Regional airline Air Wisconsin is launching a new route, but I don’t think the airline actually wants anyone to fly on it.
In this post:
Air Wisconsin will fly from Appleton to Milwaukee
Air Wisconsin is launching a new route within Wisconsin, between Appleton (ATW) and Milwaukee (MKE). The 96-mile flight will operate every two weeks, late on Saturday nights.
The flight is blocked at 40 minutes in each direction, with the Appleton to Milwaukee flight scheduled to depart at 9:30PM and arrive at 10:10PM, and the return flight scheduled to depart at 10:30PM and arrive at 11:10PM.
For what it’s worth, the drive between Appleton and Milwaukee would take under two hours. So when you combine that with the service operating just every two weeks, and late at night on a Saturday, I imagine demand for this flight will be roughly zero.
For that matter, options for booking this flight are limited. It’s not bookable directly, it only appears on select online travel agencies, and the fares are absolutely wild, in some cases $600+ for the one-way journey.
Why is Air Wisconsin operating this strange route?
Why would an airline operate a flight once every two weeks, in a market with virtually no demand, with outrageously priced tickets that are even hard to book? Great question…
You see, Air Wisconsin was founded in the 1960s, and in recent decades, has operated primarily as a regional carrier on behalf of regional subsidiaries of the majors, like American Eagle and United Express. The issue is, Air Wisconsin is kind of in big trouble.
Most recently, Air Wisconsin was exclusively operating CRJ-200s on behalf of American Eagle. However, American terminated its agreement with Air Wisconsin as of early April 2025, so now the company has no contracts with major airlines.
Part of the reason for this is that Air Wisconsin’s fleet consists exclusively of CRJ-200s, which just aren’t very appealing to airlines anymore, as they prefer to transition to larger regional jets with first class. Air Wisconsin just didn’t invest in modernizing its fleet.
Air Wisconsin says that it wants to pivot to Essential Air Service (EAS) and charter flying, though it’s unlikely that the company will find enough business to keep all (or even most) of its aircraft flying profitably. So the future for Air Wisconsin is quite uncertain for now.
That brings us to this interesting flight — why would Air Wisconsin operate a single scheduled route, every two weeks?
This route is clearly being operated just for the carrier to keep its Part 121 certificate alive with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In order to operate regularly scheduled commercial flights, you need to maintain your Part 121 certification, and that requires operating a minimum number of regularly scheduled flights. So clearly these flights are intended to be the lowest cost way to tick that box.
Why does Air Wisconsin want to maintain its Part 121 certification? For one, it allows the airline to operate more regularly scheduled flights, should the need somehow arise. Furthermore, you can potentially (indirectly) sell your Part 121 certification, to allow another airline to launch more quickly.
I’ve gotta say, I’m mighty tempted to take this flight, as this would almost surely be a private jet experience, with no one else. Heck, I wonder how check-in even works for anyone who books this flight. I’d take one for the team, but even having a private CRJ-200 doesn’t sound like much of a prize, if you ask me. 😉
Bottom line
Air Wisconsin is launching a new route between Appleton and Milwaukee, which will operate every two weeks. This is the carrier’s only regularly scheduled flight, and it follows the airline losing its contract with American. This is what I’d consider to be a “ghost” flight, in the sense that Air Wisconsin doesn’t intend for anyone to actually take it, but rather, it’s just designed to keep the company’s Part 121 certification alive.
The future is rather uncertain for Air Wisconsin, so let’s see how long this route lasts…
What do you make of Air Wisconsin’s short intra-Wisconsin service?
Both ATW and MKE are maintenance bases for ZW.
Air Wisconsin is DOA!
All one has to do is take a look at their CEO. He has tanked at least three other airlines. World Airways, a 66 year old airline was destroyed by his incompetence.
I might have to buy a ticket. I use to fly for Midwest Connect 20 years ago and can't tell you how many times I flew between MKE-ATW. It would bring back some memories.
I don't get why it isn't cheaper to have a less profitable but real route instead of this. Or don't they have to fly at all if no one books it? In that case i would assume your flight would be canceled due to "technical problems". Could be a money making concept if this was in the EU ;)
This is how beloved Midwest Airlines started. Midwest Airlines began in 1948, when Kimberly-Clark began providing air transportation for company executives and engineers between the company's Neenah, Wisconsin (near Appleton) headquarters and its mills. Operating out of the nearby Appleton International Airport, early employee shuttle destinations included Chicago O'Hare, Memphis, and Atlanta's Fulton County Airport. (RIP Midwest Airlines and your delicious cookies).
I am also amused that Appleton (ATW) and Green Bay (GRB) both have...
This is how beloved Midwest Airlines started. Midwest Airlines began in 1948, when Kimberly-Clark began providing air transportation for company executives and engineers between the company's Neenah, Wisconsin (near Appleton) headquarters and its mills. Operating out of the nearby Appleton International Airport, early employee shuttle destinations included Chicago O'Hare, Memphis, and Atlanta's Fulton County Airport. (RIP Midwest Airlines and your delicious cookies).
I am also amused that Appleton (ATW) and Green Bay (GRB) both have flights given they are only 25 miles from each other. For example, you can fly from either GRB or ATW to Atlanta on Delta.
Is Air Wisconsin no longer contracted to UA? I was a regular - monthly - ORD ATW ORD or ORD GRB ORD - for many years. While Air Wisconsin was not the only UA contractor that flew the route (Mesa maybe?), Air Wisconsin had the friendliest crews and always managed a drink service on those very short flights.
Flights like this can also be used for an equipment move/dead head. If you can sell some tickets when you were going to make zero dollars anyway, why not. Combined with the charter flight situation, they could have some corporate customers chartering a regularly scheduled flight, and now they have a plane stuck where it can't be used.
The more CRJ-200s that can get stuck somewhere, the better. The Canadian Torture Tube is unavoidable sometimes...
Flights like this can also be used for an equipment move/dead head. If you can sell some tickets when you were going to make zero dollars anyway, why not. Combined with the charter flight situation, they could have some corporate customers chartering a regularly scheduled flight, and now they have a plane stuck where it can't be used.
The more CRJ-200s that can get stuck somewhere, the better. The Canadian Torture Tube is unavoidable sometimes when going to regional airports, but they are such terrible aircraft.
And bring back the ERJ-145?
I once flew SFO-ORD with a change of planes in St. Louis on TWA back in the 1980's. The flight from St. Louis to Chicago had all of about a dozen people on an L-1011. St. Louis was their maintenance base and they were just getting the plane back into rotation.
go for it!
Do it, and temporarily rename the blog, "96 Miles At A Time" with a full trip report.
I think Noel Phillips will beat you to this flight, Lucky.
This should be a blog meetup trip. Can a community of people pack a flight to the middle of nowhere for no reason in particular? Inquiring minds...
There's not much fun on a CR2, but this flight would be fun.
Airlines should have to pay a (carbon?) tax where the rate is inversely proportional to the number of vacant seats. So if you offer a flight just to keep a license or airport slot alive, and the flight doesn't have many passengers, you'll have to pay a substantial tax.
Many politicians never encounter a tax that they didn't like.
They pulled it, it looks like. I was in the process of booking it and just put in my Amex number and it came back as "Flight is no longer available." Refreshed results on two travel sites (another was halfway through process) and it's no longer available.
The inverse of a mistake fare
Do it, Ben!
I'm wondering if Air Wisconsin is going to go the way of Mesa Airlines sooner than later.
Do it. I had an empty Saab 2000 to myself once TMP-ARN. Just chatted with the FA the whole flight. It was awesome. Heck, I had the whole Tampere airport to myself before that flight. That was wild.
Back in the Midwest Express days I flew from ATW to MKE and changed planes there to fly onward to somewhere else. But I Agree, this flight on weekend evenings is completely pointless and MKE isn’t a hub for anyone anymore.
Any commercial pilot flying for less than 2 hours every 2 weeks is going to see their skills become rusty fast.
The pilots would (hopefully) also be flying charter flights, which are not 121 (tho, for commonality, most 121 carriers operate their charters as if they were 121, but those flights don't count as such)
For the ghost flight to be 121 compliant, the pilots need to have maintained various levels of activity/proficiency. If no pilots have it, then it's off to the simulators to qualify a crew. IMHO, if the airline actually backs itself into...
The pilots would (hopefully) also be flying charter flights, which are not 121 (tho, for commonality, most 121 carriers operate their charters as if they were 121, but those flights don't count as such)
For the ghost flight to be 121 compliant, the pilots need to have maintained various levels of activity/proficiency. If no pilots have it, then it's off to the simulators to qualify a crew. IMHO, if the airline actually backs itself into this corner, then it's time to close the doors.
Active 121 pilots still have to go to recurrent training every 6 months, regardless of recent activity. To your point, this training is more to stay "fresh" on emergency procedures which are rarely used on ""real" flights.
Several years ago, there used to be a UA CWA-EAU flight that was flying at around these same evening hours. The airline, the ground service and the TSA weren’t set up to handle passengers for it. The TSA checkpoint would even shut down for the night well before the ORD-CWA flight would even take off.
I’m booking it right now. This is way cooler than AF’s new first class.
Thank you for the grin Jacob, your post has put a smile on this Brits face.
Please post a review if you take the flight.