Dramatic Cuts At Midwest Airlines Will Rock Greater Milwaukee

There are few business with more of a signature presence and value to the Milwaukee area than Midwest Airlines, making the company's announcement of substantial layoffs, equipment reductions and related trims all the more disturbing.

Spiraling fuel costs will continue to wreak havoc on the economy as it adjusts, if that is the right word, to oil prices that will not quit spiking.

A fundamentally crippled Midwest Airlines, or worse, a hometown service folded invisibly into a larger corporate parent would be a tremendous financial and psychological blow to Milwaukee.