Mesa Airlines Announces Subsidiary

Mesa Airlines Inc. has formed a subsidiary, Skyway Airlines, that will begin flights April 17 between eight Midwest cities and Milwaukee, company officials said Wednesday.

Skyway initially will have three twin-propjet 1900 Beechcraft airplanes serving Green Bay and Appleton, Wis.; Des Moines, Iowa; Saginaw, Grand Rapids, Flint and Muskegon, Mich., and Rockford, Ill.

Larry Risley, Mesa’s chairman and chief executive officer, said the company signed a code-sharing agreement with Midwest Express Airlines, based in Milwaukee.

Such an agreement, usually between a major carrier and a commuter airline, allows a traveler to book a flight from a city served by the first airline to one served by the second with just one reservation.

Mesa serves 25 communities in New Mexico, Wyoming, Arizona, California, Colorado and Texas.

Midwest Express, a subsidiary of Kimberly-Clark Corp., has 11 DC-9 jetliners serving Washington; New York City; Newark, N.J.; Boston; Tampa and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Dallas; Detroit; Philadelphia; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Madison and Appleton, Wis., and Denver from the company’s Milwaukee hub.