kinglobjaw

Here it is directly from the usairways.com Press realease section:

AIR WISCONSIN BEGINS SERVICE AS US AIRWAYS
EXPRESS CARRIER
APPLETON, Wis., and ARLINGTON, Va., Aug. 15, 2005 -- Air Wisconsin Airlines Corporation (AWAC) and US Airways marked the start of their new relationship this past weekend, with the first AWAC aircraft operating under the US Airways Express name taking flight on Aug. 13, 2005.


The first US Airways Express-AWAC flight was flight #3801 from Burlington, Vt., to Philadelphia, continuing on to Charleston, S.C. This initial flight was flown by a Canadair Regional Jet aircraft. In total, Air Wisconsin will operate 16 daily departures as US Airways Express by the end of August.

The initial schedule includes nonstop service between Milwaukee, Wis., and both Charlotte, N.C., and Philadelphia, as well as nonstop Philadelphia-Minneapolis service. In September, the AWAC US Airways Express schedule will expand to include a total of 25 markets with approximately 88 daily departures, primarily flown to and from Philadelphia.

By February 2006, AWAC will operate a fleet of 70 Canadair Regional Jets for
US Airways Express.

"Air Wisconsin has an excellent reputation as a professional and reliable carrier, and we are delighted to welcome them into the US Airways Express network," said Andrew P. Nocella,
US Airways senior vice president of planning.

"We are pleased to have the opportunity to join the US Airways Express team," said Geoff Crowley, Chairman, President and CEO of AWAC. "We respect the work
US Airways has put forth to continue to be a competitive, innovative force in this industry and look forward to being a part of this professional team."

Air Wisconsin Airlines Corporation (AWAC) operates as the largest privately held regional airline in the United States. System-wide, AWAC schedules more than 500 departures per day with a fleet that includes 70 Canadair Regional Jets and 12 BAe-146 Jets. Approximately 3,600 people make up the AWAC team.

US Airways is the nation’s seventh-largest airline, serving 183 communities in the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America. US Airways, US Airways Shuttle and the
US Airways Express partner carriers operate approximately 3,400 flights per day. For more information on US Airways flight schedules and fares, visit US Airways online at usairways.com, or call US Airways Reservations at 1-800-428-4322.

US Airways is a member of the Star Alliance, which was established in 1997 as the first truly global airline alliance to offer customers global reach and a smooth travel experience. The other members are Air Canada, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, bmi, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Spanair, TAP Portugal, Thai Airways International, United and VARIG Brazilian Airlines. South African Airways and SWISS will be integrated during the course of the next 12 months. Overall, the member carriers offer more than 15,000 daily flights to 795 destinations in 139 countries.


This is good stuff, Air Wisconsin is the best regional airline ever, and very reliable. Lets see what United has to say about this!

aenea

UA already said it: Good riddance.

From my experience, the only thing you can be sure about an air whiskey flight is that it won't leave or arrive on time. Assuming, of course, you win the random flight cancellation lottery. Maybe they'll be better with US.

Didn't they essentially buy their way into this affliliation by giving money towards the merger?

SealBeach

I hope Air Wiz does a better job for US than they did for UA...

trvlr64

Any new regional to join the US family would be a far better addition than what we have with MESA. That's a carrier that should be shown the exits. What numbnuts awarded them the regional carrier of the year? I'd like to know what he or she was smoking when they picked MESA!!

Let's see how AWAC does. The times I've flown them they've been no worse than any other regional.

DeacDiggler

They are making money, so that's a positive.

sts603

Flew BNA-ORD (402 miles) on a CRJ with AWAC under UA. Didn't serve a thing - no turbulence, nothing. Just pure laziness.

UA apologized - no compensation.

JAXPax

I had an Air Wisconsin trip as UA Express two weeks ago.
Notwithstanding things that were gate agent problems... who weren't employes of AWAC:

I was flying ORD-MKE-ORD.
Outbound flight (that I made it on the next morning) boarded 15 minutes late. Then, once on the plane, they closed up about 30 minutes after sked departure time. No explanation thus far. Engines wouldn't start. Air cart broke. Pilot informed us "The reason this plane is going to Milwaukee is because several things are broken and that's where our maintenance is." After a couple of people voiced discomfort at this thought, a clarification was made stating the APU was out of service, as was the air cart. After sitting an hour in the plane with no air conditioning, finally found a working air cart and we took off.

The return, the flight was 15 minutes late after two aircraft swaps.

abeflyer

I just took two Air Whiskey flights from ABE to ORD and return. Outbound right on time, drinks and snack mix served along with mints as we departed. Coming back there was a problem with an unescorted minor (no paperwork) that made us about 20 minutes late in departing. Pilot informed all about reason after airborne and said would make up time. We arrived ten minutes late. Again snacks, drinks and mints. FA much nicer and more professional than Mesa, so if that is an indication welcome to US. I would note they still aren't like PSA FA--but many of them were mainline previously--their still my express carrier of choice. (This is the flight I sat across from Mesa pilot who flew ABE to PHL regularly. He was looking forward to flying for Mesa out of ORD--but more important he has an offer to fly for SWA and will get out of express flying)

trvlr64

During the last 5 months I've had the opportunity to fly MESA out of ORD (UAX) and out of PHX (HPX). Along with the usual USX. It was interesting to see how MESA performed between the 3 mainline carriers they contract for.

UA really holds them to being professional extension of UA. Both F/A's on my flights were dressed properly and handled themselves just like a UA mainline F/A. (on 1 flight it was funny to hear the new UAX F/A tell everyone that we were on an HP flight. She transferred from HPX to UAX just the day before.)

HP also seems to make sure they are more professional.

So why do the MESA F/A's that work for US seem like a bunch of bafoons? Obviously US doesn't care.

santarosaflyer

The news release indicates that AWAC will be flying 70 Canadair regional by February, 2006. I wonder what will be come of the BAe-146 jets or will they be deployed for another purpose?

trvlr64

I asked the F/A's about the BAe 146 when I flew PIT to ORD a few weeks ago. She said they will be gone. Sitting next to me on the flight was a young man who was going for CRJ pilot training.

chicaloca453

I can concur with the remarks about Mesa. I was listening to my ipod when I boarded, and the flight attendant (who looked like a washed up high school linebacker) made me turn it off before he let me board the plane. He told me that you couldn't listen to music on board until after takeoff. Well, on all other flights I've taken (and believe me that's a lot) it was allowed until the boarding door was closed (just like the rule for cell phones). The guy seemed to be on a power trip, and I didn't like that at all. He didn't serve a thing and didn't move the entire flight. It was an embarrassment to the US system.

When I deplaned at CVG, the person meeting the flight said Mesa would be gone from there after November and that nobody there liked them. So I have to wonder if AWAC will take those flights.

However, judging from what I've read in the UA forum about AWAC, they don't sound any more promising. I've never flown with them, but I don't like what I've read.

For me, the best regionals are PSA, SkyWest, American Eagle, and Comair (although I hate Delta). Chataqua is okay as well, but the rest are circling the drain IMHO. I just hope UA's end with AWAC means we get more SkyWest flights and less TransState. I also hope US will shift more Mesa and AWAC flights through Philly and leave us with PSA. I never go to Philly if I can help it, and Mesa belongs at Philly!

kinglobjaw

Dont forget MidAtlantic Airways. Even though they might be history, I believe this was a good regional carrier. Flight attendatns very proffesional on the ord-dca dca-ord route by the way i also flew dca-phl on a Dehavilland about a month ago. What regional airline operated my dca-phl on DH8? Coming back was Emb170 so I guess that was still Midatlantic.

Lot Polish Airlines- Youre Under Our Wing www.lot.com

FightingIlliniUAL

Good riddance to AWAC and their awful CRJs. Albeit there are few laying around the UX fleet, AWAC was the next worst operator in terms of service after ACA, now FlyI.

NeoOfTheCRS

The BAe-146 jets are the only redeeming quality of Air Wisconsin, otherwise they are just as crappy as any other express carrier except for Shuttle America.

Air Wisconsin is only making money because they were over charging UA which is one of the reasons why UA gave them the boot. Now they are over charging US. . .horraaayy. . .enjoy the CRJ