Jul. 15—EAU CLAIRE — Sun Country Airlines will begin serving the Eau Claire airport in December, the company announced Thursday.

The U.S. Department of Transportation granted approval on Wednesday to the Minneapolis-based airline's offer to serve Chippewa Valley Regional Airport through the Essential Air Service program, which provides subsidies for flights that connect smaller airports to major ones.

"We look forward to working with Sun Country and thank the Department for expediting their carrier selection process," Airport Director Charity Zich said in a news release.

An exact start date for Sun Country's service is expected to be announced in the coming months, but she said flights are planned to begin in early December.

"This is a great fit for Sun Country to provide additional service in Wisconsin, and we are excited to bring new service to the Chippewa Valley region," Grant Whitney, Sun Country's chief revenue officer, said in a news release from the airline.

The airline will provide two round-trip flights per week between Eau Claire and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport throughout the year. In addition, there will be seasonal flights to Orlando, Las Vegas and Fort Myers, Fla.

Sun Country will use Boeing 737-800 jets with seats for 186 passengers for flights to Eau Claire.

The agreement approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation is for a two-year period, starting this December. Sun Country will get an annual subsidy of $6.46 million from the federal government to help cover the costs of its flights to and from Eau Claire.

In making their decision, federal regulators made note of Sun Country's record for reliability, its hub airport in Minneapolis serving over 80 destinations, agreements with other air carriers and support voiced by the Eau Claire community, according to the order issued on Wednesday.

Along with approving the agreement, regulators also gave a waiver allowing Sun Country to fly fewer flights to Eau Claire than what is normally allowed for an Essential Air Service contract.

Those agreements normally require a minimum of two daily round-trip flights six days a week, however, waivers can be granted for a lower frequency of flights.

Another carrier that competed to serve Eau Claire proposed a smaller subsidy and more frequent flights, but in a much smaller plane.

Boutique Air pitched a schedule of 24 weekly round-trip flights to Minneapolis and sought a $4.4 million annual subsidy for that service. However, it would use a Pilatus PC-12 turboprop plane, which seats just under 10 passengers, for those flights.

A third carrier, Southern Express Airways, had also submitted a proposal, but withdrew it in mid-May to focus on offers it was making to serve other airports.

The Chippewa Valley Regional Airport Commission voted unanimously in favor of Sun Country's proposal at its May 20 meeting.

Sun Country will replace the current commercial airline serving the local airport, SkyWest Airlines, which flies for United Express. SkyWest announced in March that it wanted to end service to 29 airports, including Eau Claire, due to a pilot shortage.

SkyWest's current contract calls for two round-trip flights per day, seven days a week. However, since announcing its withdrawal from the airport, the airline has cut back on flights. Initially it kept two flights on most days, but cut back to one flight on Tuesdays and Saturdays. As of this week, the airline further cut its schedule back to one round-trip flight daily.

SkyWest has been the airport's commercial carrier since spring 2010.