Air Wisconsin Airlines Corporation (AWAC) and AirTran Airways have decided
to discontinue their partnership. The partnership began more than one year
ago and was the first pairing of a regional and a low-cost carrier.
Because of the uniqueness of this situation, both parties agreed to review
the status of this experiment after approximately one year.
After the review, AirTran Airways decided that based on the economics of
the current operation they would be unable to grow the JetConnect
business. With no prospects for growing the fleet, both airlines agreed
that it didn’t make good sense to continue the partnership.

The 10 planes that represent the AirTran JetConnect fleet will be
transitioned into AWAC’s United Express fleet later this year.

“Working with AirTran this past year has been a very positive experience,”
said Geoff Crowley, President and CEO of AWAC. “While we are sorry our
partnership is ending, we wish them well and look forward to expanding our
United Express fleet.”

AWAC schedules nearly 475 departures per day to 54 cities in 25 states and
two Canadian provinces. The fleet includes 17 BAe-146 jets and 67 Canadair
regional jets. As United Express, it feeds United Airlines at Chicago,
Denver and Washington’s Dulles Airport. As AirTran JetConnect, the company
feeds AirTran at its Atlanta hub, as well as providing service within the
state of Florida.
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