There are a handful of regional airlines that I’m always surprised to find still in business. There’s Mesa, of course, and yes, GoJet, but one of the biggest surprises of all is Air Wisconsin. And now, it just lost its only regional relationship with no replacement on the horizon. Survival is… going to be a challenge.
Air Wisconsin started up flying commuter routes in the 1960s. By the mid-1980s, it had attracted the eye of United with its rapid growth in the airline’s backyard. In 1985 it started flying as United Express, and that contract lasted for 20 years before ending in 2006. That’s when the BAe-146 fleet was parked, and the airline went all-CRJ. That is also right around when Cirium block-hour data starts, so you can watch the airline’s downward progression ever since.
Air Wisconsin Block Minutes By Marketing Airline
Data via Cirium
This was the first time that Air Wisconsin should have died, but it pulled a rabbit out of a hat. In 2005, it invested millions in the US Airways bankruptcy to ensure that it would come out as a regional operator on the other side. Sure enough, it did, and that saved the airline. The deal survived the American merger until 2016 when death number two should have happened.
In 2016, Air Wisconsin’s ground handling business was wound down since it was no longer needed, and that American contract was approaching an end in 2018. In 2017, it was flying far fewer block hours than it had previously flown. This time, Air Wisconsin went back into the arms of its former patron, United. It once again became a United Express carrier starting in 2018.
Then it was time for near-death number three. In 2022, the pilot shortage was raging, and Air Wisconsin wasn’t able to fly its full schedule. The airline shrunk down further, but… it still had some pilots. And that’s the only reason American swooped back in and took the airline back on as an American Eagle partner one last time. The last United flight operated in June 2023.
This new deal with American was a five-year contract, so it seemed like it had secured at least a near-term future. But now, the end has arrived. The airline announced that it will no longer fly for American Eagle after April of this year. Here’s a look at the Air Wisconsin March route map before the pulldown began.
Map was created using Doughton Data Solutions service. doughtondata.com
I asked American for comment on this, and a spokesperson said:
American continually evaluates its regional network and makes strategic decisions that will benefit our airline and customers. As a result, we have begun reducing our schedule operated by Air Wisconsin starting in March, with the final Air Wisconsin-operated flights for American on April 3. We sincerely appreciate the hard work and dedication of the Air Wisconsin team over the past two years. Their contributions have been instrumental in supporting our regional operation, and we wish them continued success in the future. As we move forward, we remain committed to optimizing our network and ensuring the best possible service for our customers, and we’re working closely with our regional partners to minimize disruptions to our customers’ travel plans.
In other words, American made this decision, not Air Wisconsin. (As if you’d have thought otherwise.) And American, by the way, already has a replacement plan which it loaded into schedules this weekend. Envoy’s new Embraer 175 deliveries will do some of the flying, and they will also free up room in other markets so Piedmont can move some of its ERJ-145s to Chicago, at least temporarily. By June, American will go fully two-class in Chicago mostly on the backs of Envoy and SkyWest. It was clearly prepared for this transition.
As you might expect from an airline that just lost its most important partner, Air Wisconsin is trying to put a positive spin on this as a “strategic realignment” focusing on both Essential Air Service flying and charters.
The Essential Air Service bit is something of a head-scratcher. As of now, it holds exactly zero contracts. American has four, but only one is flown by Air Wisconsin: Waterloo (Iowa) from Chicago/O’Hare. Garden City (Kansas) and Grand Island (Nebraska) are flown from DFW and Watertown is flown from Philly. So really, Air Wisconsin has to start from scratch. It has started to apply for some contracts, however, and the good news is that American will remain as a codeshare and interline partner, so its bids will be somewhat attractive to the communities. It just won’t ramp up that immediately.
On the charter side, it sounds like it has already made some inroads before its primary business blew up. No doubt that it is telling the truth when it says that college conference realignment has increased the need for its services. We aren’t talking about big time college football programs here, but other sports need to fly more as well thanks to this travesty. (signed, a former PAC-12 fan)
All this being said, Air Wisconsin has a fleet of 60 CRJ-200s. The press release touts how it just retired all remaining debt on its aircraft, but these are some old airplanes. The newest aircraft in the CRJ-200 fleet is more than 20 years old. A replacement is going to be needed, and that’s going to require more debt or equity to make it happen. I’m not so sure how easy that’ll be.
Despite the sunny disposition in the press release, Air Wisconsin has to be nervous here. Then again, it has almost failed so many times, we’ll see if there’s yet another rabbit it can pull out of a hat to keep things going.
