Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
WELCOME
A Million Thanks
While many of you were beginning your summer vacations last month, at Midwest Airlines we quietly celebrated an important milestone: 25 years of service.
I vividly remember our first Midwest Airlines (then Midwest Express) flight on June 11, 1984. We departed from Appleton, stopped in Milwaukee and continued on to Dallas/Ft. Worth, with just a few paying passengers and a number of special guests aboard. It was a flight years in the making, but we were off and flying at last.
It’s tempting to recount our history since then with the common statistics–fleet size, revenues, number of flights, even number of cookies served (tens of millions). But that doesn’t seem to capture the spirit of Midwest. With our continuous focus on differentiated service, it’s a story best told one customer at a time.
Bob Shapiro has been flying
Midwest Airlines almost since the beginning, accumulating more flight segments (1,486) and more Midwest Miles (a million plus, and counting) than any customer in our history. I had the sincere pleasure of spending some time with Mr. Shapiro at a recent Milwaukee Brewers game, and his story echoed those of many of our most frequent flyers. He’s built a successful business that relies on face-to-face contact, enabled by Midwest’s geographic reach and convenient schedule from Milwaukee. Mr. Shapiro has even focused his clientele on the East Coast and Midwest, in order to minimize time away from his family. “To me,” Mr. Shapiro shared, “making it home means home for dinner.”
To Mr. Shapiro, to those of you flying today, and to the millions of others we’ve served over the past 25 years, let me share two sincere thoughts. First, thank you. Second, my assurance that as we begin the next 25 years, we remain as committed as ever to providing you with “The best care in the air.”
