Air Wisconsin (ZW, Appleton Outgamie County Regional) has signed a five-year Capacity Purchase Agreement (CPA) with United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare), the Appleton-based production carrier's chief executive Christine Deister has announced.

In a letter to employees seen by ch-aviation, Deister said the CPA entailed the operations of sixty-five CRJ200s within the United Express family. The aircraft will be inducted into United’s network commencing no later than February 2018 with the contract set to run until February 2023. There is also a two-year extension option, she added.

"We expect our geographic footprint within the United Express network will include hubs in Chicago O'Hare and Washington Dulles," she said. "We are working with United to minimize disruption to our employees and to retain as much of our existing physical infrastructure as possible - including our Milwaukee General Mitchell, Norfolk International, VA, and Columbia, SC maintenance facilities."

Air Wisconsin has a previous relationship with United having operated third-party flights for it from the 1980s until 2006.

Air Wisconsin pilots will also have the opportunity to enroll in the United Airlines Career Pathway Program (CPP) which provides qualifying pilots with the opportunity to become pilots for United mainline.

The contract comes as a similar CPA agreement with American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) to operate sixty-nine CRJ200s under its American Express banner ends in early 2018.