There has been another airline merger, albeit not as major or significant as the recent United/Continental deal. My former employer, Chautauqua Airlines, has a parent company known as Republic Airways Holdings. RAH runs Chautauqua Airlines, Shuttle America Airlines, and Republic Airlines. These three are regional jet operators. A few months ago, they bought Frontier Airlines out of Denver, and Midwest Express Airlines out of Milwaukee. So now, RAH is running 5 airlines!

Midwest was in trouble for a lot of reasons but RAH is turning them around. They gave back Midwest’s larger Boeing 717 aircraft and have replaced them with Embraer 190 aircraft, which are smaller and less expensive to operate. Then Frontier was purchased and will be merged with Midwest Express. The new airline will be under the Frontier brand and paint scheme, but the famous, warm chocolate chip cookies served on Midwest Express will remain!

Now, Republic Airways Holdings runs three regional operators and one “major” airline. I wish them all luck and hope they succeed. It’s very tough to run airlines in today’s economy. The CEO has said that mistakes will be made along the way but they will work as hard as they can to make it all work out. I say good for them. I’m glad all this happened after I left for Cathay Pacific, or I may have never left the airline.