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The Air Wisonsin that is operating today is not the Air Wisconsin of 1965. United bought them for their ORD routes and shut them down.
Of the pilots on property, TWO were hired at United.
When the company started up again, those furloughed came back. I knew several. One like I said worked as a traveling salesman to make ends meet while he waited it out. The time frame was a bad time in the economy.
Eastern Airlines is back. They operate out of FL. Same logo and everything.
Yes the company did furlough pilots at one point but not every pilot was furloughed during This transition. The company was never shut down. The pilot group has been continuously operating since 1965. The operation was sold to United in 1991 and then sold again to new owners in 1993. United wanted our ORD gates as they were owned by Air Wisconsin. So they bought the operation long enough to take the gates and sell us. We have many pilots who were never furloughed and who have been here well before United purchased Air Wisconsin.
This company has been providing a continuous paycheck to many 20+ year pilots. In addition, we have employees who have been here 40 + years.
Again, check Wikipedia as their history page and Air Wisconsin is very accurate.
"In 1990 Air Wisconsin acquired Denver-based Aspen Airways and was itself bought by United Airlines a year later.
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. United Airlines sold Air Wisconsin and the BAe 146 fleet to CJT Holdings in 1993. Air Wisconsin was then renamed Air Wisconsin Airlines Corporation (AWAC) as UAL retained the rights to the Air Wisconsin name and logo. In April 1995 during the late ski season, Air Wisconsin was operating British Aerospace BAe 146 jet shuttle service as United Express on the former Aspen Airways route between Aspen, Colorado and Denver with at least fourteen daily nonstop flights in each direction.
In February 1998 AWAC acquired the assets of Mountain Air Express including Dornier 328 turboprop aircraft which were used to expand United Express service in the west.[6] In the fall of 2003 AWAC acquired ten Canadair CRJ regional jet aircraft from bankrupt Midway Airlines and became a feeder for AirTran Airways under the name AirTran JetConnect, but this relationship was discontinued in July 2004. Towards the end of the contract with United Airlines Air Wisconsin was unable to secure a long-term deal or extension to continue providing regional service for UAL. United failed to renew its contract with AWAC allowing it to expire in April 2005, and the last flight under the United flag operated on April 16, 2006 using the BAe 146.
During 2005 AWAC invested $175 million U.S. into US Airways for their bankruptcy exit financing in exchange for a long term contract operating as US Airways Express. In 2005 AWAC began operating all of its Canadair CRJ200 regional jets as a US Airways Express carrier with flight crew bases located in Philadelphia, New York LaGuardia, Washington DC Reagan National and Norfolk, VA. US Airways has since merged with American Airlines and Air Wisconsin currently operates as an American Eagle regional air carrier via a code sharing agreement with American."
On November 20, 2014, it was reported that Air Wisconsin was nearing an agreement with Delta Air Lines to fly as a Delta Connection carrier beginning in January 2015. Under the terms of the deal, 26 Bombardier (formerly Canadair) CRJ200 aircraft were to be transferred to Air Wisconsin from Endeavor Air. In January 2015, Air Wisconsin said that negotiations had ended and that it did not want to fly under the Delta Connection brand.
In 2016, it was announced that Air Wisconsin would close all of its ground handling operations in all cities served by the air carrier primarily due to the formation of an in-house company for United called United Express Services. This would leave only three American Eagle ground handling cities served, which the airline deemed uneconomical.
On March 1, 2017, Air Wisconsin announced a new agreement with United Airlines to once again operate under the United Express banner upon the expiration of the airline's current agreement with American Eagle in 2018. Additionally, the new agreement with United would provide for the creation of a career pathway program whereby Air Wisconsin pilots would be offered the opportunity to move up to United upon meeting its hiring standards.