Air Wisconsin

Poor air whisky... United > American > United > American... Not surprised since most people don't want to fly on cramped 50-seaters anymore. During my ramp trainer days, I had to go to MKE for brake ride / APU training. Very easygoing staff and crews.
 
From what I had read on various news sites. It sounded like they were going the way of EAS / scheduled “charter” routes. Similar to Skywest Charters or JSX, Boutique, Key Lime, Etc.

They’re still going to codeshare with American, though. American decided they wanted a two class product across their entire offering. Which means no CR2’s, of course. Unfortunately for Air Whiskey, that’s all they fly.

It’s following Delta’s move from a year or so ago. Although I thought I saw that they had brought a few 200’s back recently for a few short routes? Idk. But for the most part, that really only leaves UA as the only mainline that utilizes 200s in their operations. I feel like in a perfect world they’d like to move most of those routes to something slightly better like an E-jet. But for the near future, everyone’s favorite Slatless Sardine Can will still be there to make sure you’re flap fail AD compliant.
 
This is not a good sign. Sigh….

Good luck to everyone at ZW. I still have some former co-workers there. I hope they make it, but it won’t be easy.
 
ZW-
Airplanes are 100% paid for...no debt.

AA's capacity agreement had them parking 28 of their 65 airplane fleet.

ZW basically pioneered the codeshare/interline agreements for ticketing as a regional carrier...so this is not new water for them historically.

EAS contracts under their own banner instead of servicing an AA contract for less money feels like it makes sense...plus 121 supplemental is a good market given the economic advantages of brokered charter agreements. Companies like New Pacific are basically kept afloat by their NHL charter through Elevate even though they couldn't keep up with serving as supplemental lift for Global Crossing.

Honestly, I think they'll be just fine.
 
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Bananabusdx said:
Piedmont unofficially counting down their numbered days till they can finally announce they’re getting 175’s or merging with another W/O- but keeping the ground handling company.
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I could see it…. and the trend of consolidation continues. Just hoping everyone lands okay and unharmed when the smoke clears. I went to Jepp and attended this Dispatch Career Fair they hosted a few years back and had the opportunity to the meet department heads and chief pilots at AW. I really enjoyed my conversation and the interactions with them. After DX school I had the opportunity to pick between them and a few other CJO’s I had received. I wound up going to Skywest but for a while I did wonder how I would’ve faired up in Appleton. Either way, the consensus in the aviation community is that Air Whiskey and Mesa will outlive us all, and (at least for AW) I hope that remains true.
 
Bustedcropdusta said:
I could see it…. and the trend of consolidation continues. Just hoping everyone lands okay and unharmed when the smoke clears. I went to Jepp and attended this Dispatch Career Fair they hosted a few years back and had the opportunity to the meet department heads and chief pilots at AW. I really enjoyed my conversation and the interactions with them. After DX school I had the opportunity to pick between them and a few other CJO’s I had received. I wound up going to Skywest but for a while I did wonder how I would’ve faired up in Appleton. Either way, the consensus in the aviation community is that Air Whiskey and Mesa will outlive us all, and (at least for AW) I hope that remains true.
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ATW was a nice town. The winters, not so much. I think SGU has it beat in terms of climate by a mile, even with the hot summers there.
 
DeltaJulietTango said:
ZW-
Airplanes are 100% paid for...no debt.

AA's capacity agreement had them parking 28 of their 65 airplane fleet.

ZW basically pioneered the codeshare/interline agreements for ticketing as a regional carrier...so this is not new water for them historically.

EAS contracts under their own banner instead of servicing an AA contract for less money feels like it makes sense...plus 121 supplemental is a good market given the economic advantages of brokered charter agreements. Companies like New Pacific are basically kept afloat by their NHL charter through Elevate even though they couldn't keep up with serving as supplemental lift for Global Crossing.

Honestly, I think they'll be just fine.
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Any thoughts if they could go into the cargo realm of things? Convert some of those CRJ2’s to CRJ2F’s.. do some Amazon flying into really small markets that a 757/767 couldnt do
 
thegoose said:
Any thoughts if they could go into the cargo realm of things? Convert some of those CRJ2’s to CRJ2F’s.. do some Amazon flying into really small markets that a 757/767 couldnt do
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So when I interviewed with them, I asked about the upcoming contract renewal they had with UA, and there were whispers online about them no longer being a UA partner (This wound up being true and that was when the AA partnership started). They told me at that point they were considering doing cargo ops if they didn’t have an airline partner. But this was mentioned in passing to me in an interview I had 3 years ago so…. Take that with a grain of salt.
 
I can see some light in the charter ops. EAS is something they have never really done in the past and although they can bid on EAS flying there is no guarantee of being awarded any flying. The CRJ-200s arent getting younger though as the youngest one in the fleet is over 21 years old.

Air Wisky screwed themselves 20 years ago when they refused to invest in either CRJ-700s or EMB-170s. Everyone knew that these planes were the future, but one of their owners at the time I believe felt that they were just a fad. Then later on, losing the Midwest contract to SkyWest was a big blow to everyone in ATW. It eventually became clear that they would have a hard time growing and winning new flying without investing in new airplanes, but they became very risk averse and didn't want to invest in the airplanes without the flying. Of course the Major's wouldn't give them the flying without the airplanes, and because Republic and SkyWest had both invested in the airplanes, they are the big dogs today, and Air Wisky is now on its last legs it seems like. I feel awful for all the people there because this didn't have to happen, but they always tell you in business school that you need to take risks at some point, and sadly the owners of AWAC never did.
 
BruinsFan said:
I can see some light in the charter ops. EAS is something they have never really done in the past and although they can bid on EAS flying there is no guarantee of being awarded any flying. The CRJ-200s arent getting younger though as the youngest one in the fleet is over 21 years old.

Air Wisky screwed themselves 20 years ago when they refused to invest in either CRJ-700s or EMB-170s. Everyone knew that these planes were the future, but one of their owners at the time I believe felt that they were just a fad. Then later on, losing the Midwest contract to SkyWest was a big blow to everyone in ATW. It eventually became clear that they would have a hard time growing and winning new flying without investing in new airplanes, but they became very risk averse and didn't want to invest in the airplanes without the flying. Of course the Major's wouldn't give them the flying without the airplanes, and because Republic and SkyWest had both invested in the airplanes, they are the big dogs today, and Air Wisky is now on its last legs it seems like. I feel awful for all the people there because this didn't have to happen, but they always tell you in business school that you need to take risks at some point, and sadly the owners of AWAC never did.
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Yeah Air Wisconsin was a place I really wanted to end up when I first got into dispatch but then I saw their entire fleet was 200s, and only AA had a contract with them and I could kinda tell it was a matter of time before this happened. Like you said that old thing isn’t gonna cut it today. Hopefully they can figure out where to go from here though.
 
Bananabusdx said:
Piedmont unofficially counting down their numbered days till they can finally announce they’re getting 175’s or merging with another W/O- but keeping the ground handling company.
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The rumor mill is certainly stirring in regards to the 175s

I think the biggest issue right now is hangar size….
 
Man I hope Wisky can pull through this. I think the EAS stuff is a wise choice. If a 121 carrier can do it and make money that's a good thing.
Good luck to everyone there- ATW is my absolute most favorite place in the world.
 
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