- 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, 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, United States, and was a subsidiary of Mesa Air Group. Besides initially flying as an independent air carrier, it later operated code sharing feeder flights on behalf of Eastern Air Lines as Eastern Air Midwest Express, on behalf of Trans World Airlines (TWA) as Trans World Express and on behalf of US Airways as US Airways Express. It also operated feeder flights on behalf of Braniff (1983-1990) and Ozark Air Lines in addition to flying for Mesa Airlines. Air Midwest was shut down by its parent company, Mesa Airlines, in June 2008.
Video Air Midwest
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.
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 commuter turboprop aircraft to keep up with its expansion.
By 1978, it was operating a fleet of six Swearingen Metroliner commuter propjets 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 ten 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 the original Frontier Airlines (1950-1986). 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. Also in 1984, Air Midwest was independently operating nonstop flights from St. Louis Downtown Airport (CPS) to Chicago Midway Airport (MDW) and Kansas City Downtown Airport (MKC) with Metro propjets.
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 Metro propjets, and Air Midwest had an opportunity to win a codeshare agreement 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 turboprop aircraft with flights from Kansas City to Wichita, Omaha, and Manhattan, KS. By the end of 1985 the airline was operating five 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 their Nashville hub.
Continuing money problems forced Air Midwest to sell its Nashville hub and Saab 340 aircraft to American in 1987. Trans World Airlines (TWA) acquired Ozark Air Lines 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). At the end of 1989, Air Midwest was operating Trans World Express service on behalf of TWA at its St. Louis hub with nonstop flights to Birmingham, AL; Bloomington, IL; Cape Girardeau, MO; Cedar Rapids, IA; Champaign, IL; Decatur, IL; Evansville, IN; Fayetteville, AR; Fort Leonard Wood, MO; Knoxville, TN; Lexington, KY; Marion, IL; Paducah, KY; Quincy, IL; Rochester, MN; South Bend, IN; Topeka, KS and Waterloo, IA operated with Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia, Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner and Saab 340 turboprops. By 1990, the airline had added Trans World Express service between St. Louis and Fort Smith, AR; Manhattan, KS and Salina, KS.
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 thus leaving Air Midwest with no one to connect passenger traffic to. 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 development occurred just before Braniff once again went into bankruptcy.
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.
Destinations in 1970
Air Midwest was serving the following destinations as an independent commuter air carrier in 1970:
- Colby, KS
- Denver, CO
- Dodge City, KS
- Garden City, KS
- Great Bend, KS
- Hays, KS
- Hutchinson, KS
- Kansas City, MO - Focus city
- Liberal, KS
- Omaha, NE
- Topeka, KS
- Wichita, KS - Hub & airline headquarters
Destinations in 1981
Air Midwest was independently serving the following destinations in 1981 with all flights being operated with Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner (Metro II SA-226 model) commuter propjets at this time:
- Alamogordo, NM
- Albuquerque, NM - Focus city
- Amarillo, TX
- Carlsbad, NM
- Clovis, NM
- Columbia, MO
- Denver, CO
- Des Moines, IA
- Dodge City, KS
- Garden City, KS
- Goodland, KS
- Great Bend, KS
- Hays, KS
- Hobbs, NM
- Hutchinson, KS
- Kansas City, KS - Kansas City Downtown Airport - Hub
- Kansas City, KS - Kansas City International Airport
- Lamar, CO
- Liberal, KS
- Lincoln, NE
- Lubbock, TX
- Omaha, NE
- Parsons, KS
- Roswell, NM
- St. Louis, MO
- Silver City, NM
- Springfield, MO
- Topeka, KS
- Tulsa, OK
- Wichita, KS - Hub & airline headquarters
By 1983, the airline had added Farmington, NM, Grand Island, NE, Joplin, MO, Manhattan, KS, Midland, TX, Moline, IL, Oklahoma City, OK and Phoenix, AZ to its route system and by 1984 Chicago, IL (via Midway Airport), Olathe, KS (via Johnson County Industrial Airport), Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN and Sioux City, IA had been added as well.
Operations under Mesa Air Group
Mesa Air Group acquired Air Midwest in 1991. From 1991 until 1997, Air Midwest operated twelve Beechcraft 1900C commuter turboprops 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. Mesa later announced plans to completely shut down the Air Midwest subsidiary, with all services to be terminated by June 30, 2008. 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 (flt. 4679) and Columbia, Missouri (flt. 4681).
Maps Air Midwest
Incidents and accidents
- Air Midwest Flight 5481 - a Beechcraft 1900D operated by Air Midwest as US Airways Express under a franchise agreement, crashed into an airport hangar and burst into flames 37 seconds after leaving Charlotte/Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, for Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport near Greer, South Carolina, on January 8, 2003. All 19 passengers and two pilots aboard died in the accident.
Fleet
As of February 2008, Air Midwest operated the following turbprop aircraft type:
Previous regional and commuter aircraft operated by Air Midwest included:
- Beechcraft 99
- Beechcraft 1900C
- British Aerospace BAe Jetstream 31
- Cessna 402
- Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia
- Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner (Metro II SA-226 models)
- Saab 340
All of the above are twin turboprop aircraft with the exception of the Cessna 402 which is a twin engine piston powered aircraft.
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
References
External links
- Mesa Air Group
Source of article : Wikipedia
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