AirTran Adds Flights in Milwaukee

AirTran has decided to continue its growth in Milwaukee by announcing an increase in flights at the airport by 40 percent. That may sound like a lot, but in reality it’s only an increase from 21 daily flights to 30. Still, it’s a very telling move.

The big players in Milwaukee have long been Midwest and Northwest. Midwest has slowly been shrinking toward irrelevance after turning down a takeover offer from AirTran awhile back. It partnered with Northwest just as AirTran decided to begin building its own operation in the city. Now Delta has bought Northwest and AirTran must think there’s an opportunity to catch them off guard.

The new flights are an interesting mix. There will be four new cities served from Milwaukee. Airline hubs Minneapolis, St Louis, and Denver (summer season only) will get flights as will the brand new airport in Branson (Missouri). AirTran already announced it would be the first airline to serve the airport with Atlanta service and now it will get Milwaukee service as well.

In addition, flights to LAX, Boston, and Tampa will go from being seasonal to year-round. Baltimore will see an extra flight as will LaGuardia. The usual seasonal reductions to Florida will go into effect as well.

It seems clear that AirTran likes what they’re seeing in Milwaukee, and they’re only going to continue to grow their share. Midwest can’t be happy about that, but they aren’t exactly equipped to stop it either with their shrinking fleet and disappearing product advantage thanks to more outsourcing.