Midway Airlines--albeit a smaller incarnation--may be back in business within a few weeks, airline officials announced Friday.
Midway, which was Raleigh-Durham International Airport's largest carrier until declining business travel revenues and repercussions from the Sept. 11 attacks forced the airline to suspend operations, has been declared eligible to receive $12.5 million in federal airline relief funds, CEO Robert Ferguson said.
That money, combined with an $8.5 million loan from a lender in Connecticut, will allow Midway to resume operations "around Christmastime, maybe a little bit before," Ferguson said, adding that the time will allow the airline to work out the operational logistics. "We've got to bring the employees back and... start advertising and selling tickets," he said.
But Keith Debbage, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro who specializes in transportation issues, said that in an environment where even airlines that were not having problems before Sept. 11 are struggling, Midway will have difficulty coming back.
"To be honest, good luck to them and all that, but I think that the chances for them are very remote, extremely slim," Debbage said. "At best, the future role will be one of a niche carrier, a very narrow-market niche carrier.... I see rough storm clouds ahead for Midway."
The airline will start back small, with only 12 round-trip flights per day, to six destinations--a fraction of the flights it operated before August, when it first declared bankruptcy and cut back on its operations, and before September, when it suspended flights completely.
"Maybe 10 percent at most" of Midway's workforce will be rehired, Ferguson said. He added that it is too early to know if the airline will ever make it back to operating at its former level.
Still, local officials were glad to hear of the airline's return.
"This is wonderful news not just for Midway, but for the Triangle in general," U.S. Rep. David Price, D-Durham, said in a statement. "Now, the flying public will once again have access to the Triangle's only regional air carrier, and displaced employees can return to work, giving the Triangle's economy a much-needed boost."
RDU airport spokesperson Mirinda Kossoff agreed, but cautioned that the impact on the economy might be smaller than expected.
"It can only be good for the community and the airport if they are able to come back," she said. "[But] they're coming back small, and it remains to be seen how well they'll be able to do.... When you think about the cost of running an airline, $12.5 million isn't that much money."
Debbage also said the effect of the airline's return would be minimal. "To me, the really significant impact that Midway had on the economy was when it shut down," he said.
Midway's $12.5 million grant is part of a $15 billion federal bailout program for airlines hurt by the aftereffects of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Initially, the U.S. Department of Transportation had hesitated to approve Midway's request for funding because it was not clear whether the airline, which had already filed for bankruptcy and cut back on some operations even before the attacks, qualified under the legislation administering the funds.
But Friday, DOT spokesperson Bill Mosley confirmed that Midway would be eligible for the grants--though he added that the DOT must still approve Midway's request to resume service before any planes take flight.
"We have to make sure that they have adequate financing, that they have management qualified to run the airline and that they [comply with the law]," Mosley said. "Now that they are planning to restart service, that did enable us to look at their request."
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