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Air Midwest Tanks

5th airline to declare bankruptcy in six weeks

By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com

May 14, 2008

"We are extremely saddened this decision has become necessary," said Jonathan Ornstein, CEO of Mesa Air Group. "Air Midwest has a long and proud history and has served millions of passengers in its 43 years of operation."

Air Midwest is the fifth U.S. carrier to declare bankruptcy in the last six weeks. Aloha Airlines, ATA and Skybus all suspended operations in April. Frontier filed for bankruptcy but continued operating.

"Unfortunately under the current economic conditions there was no foreseeable way to achieve sustained profitability. Even with subsidies from the DOT, Air Midwest has been unable to sustain profitability for the last several years. While this was an extremely difficult decision, and one that the company worked tirelessly to avoid, we are working diligently to minimize the impact this decision will have on Air Midwest's passengers and employees," Ornstein said.

"Although we are unable to continue to provide service, Air Midwest plans to cooperate with the DOT and any replacement carriers in the interest of lessening the impact on the communities affected," said Greg Stephens, Air Midwest's President.

Air Midwest will shut down based on the following schedule:

Effective May 23rd east coast operations serving:

Lewisburg, WV
DuBois, PA
Franklin, PA
Athens, GA

Effective May 31st west coast operations serving:

Ely, NV
Merced, CA
Visalia, CA
Prescott, AZ
Kingman, AZ
Farmington, NM

Effective June 30th central operations serving:

Columbia, MO
Joplin, MO
Kirksville, MO
Grand Island, NE
McCook, NE
Little Rock AR

Air Midwest, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mesa Air Group, Inc., and currently operates 20 Beech 1900D 19-seat airliners serving 27 cities throughout the country. Air Midwest was founded in Wichita, Kansas in May 1965 by Gary Adamson as Aviation Services, Inc.

In 1969, it changed its name to Air Midwest and by 1978 it was operating a fleet of 10 Metroliners. Air Midwest was purchased by Mesa Air Group in 1991.

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