Bonus free post: United Airlines cutting service from CWA to Chicago
The service will end on Jan. 3
I came across this small tip buried in a business wire story: United Airlines is cutting a few small regional routes.
One of those routes happens to be an important one for central Wisconsin: CWA to ORD. The Central Wisconsin Airport to Chicago route might be a short trip, but it’s an important one that connects central Wisconsin passengers to a number of other destinations.
I myself just used this route on my way to Miami at the end of last month. Flights had just become very inexpensive — we flew from CWA to Miami for around $350, and we could have flown for as cheap as $289 but opted for better flight times (which were canceled, so we ended up leaving super early anyway).
This seemed really bad, but I’m no expert on flight patterns. So I reached out to CWA Airport Manager Brian Grefe. Was it as bad as I thought?
Yep, though Grefe manages to add a positive spin on it: “While this is terrible news. It presents CWA with an opportunity to refocus.”
Service to Chicago will end Jan. 3, Grefe says. The airport was notified last week of the change.
Why? Not enough pilots/workers to man the flights, CWA staff were told. As I mentioned, it’s part of a wider closing of 14 flight routes, according to Simple Flying. CWA is one of seven ORD routes, the airport most effected.
Grefe is optimistic though. Although it is bad news in the short term, Grefe says:
Making American Airlines and Delta Airlines healthy will provide us with a much greater argument to add an additional destination. Also, with the potential lack of competition and strong demand in our market, we will be more attractive to a low cost carrier. I plan on exploring all opportunities in the next few weeks and months.
In the short term, though, expect travel from CWA to be a little more difficult.
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