MILWAUKEE, Wis. (WTAQ) - The new owner of Midwest Airlines has added almost 400 jobs in Milwaukee since last October. That’s about half the 800 total jobs that Republic Airways promised to add by the end of this year. But it still doesn’t come close to replacing the 2,600 jobs Midwest has dropped since the start of 2008.
And according to the Journal Sentinel, the new hirings only include a handful of former Midwest pilots and around 40 of the company’s former flight attendants. Many of the 800 former Midwest flight crew members who’ve been out of work since 2008 are still going through arbitration to see where they rank on the combined seniority lists for Midwest, Republic, and Frontier airlines. Republic also purchased Frontier last year – and about half of Milwaukee’s new jobs are coming from Frontier’s old facilities.
Republic now says it has 1,140 employees in Milwaukee and nearby Oak Creek. The new jobs are designed to boost Midwest’s market share in Milwaukee, which has dropped from 50 percent to around 35 percent.
