A friend who is a retired Airline Captain (who is bored to tears) sent me these, too good not to share!!!
Now defunct airlines that used to populate our skys before dereguation… And some of them were pretty damn good!!!
And yes, they are in small text… Too damn much info so I took it down a size to conserve space. Enjoy 🙂
Air California (AirCal) (Flew this one a few times)
Operated: 1967 – 1987
Cause and result of demise: Ceased operations. Acquired piecemeal by American Airlines.
Interesting fact: One marketing program used by Air California in the early to mid 1970s was to offer school field trips to Sacramento at $25 a head, where school children would be taken on a tour of the California State Capitol, Governor’s Mansion, and Sutter’s Fort.
Image courtesy of dc-9.us .
Air Florida
Operated: 1971 – 1984
Cause and result of demise: Bankruptcy, sped up by the crash of the January 13, 1982, Air Florida Flight 90 crash in Washington DC – assets obtained by Midway Airlines.
Interesting fact: Air Florida sponsored Southampton Football Club, an English Football League side, during the 1983-84 season, in which Southampton were league runners-up. The deal was cancelled after one season due to Air Florida’s insolvency.
Image courtesy of securiteaerienne.
Allegheny Airlines
(Updated August 22, 2010)
Operated: 1953 – October 28, 1979, started in 1939 as All-American Airways.
Cause and result demise: Rebranded as USAir, then US Airways
Interesting fact: It was one of the first airlines to create an affiliated branded network of regional airline carriers operating in unison with Allegheny, which was called the Allegheny Commuter System.
Image courtesy of William Demarest.
Aloha Airlines (Flew this one a few times)
Operated: 1946 – 2008
Cause and result of demise: Chapter 11 bankruptcy, transfer of operations to Aloha Air Cargo.
Interesting fact: On April 28, 1988 Aloha Airlines Flight 243 was a scheduled Boeing 737-297 flight between Hilo and Honolulu in Hawaii . The aircraft suffered extensive damage after an explosive decompression in flight, but was able to land safely at Kahului Airport on Maui.
The safe landing of the aircraft with such a major loss of integrity was unprecedented and remains unsurpassed.
Braniff International Airways (My first time on a 747)
Operated: 1928 – 1982
Cause and result of demise: Bankruptcy. Some flights scheduled to leave on May 12, 1982, at Dallas Fort Worth Airport were actually forced to disembark, being told that their airline no longer existed.
Interesting fact: A Braniff plane and logo always appear after the closing credits in the South Park cartoon series. With the slogan : “Braniff – Believe It!”
Capital Airlines
Operated: 1941 – 1961. (Had its origins as Pennsylvania Central Airlines from 1936)
Cause and result of demise: Merged into United Airlines
Interesting fact: In 1948, the first airborne television was installed on a Capital airplane.
Central Airlines
Operated: 1949 – 1967
Cause and result of demise: Bankruptcy. Sold to Frontier Airlines.
Interesting fact: Former president of Venezuela Laurence Lau was present on the maiden flight.
Image courtesy of Paul Freeman.
Chicago Air
Operated: 1985 – 1986
Cause and result of demise: Ceased service.
Interesting fact: It operated six Fokker F27 aircraft, and the call sign was “Wild Onion” in reference to the Chippewa Indian derivation of the name Chicago.
Image courtesy of David Oates.
Eastern Airlines (Lots of miles on these)
Operated: 1926-1991
Cause and result of demise: Bankruptcy
Interesting fact: An Ex-Airline Executive is set on purchasing the airline back under the original Eastern name, with the main hub being in MIA. It hopes to begin operations in the summer of 2011.
Empire Airlines
Operated: 1976 – 1985
Cause and result of demise: Purchased by Piedmont (see below), then USAir.
Image courtesy of Richard Silagi.
Operated: 1950 – 1986
Cause and result of demise: Bankruptcy. It re-emerged as the current Frontier Airlines in 1994 from executives of the old airline.
Interesting fact: Frontier Airlines made history when they hired Emily Howell Warner on January 29, 1973. She was the first female airline pilot hired by a U.S. commercial airline.
Image courtesy of Old Frontier Airlines Collection.
(Updated August 18, 2010)
Operated: 1968 – 1980
Cause and result of demise: Purchased by Republic Airlines in 1980.
Interesting fact: Hughes Airwest’s predecessor was Air West, which itself was a merger of Pacific Air Lines, Bonanza Air Lines and West Coast Airlines. TWA’s former owner and aviator Howard Hughes bought and rebranded the fleet in 1970. The unique yellow paint earned them the nickname of “Flying Bananas”, which they then turned into a company catchphrase: “Top Banana in the West”.
Operated: 1992 – 1999
Cause and result of demise: Bankruptcy. In 1997, a medical doctor Dr. Charles Edwards tried to revive the airline (with an investment of nearly $20,000,000 of his own money), but idea was sadly abandoned.
Interesting fact: Kiwi International Air Lines enjoyed a flawless safety record and near perfect dispatch reliability rate of 99.6% in its expansion.
Image courtesy of A. J. Best.
Operated: 1976 – 1991. Began operations on November 1979.
Cause and result of demise: Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Interesting fact: Some of the signature inflight service items were after-dinner chocolate wafer mints and hot hand towels to the entire cabin, both of which had originally caught on with Midway’s business clientele.
Image courtesy of Frank C. Duarte.
Operated: 1945 – 1972
Cause and result of demise: Labor issues and strikes caused it to consider merger with Allegheny (see below), later USAir.
Interesting fact: On February 11, 1958, Ruth Carol Taylor was hired by Mohawk Airlines, becoming the first African-American flight attendant in the United States . In 1961, it became the first airline to use a centralized computer based reservation service. In 1965, it became the first regional airline to utilize flight simulators.
Image courtesy of Tom Hildreth.
Operated: 1981 – 1987
Cause and result of demise: Liquidated by Southwest and renamed TranStar Airlines in 1985, and ceased operations in 1987.
Interesting fact: Started up by founder and one time president of Southwest Airlines, Marion Lamar Muse, it prohibited smoking on the plane long before federal regulations enforced it.
Image courtesy of Lamar Muse.
(Updated August 18, 2010)
Operated: 1934 – 1980
Cause and result of demise: Texas International Airlines offered to buy National in 1978, but they opted instead to merge with Pam Am in 1980. Deregulation as well as high costs for the acquisition would eventually lead to Pam Am’s demise.
Interesting fact: In 1964, National became the first exclusively jet powered service in the United States . To supplement their branding and image (their logo was the Sun King, owing to the fact that they were based in Miami , Florida ), they opened a terminal at JFK called the Sundrome in 1970.
Image courtesy of Tom Hildreth.
Where not mentioned, photos are from Wikipedia.
Being an ‘airplane junkie’, among other things, I remember most of them.
One not on your friend’s list was North Central airlines, the one with the “Blue Goose” on the tail.
I flew on Eastern, Piedmont, Braniff, Pan Am, TWA that I remember.
Minor adjustment for Brannif: Their logo appeared during seasons 1-10 of South Park, at which point the lifeless corporate corpse lawyered up and basically said “Hey, um, that’s still our logo and if you want to use it, you need to pay.” It did not appear to be anything extortionistic or lawyer-predatory, and the case was settled with the allowance that SP could continue using it, although they have chosen, for reasons known only to Matt and Trey, not to.
I know several of the names
drjim- Yeah, I’m sure a few were missed… sigh…
Alan- me and you both!
Stingray- Thanks, I’ll update the post!
Fuzzy- So you’re saying you’re a young pup 🙂
Braniff Was a part time bag smasher while attending college
Frontier Got my Commercial ticket from the same school Emily Howell was worked for. She had a lot of fortitude to put up with their chief pilot.
Hughes Airwest Many trips out of Seattle. Great service. However, worst airplane experience ever with them. Hit a skunk taxing into the Pasco, WA terminal.
I miss Braniff. I flew back and forth between San Antonio on a monthly, sometimes more frequently, basis. There was usually a stop-over at Dallas where I switched from a 727 on the KCI-DFW leg to a 737 for the final SAT leg.
Always on time, never lost my bags. One time, I was in Wichita and needed to haul a desktop computer to KC for repairs. I bought a ticket and strapped it into a seat next to me. It was too fragile to send as hold-baggage and too big to fit under the seat. Somehow I don’t think I’d be allowed to do that now.
Braniff had an excellent breakfast if you were lucky enough to catch a early flight. Delicious Monterrey Jack & Sausage omelets.
Wow, a lot of them went bankrupt! No bailouts? Imagine THAT!
I remember American Airlines,Piedmont and US Air.
Kiwi sounds funny. Wonder if the name had anything to do with its demise?
WSF- all you’re saying is you’re an old fart too 🙂 I never flew Hughes…
Crucis- Yeah, they were a good airline, and if you were in uniform, a lot of times they’d let you jump seat in the cockpit
Pamela- This is ONLY half of them… And I’m not doing all the little startups that didn’t last more than two years.
TransTexas Airways, precursor to Continental.
http://transtexasairways.com/index.html
TTA flew me home to San Antonio after I completed basic in Ft. Polk, LA way back when…
Never flew on any of them, but I remember Aloha, Kiwi, and (maybe) Eastern. My grandmother was a travel agent for years and years, and she had their posters, brochures, and a few model airliners scattered around her office.
Mohawk was founded in my hometown. There’s still a few pieces of memorabilia kicking around the terminal.
I remember Eastern and Allegheny, but I haven’t seen some of those.
One small regional that worked around here in the ’60s was TTA, or Trans Texas Airlines. We called them Tree Top Airways.
Was working for old Frontier when they went under.
What a mess.
I suspect Ozark, will be in the second half of the list.
Some of you old coots will no doubt remember the lap blankets on most of those. 100% wool.
Skul
Midway Airlines was very nice. Flew to Chicago from Philly several times and remembered the mints.
Agony Airlines, or Allegheny was the pits just like US Air (Useless Air) is now. The unofficial motto was:
We hit the Mountians First!
Still avoid US Air at all costs.
Gerry
Centex/Paw- I’m gettin there… 🙂 TTA is in the next post
Raptor- Hopefully you still HAVE a few of those models, they are true collectors items now!
Zer- Yep, and they are valuable!
Skul- You are correct 🙂
Gerry- concur, most of us say USAir stands for U are Still Allegheny In Reality…
Muse Air the best ! Chicago airlines thousands of miles on it.
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