History
The airline was established in 1965 and started operations on August 23, 1965. It was founded to connect Appleton, Wisconsin with Chicago. In 1985 it merged with Mississippi Valley Airlines and continued to operate under the Air Wisconsin name. In 1990 it acquired Denver-based Aspen Airways and was itself bought by United Airlines a year later. Air Wisconsin pioneered the concept of code-sharing with United Express and rapidly became the nation's largest regional airline in the 1980s.
United Airlines sold Air Wisconsin to CJT Holdings in 1993. Air Wisconsin was then renamed Air Wisconsin Airlines Corporation or AWAC because UAL retained the rights to the Air Wisconsin name. In February 1998 it acquired the assets of Mountain Air Express and expanded operations in the west. It flew as a feeder for AirTran Airways under the name AirTran JetConnect, but this relationship was discontinued in July 2004. Even after significant concessionary givebacks by all unions, Air Wisconsin was unable to secure a long-term deal providing service for United Airlines. United ended its contract with AWAC in April 2005, and the last flight under the United code operated on April 16, 2006. At one point, Air Wisconsin operated British Aerospace (BAe) ATP turboprop aircraft as well as BAe 146-100, BAe 146-200 and BAe 146-300 jet aircraft on United Express services. These were all large aircraft types when compared to other regional aircraft in operation at the time. Air Wisconsin was the only U.S. operator of the BAe ATP turboprop and also the BAe 146-300, which is the largest member of the BAe 146 family of jet aircraft.
The company invested $175 Million into US Airways to secure a partnership operating as US Airways Express. During the last 3 years AWAC has been unable to acquire any extra routes. AWAC now flies exclusively as US Airways Express from bases in Philadelphia and Washington DC. Air Wisconsin handles ground operations for Template:United Express in 17 cities and for Template:US Airways Express in 3 cities. It employed 2,294 staff as of March 2007.
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