Daily Archives: May 11, 2004

Madison is #1?

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Forbes Mark Tatge writes about our “Miracle in the Midwest”:

David C. Schwartz is right at home in the dark. That’s where his fluorescent microscopes can do their work, scanning thousands of samples of DNA that make a slow crawl across computer screens and methodically map the human genome. All this activity is packed into a cramped room inside a lab at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “Most people think I came here because I hated New York,” he says with a boyish smile and a twitch of the mustache that curls over his lip. “I came here to start a company

Interesting sidebar:

Out-of-state venture capitalists complain that most of these hatchlings need better management. G. Steven Burrill, who runs the San Francisco merchant bank Burrill & Co. and has invested $15 million to $20 million in young Wisconsin companies, bemoans the failure to capitalize on opportunities. “We see 100 deals a month in life sciences,” he explains. “But I don’t see even one a month from Madison

Burrill is correct – while there are many opportunities here, it is not generally a risk taking culture…. unfortunately.

Madison Air Service

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There’s been some media discussion recently about the state of Madison’s Air Service, specifically, United Express (regional carrier for United Airlines). Many of United Express’s flights are served by Appleton based Air Wisconsin.
I experienced these service issues firsthand this past winter. The random number generator that is United Express service between Chicago and Madison became so bad that I phoned J. Kevin LaWare, Air Wisconsin’s Vice President of Operations. Service examples include

  • Incorrect Gate Information
  • Incorrect departure time information
  • Last minute cancellations (“weather”)
  • Gate agents who were left in the dark as operations personnel moved planes and schedules around (leaving the flying public further in the dark and irritated)

I asked LaWare if their random number scheduler would continue to plague Madison passengers (and therefore I should not bother to purchase any tickets on United).
Surprisingly, he called me back several weeks later (February, I recall) and mentioned that

  • O’hare had become over utilized (again!). This makes sense. The number of large aircraft flights has likely gone down while regional jet service to and from O’Hare has exploded.
  • The FAA has allowed AA and UA to coordinate schedules to and from O’Hare, which should improve things.

I appreciated his call and can report that in fact service has become more reliable (I would say that schedule reliability is better. However, there is still room for improvement). You can periodically see how they are doing by viewing daily inbound and outbound (Chicago) flights.