Yet another heavy shoe hit the floor today as Midwest Airlines announced that it is grounding its entire MD-80 fleet.

The Business Journal of Milwaukee reports:

“Midwest Airlines will be grounding its entire fleet of MD-80 aircraft — used largely for long-haul flights to the West Coast — and lay off an undetermined number of employees as part of its planned restructuring efforts, airline spokesman Michael Brophy said Friday.

The Oak Creek airline will stop flying about a dozen of the less-efficient MD-80 planes in its effort to counter the skyrocketing cost of fuel. Brophy said the number of affected employees, which would include pilots, have yet to be determined.

The aircraft are used largely for long flights to West Coast destinations like Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco. Brophy said the airline has not yet determined whether it would eliminate some of those destinations or reduce the frequency of some of those flights. Midwest has the option of serving those cities with the other airplanes in its fleet, Boeing 717s, from its Kansas City hub.”

Between Maddog groundings at American Airlines and Midwest, Allegiant is going to have a bevy of MD-80 beauties from which to pick their next aircraft.