Gateway to Milwaukee

14th September 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE    
For more information, contact:
Fran McLaughlin (414) 278-4244 or (414) 235-6592
Pat Rowe (414) 747-4545 or (414) 788-1536

MILWAUKEE, Wis. – September 14, 2009 – Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker cited an article by nationally recognized travel writer Chris Elliott that recently ranked Milwaukee as the least expensive destination for fall 2009 travel as evidence that competition among Mitchell International Airport’s airlines will result in great bargains for Wisconsin and Illinois travelers.

Elliott, who writes a regular travel column for MSNBC.com, serves as reader advocate for National Geographic Traveler and is a much sought-after public speaker on the topic of travel, posted a September 10 blog on his Web site, http://www.Elliott.org, listing MKE atop the list of the “top five least expensive destinations for fall travel.”

Outranking airports in Denver (DEN), Kansas City (MCI), Baltimore (BWI) and Tampa (TPA), respectively, Elliott cited the average airfare to MKE this fall, according to Bing.com, as $197 compared to $279 last fall, a 29.3 percent decrease.

Southwest Airlines will debut MKE service on November 1, operating 12 daily nonstop flights to some of the nation’s most popular business and leisure destinations. Both AirTran and Midwest Airlines have also recently announced new nonstop service. AirTran, Midwest and Delta have major operations at MKE, competing with other airlines including Southwest; Frontier; Air Canada; Continental; American; United; USAirways; and Great Lakes.

Located just 45 minutes north on I-94 from the Lake Forest Oasis and known as Chicago’s Third Airport, MKE’s 11 airlines offer 215 departures per day, with nonstop service to 50 cities nationwide (and Toronto), and one-stop connections to hundreds of cities worldwide. One of the few U.S. airports to experience passenger growth in 2008, MKE served a record 7,956,968 travelers, a 3.17 percent gain over 2007, concluding 17 straight months of record growth.

Walker says the leading reasons northern Illinois travelers book round trip flights out of Mitchell Airport versus O’Hare include less expensive fares, reasonable parking fees, and the ease and comfort of flying out of a less crowded airport

General Mitchell International Airport is owned by Milwaukee County and operated by the Department of Transportation & Public Works, Airport Division, under the policy direction of the Milwaukee County Executive and the County Board of Supervisors. The airport is entirely funded by user fees; no property tax dollars are used for the airport’s capital improvements or for its day-to-day operation. For more information on Mitchell International, visit www.mitchellairport.com.