Skyway Airlines

Skyway Airlines was an American ramp and aircraft ground handling services and catering company based in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

Skyway began operations as a division of Phoenix, Arizona-based Mesa Air Group.

In 1994, Midwest Express established Astral Aviation, Inc., as a wholly owned subsidiary to take over the operation of Skyway Airlines.

Skyway grew to connect Milwaukee with communities in Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Skyway's plans to continue modernizing its fleet with additional Dornier aircraft unwound when Dornier failed, and parent company Midwest Air Group's financial problems caused it to end Skyway's flight operations.

In 2006 and 2007, Midwest Air Group also fought off a hostile takeover attempt by rival airline AirTran Airways.

Midwest Air Group's leadership persuaded Northwest Airlines and private equity firm TPG Capital to enter the bidding as a white knight.

Midwest also discussed a potential contract with Great Lakes Airlines to provide code-share feed to the Essential Air Service cities they would serve from Milwaukee.

[4] As a result, Midwest furloughed 269 of its 399 pilots [5] and total employee cuts for the year were approximately 1,850[citation needed].

On February 2, 2009, Midwest Air Group CEO Tim Hoeksema announced in an internal corporate memorandum that all remaining Skyway functions will be assumed by Midwest Airlines, and that Skyway will cease to exist as a separate entity.

At the end of flight operations, Skyway Airlines flew to 19 destinations in Canada and the United States.

Many of these were served in the era when Mesa Airlines operated Skyway, choosing to focus resources outside of the Midwest Express hub in Milwaukee.