CHICAGO -- UAL Corp. said Friday it has agreed to sell its Air Wisconsin regional jet-airline service for an undisclosed price to an investor group headed by a former Northwest Airlines executive.
UAL, parent of United Airlines, said the sale to CJT Holdings is part of its previously announced plans to divest the Air Wisconsin operations.
The deal covers the final unsold piece of Air Wisconsin. UAL has already reached a deal to sell the Air Wisconsin turbo prop business at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago to United Feeder Service, which is expected to be completed Sept. 8.
Earlier this year, UAL sold Air Wisconsin's Dash 8 turboprop operations based at Washington's Dulles International Airport to Atlantic Coast Airlines.
Most of Air Wisonsin's regional service is on routes from O'Hare to medium-sized cities throughout the Midwest. It currently operates 29 daily scheduled flights from O'Hare and 11 daily scheduled flights from Aspen, Colo.
CJT is controlled by former Northwest executive Geoffrey T. Crowley and the principals of Resource Holdings Ltd., including Richard Bartlett, Jerry Seslowe and John Shaw. The new company, to be known as Air Wisconsin Airlines Corp., will be based in Appleton, Wis.
The new company will operate Air Wisconsin's 12 British Aerospace jets and is not expected to change scheduled service.
On Thursday, Chicago-based UAL reported its first profit in some time, eking out second-quarter earnings of $22 million, or 54 cents a share, compared to a loss of $91 million in the year-ago quarter. Revenues increased 13 percent to $3.55 billion compared with $3.14 billion in the second quarter of last year.
UAL said the results were clearly unsatisfactory and warned it will have to cut costs further.
