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Milwaukee, Wis. (AP) ― The likely sale of Midwest Air Group to a private investment group bodes well for air travelers to the Midwest who could see more low-cost carriers enter the Milwaukee market, an industry analyst said Monday.

"It would not surprise me to see two or three low-cost carriers enter Milwaukee in the next 12 months," said Darryl Jenkins, an independent airline consultant in Marshall, Va. "People are going to see more flights at lower fares now."

TPG Capital, an independent group of investors that includes Northwest Airlines Corp., offered Sunday to buy the Milwaukee-based operator of Midwest Airlines for more than $400 million in cash. The announcement came less than an hour after AirTran Holdings, Inc. abandoned its two-year effort to acquire Midwest in a hostile takeover.

Midwest and Northwest combined will control nearly 70 percent of the market at Milwaukee's Mitchell International Airport, but low-cost carriers could still find a lucrative niche, some analysts said.

"Everything AirTran was saying is still true, that Midwest is vulnerable to a low-cost carrier," Jenkins said. "Their cost structure is relatively high, and they're not known as being very aggressive if someone comes in and attacks."

Low-cost carriers such as AirTran, Southwest and JetBlue often have operating costs 15 percent to 20 percent lower than those of legacy airlines, Jenkins said. The savings can come from more favorable labor agreements and better productivity, and larger airlines can sometimes negotiate cheaper fuel contracts.

Midwest can certainly expect an aggressive challenge from the spurned AirTran because Milwaukee passengers have long been overcharged and underserved, said a spokesman for the Orlando, Fla.-based AirTran.

"That's just waving the red flag at any low-cost carrier, including us," spokesman David Hirschman said. "Our flights to Milwaukee have been very well received by the public, and we're still going to be aggressive about adding more."

TPG and Midwest were expected to reach an agreement by Wednesday. The deal must be approved by antitrust investigators with the U.S. Department of Justice, but the Midwest board has said its lawyers are confident the deal will pass.

The investors, led by TPG of Fort Worth, Texas, would convert Midwest Air to a privately held company.

AirTran's earlier takeover bids raised concerns with U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat who chairs an antitrust subcommittee. In January he told AirTran chairman and chief executive Joe Leonard in a letter that the subcommittee would examine a merger's impact on Wisconsin consumers and airline competition generally.

Kohl was upbeat Monday about the proposed deal, saying Midwest would still be able to operate as an independent airline.

"I am pleased that this arrangement will allow Midwest to continue to provide Wisconsin with the unsurpassed customer service we have come to count on," he said in a statement.

The only route that overlaps between Midwest and Northwest is a flight between Minneapolis and Milwaukee, Midwest spokeswoman Carol Skornicka said. In comparison, she noted, AirTran and Midwest had eight overlapping flights, which might have led to flight consolidations rather than an expansion of choices.

Midwest operates 150 nonstop departures every day from Milwaukee and 42 nonstop departures from Kansas City. It serves 53 cities in the U.S. and Canada.

Northwest serves 246 cities in 21 countries and has daily nonstop flights from Milwaukee to Detroit and Memphis, Northwest spokesman Jim Herlihy said.

Wall Street reacted to the proposed TPG-Midwest deal with tempered disapproval Monday. Shares of Midwest closed down 23 cents, or 1.62 percent, to $14. AirTran fell 38 cents, or 3.55 percent, to $10.32. Shares of Northwest fell 22 cents, or 1.19 percent, to $18.30.

After announcing Sunday night that negotiations with Midwest had been broken off, AirTran officials said they would continue their strategy of growing as a standalone business. At least one industry observer liked the idea, suggesting AirTran was better off without Midwest.

JPMorgan had "questioned (AirTran) management's ability to smoothly execute the integration of both carriers," analyst Jamie Baker said.

"We prefer the lower-risk standalone AirTran strategy (for now)."

TPG had offered an all-cash bid of $16 per share of Midwest stock. That figure trumped AirTran's final offer of $15.75 a share in a cash and stock transaction the company estimated was worth more than $431 million.

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