Republic Airways stands to become the 11th largest airline in the U.S. if its plans to acquire Milwaukee-based Midwest Airlines and sponsor Frontier Airlines’ emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy meet with regulators’ approval. Republic, which now consists of Republic Airlines, Chautauqua Airlines and Shuttle America, already ranks as one of the regional airline industry’s largest groups, flying 212 regional jets for six mainline partners.
A seventh partner, Hawaii’s Mokulele Airlines, as of May 1 fell under the control of Republic when the Indianapolis-based airline raised its equity position in the operation to 50 percent, took over three of the five board seats and set in place plans to send a fourth Embraer E170 to the islands by the end of the summer. But, as has become painfully apparent in an industry tied so inextricably to the major airline business, growth opportunities with existing mainline partners have virtually evaporated, leaving anyone with the expansion ambitions of Republic CEO Bryan Bedford with little choice but to go in search of acquisition targets.
