeks in August 2006, Air Midwest operated as Delta Connection, flying three Beechcraft 1900D from John F. Kennedy Airport to Providence, Rhode Island, and Windsor Locks, Connecticut, as a stop-gap measure for Freedom Airlines, another subsidiary of Mesa Air Group, until it was relieved by Chautauqua Airlines.

On February 1, 2007, Air Midwest began operations at Chicago Midway International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, to three Illinois airports: Decatur, Marion, and Quincy. However, just nine months after beginning this service, Mesa Airlines announced that Air Midwest would end all service from Illinois on November 9, 2007.

In May 2007, Air Midwest, operating as America West Express, requested that the FAA allow it to withdraw service from the regional airport in Vernal, Utah, (a service that had started only one year prior) as soon as a replacement carrier was approved. On Oct. 4, 2007, the federal Department of Transportation announced that Great Lakes Airlines would replace Air Midwest as the Essential Air Service carrier at the Utah airports in Vernal and Moab. At the same time, the Department of Transportation announced that SkyWest Airlines would replace Air Midwest as the Essential Air Service carrier at Cedar City.

A report published in The Wall Street Journal on January 14, 2008, included a statement from Mesa CEO Jonathan G. Ornstein that the company had decided to shut down Air Midwest, citing significant losses stemming from increased maintenance and fuel costs. All cities served by Air Midwest received notices of intention to end service, except for Prescott and Kingman, Arizona.[5] Mesa later announced plans to completely shut down the Air Midwest subsidiary, with all services to be terminated by June 30, 2008.[6] At the time of its shutdown, there were 20 airplanes in service, down from a high of 118.

The last two flights flown by Air Midwest were Flights 4679 and Flights 4681. Both departed on June 30, 2008, at 10:40pm from Kansas City International (MCI) to Joplin, Missouri (4679) and Columbia, Missouri (4681).

Incidents and accidents

Fleet

As of February 2008, Air Midwest operated the following turbprop aircraft type:

Air Midwest Fleet
Aircraft Total Passengers Routes
Beechcraft 1900D 11 19 All

Previous aircraft operated by Air Midwest include:

MesaMax

MesaMax applied to Mesa Airlines flights that were operated by Air Midwest. It consisted of a card, upon which flights were recorded with a stamp. Once 16 stamps had been recorded, the card could have been redeemed for a single round-trip ticket on Mesa Airlines flights.

Notes

  1. ↑ "uipl_3002c2a3.html." United States Department of Labor. Retrieved on May 26, 2009.
  2. ↑ Book: "Pioneer of the Third Level" by I.E. Quastler
  3. ↑ Air Midwest timetables
  4. ↑ "Air Midwest, Inc." Mesa Air Group. April 4, 2003. Retrieved on May 26, 2009.
  5. ↑ Kardos, Donna (2008-01-14). "Mesa Air Swings to a Loss Amid Surging Fuel Prices". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2008-01-04.
  6. ↑ Kress, Adam (2008-05-14). "Mesa Air Group grounds Air Midwest, citing fuel costs". Phoenix Business Journal. Retrieved 2008-05-14.
  7. ↑ "ASN Aircraft accident Beechcraft 1900D N233YV Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, NC (CLT)." Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on May 26, 2009.

References

  • Henderson, Danna (05-01-1989). "Robert Priddy's $1 million Midwest Gamble". Air Transport World (98).  Check date values in: |date= (help)
  • various (various). "Mesa Airlines Company Reports 1991-1993" (PDF). The Investext Group.  Check date values in: |date= (help)
  • Mesa Air Group (various). "1995-2005 Annual Reports".  Check date values in: |date= (help)
  • Pacific Business News (Honolulu) (December 28, 2007). "Mesa delays financial report to January". Archived from the original on May 25, 2011. Retrieved 2008-01-06. 
  • Bruce Drum (December 29, 2007). "Mesa to sell off Air Midwest, delays financial results". Retrieved 2008-01-06. 

External links

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