Air Wisconsin Expands Its Network with the British Aerospace BAe-146

The US inaugural customer of the British regional jet sparked expansion at the regional carrier thanks to its favorable operating economics.

Following Air Wisconsin's inauguration of the first US services of the BAe-146 in 1983, passenger demand and favorable operating economics led to the BAe-146 replacing the Dash 7 on Air Wisconsin's primary routes. Within four years, the BAe-146 had completely replaced the Dash 7 in Air Wisconsin's operations. With a greater passenger load and higher speeds but costing the airline to operate virtually the same as the Dash 7 proved a significant boon to the regional airline.

The first group of Series 200 aircraft were delivered 1983-1987. That comprised ten aircraft and that's why it took four years to completely phase out the Dash 7s.

Another eight Series 200 146s were acquired in the 1990s as well as two shorter Series 100 aircraft from Aspen Airways.

The larger Series 300 aircraft will be discussed in their own future post.

But there were some delays in the 146 deliveries and that will be the subject of its own post on how Air Wisconsin adapted to that challenge.