I'm speaking up here as a Midwest employee... I don't think it's over yet. Midwest still has a majority on its board that is opposed to a takeover, and Wisconsin law allows them to drag this out a long time even if AirTran gets a majority of the stock. A lot of people think there might be a private investor or consortium out there who can make a better deal for Midwest than AirTran can, and Midwest can buy enough time to make that happen. That said AirTran succeeding is the most likely outcome. Most employees are against this - they've promised to keep jobs and they may even add entry-level jobs (think airplane cleaners, baggage handlers, $8/hour types) but almost all white-collar jobs will move to Orlando or disappear. (Mine is one of the many.) For the community, air service would probably actually increase, at least for a while - AirTran desperately needs a new hub and MKE is it - they claim to have plans for massive expansion. If you ever wanted a nonstop flight from Milwaukee to Montreal, Manchester NH or Wichita, this will be the time to get it. (And the planes will be nearly empty, too.) I don't think you need to worry about cheap flights to Vegas and Florida going away - every city in America has those and the demand will always be there. One interesting thing is that Midwest has a strong record against competition, especially in MKE where we've driven away expansion attempts by Northwest (3 times), American, AirTran and others over the years. AirTran, on the other hand, has a horrible record - sometimes pulling out of a city before flying starts because someone else started to compete against them. So I bet, if they succeed, we'll see rapid expansion into MKE - Northwest will ramp up flight again, JetBlue will come in, maybe even Southwest will finally show up here. In the end, MKE's airline is likely to be someone like JetBlue, at least partly because they're not AirTran (and they're only airline that holds a candle to Midwest in customer-service surveys- and you'd be able to watch Packer games on Sunday flights.) I'm personally going to miss the suite at Miller Park if this happens. Plus, Midwest flies the Brewers everywhere they go; wonder if the team would stick with AirTran or look elsewhere for their charters.