Flights in Kansas

Although Midwest Airlines’ new owner is shifting the company’s headquarters, it doesn’t plan to shrink Midwest’s Kansas City hub.Rather, Republic Airways Holdings Inc. is considering restoring some of the service reductions that Midwest made in Kansas City, just as it has been doing at Midwest’s former headquarters in suburban Milwaukee, a Republic spokesman said in a Friday e mail response.

In August, Midwest sold to Republic, which also owns Denver based Frontier Airlines. Executive management functions for both airlines are being consolidated at Republic’s Indianapolis headquarters, the company said Thursday. The integration of the two branded operations Frontier and Midwest should conclude by the end of the second quarter, according to a release.

Republic has yet to discuss any service restorations with Kansas City International Airport following its purchase of Midwest, other than the added seasonal service to Fort Myers, Fla., KCI spokesman Justin Meyer said Friday. But the company would be in a good position to take advantage of markets such as Raleigh N.C.; Austin, Texas; and New Orleans, to which about 100 KCI passengers fly each day, but there are no nonstop routes.

Republic’s release said the company is buying three new Airbus A320 jets and seven new Embraer 190 aircraft during the first half of 2010, which will let the two carriers expand service to new destinations and add more flights on current routes.Midwest has been a business travelers’ favorite and a top carrier at KCI, with almost 6 percent of market share in November, the most recently reported month. Frontier had about 3.4 percent market share. In 2008, Midwest cut some service from KCI.

Republic also owns Chautauqua Airlines, Lynx Aviation, Republic Airlines and Shuttle America, which together with Midwest and Frontier offer about 1,600 flights a day to 119 cities in 44 states, Canada, Costa Rica and Mexico. Midwest and Frontier are the two branded airlines; the other flights operate through fixed fee airline services agreements with five U.S. airlines. Republic’s airlines employ about 11,000 aviation professionals.