Midway Airlines Resumes Flights After 3 Months

Midway Airlines Corp. launched its bid to fly out of bankruptcy Wednesday, with help from a federal grant.

Hundreds of passengers crowded Midway Airlines’ ticket counter, and Midway flew out of its home base at Raleigh-Durham International Airport for the first time since mid-September, after the terrorist attacks halted air travel and stalled the bankrupt carrier’s efforts to reorganize.

An industry analyst said he was cautious about Midway’s chances of a comeback, which was eased by a $10-million federal airline bailout grant approved for the industry after the attacks. The airline expects an additional $2.5 million.

Chief Executive Robert Ferguson said he has grown “tired of skeptics” and insisted at a news conference Wednesday that the company is changed substantially since the post-attack shutdown and that costs have been reduced. He said the airline would return to profitability in March.

Without elaborating, he said differences included preparing in-flight meals in-house instead of hiring an outside company and different schedules for flight crews and employees.

Midway filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August, saying business travel from North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park had dropped so low that the airline couldn’t continue to operate without protection from its creditors.

Analysts said they hoped Midway made it back, but remained skeptical.

“You can’t survive for long on $49 fares,” said aviation consultant Mike Boyd of Evergreen, Colo.

Despite the airline’s federal cash, Midway will have to borrow money in the future, Boyd said, and lenders aren’t excited about helping solvent airlines, much less those being supervised by bankruptcy court.

At its peak, Midway had 40 planes, 130 daily departures and more than 2,400 employees. On Wednesday, the airline was flying five planes and had 250 employees.