Should We Vote?

I am very nostalgic when it comes to airline brands and Marques. Professor Henry and I are big fans of the former Braniff.

So it comes as something of a Hobson's choice that Republic has to decide which brand to retain - Frontier or Midwest.

The answer is pretty obvious but still there is a certain sadness about which one will be consigned to the scrapheap.

Republic itself was a relatively short lived airline brand that was formed from the merger of Hughes Airwest and North Central in 1979 to 1985 when it was sold to Northwest and gobbled up, you can actually still see some of the RW and NC coded aircraft mostly DC9s that Delta will phase out.

The new Republic Airways has grown rapidly from a contract services carrier to a full branded presence acquiring in quick succession Frontier and Midwest Express. The latter grew out of the airline division of Kleenex Maker Kimberley Clark, the former a born again brand of the scrappy airline out of Denver.

And there really is no contest. So no point in voting. Perhaps the question is whether the Republic brand would be placed on many aircraft. Nah - not a good idea - stick with a name that has value.

Cheers