Regional Jet prepares to depart to Madison, Wisconsin from Chicago O'Hare.]]
is an
Airline based in
Appleton ,
Wisconsin ,
USA . Air Wisconsin Airlines Corporation, or '''AWAC''', is a privately held regional and commuter airline which operates
Regional Jet flights as
US Airways Express under contract to
US Airways . Its headquarters base is
Outagamie County Regional Airport (ATW).
The airline was established in 1965 and started operations on
23 August 1965 . It was originally 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 then sold Air Wisconsin to CJT Holdings in
1993 . In February 1998 it acquired the assets of
Mountain Air Express , allowing it to expand 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 . The company has invested $175 Million into US Airways to gain routes on
US Airways Express . United ended its contract with Air Wisconsin in April
2005 , and the last flight under the United code operated on
April 16 , 2006. Air Wisconsin now operates exclusively as US Airways Express, serving US Airways' customers from bases in
Philadelphia ,
Washington Reagan National Airport in
Virginia , and
Norfolk, Virginia . It employs 3,844 staff (at January 2005).
Air Wisconsin operates the following services (at April 2006):
- Domestic scheduled destinations: Albany , Asheville , Aspen , Atlanta , Baltimore , Bangor , Bentonville , Binghamton , Boston , Bristol / Johnson / Kingsport , Buffalo , Burlington , Charleston (SC) , Charleston (WV) Charlotte , Chicago , Cincinnati , Cleveland , Columbia , Columbus , Dayton , Detroit , Elmira / Corning , Erie , Greensboro , Greenville / Spartanburg , Hartford / Springfield , Huntsville , Indianapolis , Islip , Ithaca , Jackson , Jacksonville (NC) , Kansas City , Knoxville , Lexington , Louisville , Manchester (NH) , Memphis , Milwaukee , Minneapolis-St. Paul , Montgomery , Myrtle Beach , Nashville , Newark , New Bern , Newport News , New York , Norfolk , Pittsburgh , Portland (ME) , Providence , Raleigh/Durham , Richmond , Roanoke , Rochester (NY) , Savannah , Scranton , State College , Syracuse , Washington , White Plains and Wilmington .
The Air Wisconsin fleet consists of the following aircraft (at April 2006):
