Air Wisconsin

In 1963 investors from the Fox Cities raised $110,000 to start a new airline. The airline was established as an independent commuter air carrier in 1965 and started operations on August 23, 1965, just one day after the brand new Outagamie County Regional Airport was opened using de Havilland Dove commuter aircraft configured with nine passenger seats. It was founded to connect Appleton with Chicago and initially had 17 employees and two de Havilland Dove aircraft. According to an Air Wisconsin timetable of August 23, 1965, the airline was flying one route between Appleton and Chicago–O'Hare with four round trips on weekdays and two round trips on Saturdays and Sundays operated with the British-manufactured Dove twin prop aircraft.

By the mid 1970s, Air Wisconsin was flying two small commuter turboprop airliner types, the de Havilland Canada DHC-6 and Fairchild Metroliner, and was operating a small hub at Chicago's O'Hare Airport with service primarily to destinations in Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin as well as to Minneapolis/Saint Paul from several small cities in Wisconsin.

In September 1978 the airline was certified by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) as a regional air carrier (Air Wisconsin previously had commuter air carrier status with the CAB). In October 1978 it had over $10 million in assets. Joining Air Wisconsin in 1965 as traffic manager and eventually becoming president, Preston H. Wilbourne's leadership oversaw Air Wisconsin grow to an airline serving 29 cities in an eleven state area with 32 aircraft boarding over 10,000 passengers daily. Air Wisconsin gained the nicknames "Air Willy" and "Rag Tag".

By 1985, Air Wisconsin had become a large independent regional air carrier operating BAe 146–200 and British Aircraft Corporation BAC One-Eleven jets as well as de Havilland Canada Dash 7 turboprops with flights as far west as Grand Island, Nebraska, and Minneapolis/Saint Paul, and as far east as Bridgeport and New Haven, Connecticut, with a large connecting hub located at Chicago's O'Hare Airport (ORD). By early 1986, the airline was serving sixteen airports with its British-manufactured jets with flights to Appleton, Bridgeport, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Chicago–O'Hare, Flint, Michigan, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Grand Island, Green Bay, Wisconsin, Kalamazoo, Michigan, Lincoln, Nebraska, Moline, Illinois/Quad Cities, New Haven, South Bend, Indiana, Toledo, Ohio, Waterloo, Iowa, and Wausau/Stevens Point, Wisconsin, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, with other flights and destinations in its route system being served with the Canadian-manufactured four engine Dash 7 turboprop.

Air Wisconsin pioneered the concept of code sharing on behalf of United Airlines when the carrier began operating as United Express on May 1, 1985. As an independent air carrier prior to its business agreement with United to provide passenger feed, Air Wisconsin rapidly became the nation's largest regional airline in the 1980s. On May 17, 1985, it merged with Mississippi Valley Airlines (MVA) and continued to fly as United Express, operated by Air Wisconsin.

By late 1989 Air Wisconsin was operating United Express code share service from two United hubs: Chicago–O'Hare (ORD) and Washington–Dulles (IAD). According to the Official Airline Guide (OAG) at this time, United Express flights were operated with BAe 146–200 jets and Fokker F27 turboprops nonstop to Chicago–O'Hare from Akron/Canton, Ohio, Appleton, Cedar Rapids, Champaign, Illinois, Fort Wayne, Green Bay, Kalamazoo, La Crosse, Wisconsin, Lansing, Michigan, Lexington, Kentucky, Moline/Quad Cities, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Peoria, Illinois, Roanoke, Virginia, South Bend, Toledo, and Wausau, and with BAe 146–200 jets and Short 360 turboprops nonstop to Washington Dulles from Charleston, West Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, and Richmond, Virginia, as well as Harrisburg, Reading, and State College, Pennsylvania.

In 1990 Air Wisconsin acquired Denver-based Aspen Airways and was itself bought by United Airlines a year later.

During the 1990s, 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. During the ski seasons, Air Wisconsin was operating 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.