Mitchell Airfares Remain Low, But Gain Altitude

May 01--Fares at Mitchell International Airport remain among the nation's lowest, but their upward march continued in the fourth quarter of 2011, newly released data show.

The $304 average round-trip domestic fare out of Milwaukee ranked 88th among the country's 100 busiest airports.

But that was up 17.4% from a year earlier -- the 10th greatest increase.

The figures were released this week by the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Three years ago, Milwaukee was enjoying exceptionally cheap fares as three carriers -- Frontier, AirTran and Southwest -- fought for market share. The competition helped push average fares to about $250 in 2009.

Those days are gone. Southwest bought AirTran last May. Meanwhile, Frontier, the ailing successor to the city's once-loved Midwest Airlines, has cut service from 86 daily flights out of Mitchell to 18 and, as of June 1, seven.

As service has been slashed, flight options for Milwaukeeans suffered.

For the one-year period ended in January, Mitchell lost a greater share of departures -- 12.5% -- than any of the nation's 35 largest airports, an analysis of federal data shows.

The January figures are the latest available, and there's a good chance Milwaukee's year-over-year loss will become larger as data for subsequent months are released.

That's because Frontier early this year still accounted for 32 departures a day out of Mitchell. The airline dropped 14 of those in April and will drop another 11 in June.

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