As is Pan American World Airways

 

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.

 

Actually Piedmont Henson started in 1962.

 

I didn't say oldest. I said oldest to not have been through a bankruptcy.

From my understanding, Piedmont at least once, filed for bankruptcy. I could be wrong, this was what I heard from our management a few years ago. A quick google search found this link showing PDTs bankruptcy filings.(Toward the bottom)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/2004/09/20/bankruptcies/fca67aec-09bd-4334-8ca6-c9a28bd7862f/?utm_term=.be4414bf43c6

And

http://bankrupt.com/misc/usair_amended_plan.pdf

 

Yes US Airways filed Bankruptcy and Piedmont/ALG and PSA (WO's) were also included in it. However Piedmont's pilots retained their retirement not like the US Airways folks because our plan was fully funded. Yes it's nice to know I'll get a retirement check from Piedmont when I retire from American.

 

Right. Operating 4 737s to a total of 4 destinations (literally all charters) is certainly "back" 🙄

 

Stumbled upon the airman trainee thing and applied
"Career changer", mid late 30s, grumpy af, even more so due to the impending move from FL to ORD, otherwise professional on the job and likeable in real life. Been lazily flying rich people around last couple of years, overall 10+ years of flying here and there a bit.
Air Whiskey seems like a good outfit and a solid group of people. Congrats on the United thing.

 

Tell me about the airmen trainee thing you speak of please.

 

The Airman Trainee program is a great deal for any pilot who does not have the minimum hours needed for an ATP certificate yet. You apply the same as you would for FO and interview for it. The interview is much easier with a shorter test and no technical portion.

If your accepted in then you will onboard and become an employee. Your job is at the beginning of the month to report how your hours are coming and to call and check in. At the end of the month you log in and do an online training (normally takes 20 minutes). For this, they pay you $100 a month and you get non-rev rights for you and your family (currently with American, not sure what will happen when the switch is made to United).

There is no commitment to AirWis. If you decide to go a different direction you give two weeks notice and can walk away. If during the program you go to AirWis's CTP course then you will incur an obligation at that point.

All and all it is a great deal if you still need to build hours. If you already have your hours then they are going to interview you for FO and the ATP is not an option.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Thanks for the info! That is a great program, what a great kick strarter this could be for a fledging pilot.