Air Wisconsin’s 96-Mile “Ghost” Flight That No One Will Take

Regional airline Air Wisconsin is launching a new route, but I don’t think the airline actually wants anyone to fly on it.

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.