Midwest hoping new planes will cut costs, improve image By The Associated Press Midwest Airlines is banking on a fleet of new Boeing 717 airplanes=20 scheduled to start arriving in two weeks to cut its costs and make the=20 airline a stronger competitor in the battered industry. The first of the 25= =20 new 717s will be delivered Feb. 28, and the rest of the planes will=20 continue arriving through 2005. The 88-passenger 717s will replace the=20 airline's fleet of McDonnell Douglas DC-9s, some of which were built in the= =20 1960s. The acquisition, costing more than half a billion dollars, is the=20 largest in the company's history. The new planes will help Midwest emerge=20 from the industry's challenges "an even stronger competitor," said Timothy= =20 Hoeksema, company president and chief executive officer. The acquisition will cut the maintenance costs and equipment upgrades=20 needed to maintain the older planes. The 717 burns about 25 percent less=20 fuel than the DC-9 =97 a critical point because jet fuel costs 50 percent=20 more than it did a year ago. Aside from saving money, the airline wants to= =20 new planes to add to its luxury image. Midwest spent hundreds of hours=20 searching for improved leather seats, while keeping its trademark=20 two-by-two seating configuration. Business travelers tested various=20 airplane seats in a "seat show." The seat that was chosen for the 717 comes= =20 from a German company that makes luxury automobile seats and features a=20 footrest and an adjustable headrest. Boeing created a cabin ventilation system that offers more control for the= =20 individual traveler and lower temperatures. "On 115-degree days in Yuma, Arizona, we are able to turn the cabin=20 temperature down to the point where there's frost on the windows," said=20 Thomas Croslin, Boeing Co. 717 program chief engineer. The 717 cabin is=20 brighter and more spacious than that in the DC-9. It has a raised ceiling,= =20 pushed-out sidewalls and better overhead storage bins. Foam pads were=20 stuffed in the fuselage to dampen outside noise, after Hoeksema said the=20 plane was too loud. It takes about a month to produce a single 717, with=20 one daily production work shift. The Long Beach, Calif., factory where the= =20 planes are being made has enough room for nine football fields. Once assembled, the aircraft is towed across a parking lot to an airplane=20 hangar where 61 gallons of paint are applied from platforms that rise from= =20 floor to ceiling. Assembly plant workers sign their names to a banner that= =20 is delivered with the airplane. "There is a lot of personal pride that goes= =20 into building one of these planes," said Bill Shultz, president of United=20 Aerospace Workers Local 148, which represents the plant's workers. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.trotters.net TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************