midwest airlines

As other undercover CEOs did, when Bryan Bedford revealed himself at the show's end, he turned into a CEO genie, granting wishes to his underlings. But in this case, the airline's entire workforce got a gift: a rollback of an earlier pay cut.

It's another major change for the U.S. airline industry, as two popular regional carriers merge: Denver-based Frontier and Milwaukee's Midwest are now Frontier Airlines. The news was met with wild applause, cheers and tears of relief from several hundred Frontier employees assembled.

I'm never short on praise for Midwest Airlines, based in Milwaukee. The company has been an outstanding airline for years. Even when the company was close to going out of business after September 11, its employees were still some of the best in the industry. The company fought its way back, became...