The stretch DC-8 super 61/63s were the first 'Jumbo Jets', indeed Flying Tigers even had that title painted on theirs, and provided not only a second life for the DC-8 itself, but a useful stopgap for airlines looking to increase capacity before widebodies were available. The 1960s saw massive passenger growth across the US system and the super 61 and 63 were ideal since they could seat over 250 passengers, compared to less than 190 in a DC-8-50. Of the major US trunk airlines United, Eastern, Delta and National would all take advantage of the stretch Eight. 

National Airlines famously stole a march on all the other trunk airlines by becoming the first to fly a jet airliner domestically in the USA, by leasing a Pan Am 707 (N710PA) and beginning a Miami-New York route in early October 1958 thus beating American Airlines by a month.  Despite this, it was firmly a Douglas customer and would fly 19 different DC-8s and no other 707s.

At the end of 1968 National retired its last Lockheed Electras and became an all pure-jet airline. In January 1968 the fleet stood at 13 727-35s, 3 727-235s, 3 DC-8-21s, 4 DC-8-32s and 6 DC-8-51s. Boeing 727-235 deliveries would continue apace that year with 22 more arriving during 1968, plus 3 more leased from TWA soon after. 

National had a pair of Boeing 747s on order, more for prestige reasons than due to need, but it was the McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 that would become the widebody workhorse on National's transcontinental routes to California from Florida and East Coast trunk routes to Miami. The first DC-10s wouldn't be delivered until November 1971, but to cater for traffic growth National put in an order for a pair of new Douglas DC-8-61s.

These two aircraft would be registered N45090 and N45091 and arrive 8 months apart from August 1967-April 1968. During that time National would radically change its image as it introduced the Instant Florida livery, commonly referred to as the Sun King or Sunburst scheme.

The new livery replaced National's traditional red and blue colours with orange and grapefruit yellow, plus of course introduced the sun god tail logo. The scheme was introduced on the first 727-200s, which arrived at the end of 1967, and this meant that N45090, National's first DC-8-61, was delivered wearing the previous 'Purposeful N' scheme. 

The second DC-8-61 was delivered in bare metal and repainted into the Sun King prior to entering service. At this point none of the aircraft wore names as the infamous 'Fly Me' campaign didn't begin until October 1971. Once it did N45091 would be named 'Christine' and N45090 would become 'Catherine'.

By that time National, despite taking a couple of DC-8s on lease from Airlift International in 1969 for its new Heathrow route, the short DC-8 fleet was on its way out as the DC-10s joined the fleet. The first left the fleet in September 1972 and all had gone by mid-1974. 

By that point the DC-10 fleet stood at 9 DC-10-10s and 2 DC-10-30s and National sensibly decided to standardise around the big trijet. This meant the pair of young Super 61s were sold in May 1975 and the pair of 747s the next year, as four further DC-10s arrived on the scene.

The DC-8-61 was still in strong demand during the 1970s, especially with US supplemental carriers that appreciated its capacity for their passenger and freight charters. Both of National's would join Capitol International and see very varied and long careers, lasting until the year 2000.

The MD-11 as a passenger aircraft was not a wild success. Failing initially to meet performance guarantees and suffering a poor safety record for a modern aircraft, the type nevertheless provided China Eastern's first grounding in long-haul operations and has excelled globally as a freighter. Only ten aircraft were operated in China, but they saw service for over 20 years, in both passenger and freighter configuration, more than proving the worth of the last of the tri-jets.

The breakup of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), which began in 1979, but didn't see the creation of six nominally independent airlines formed around the regional bureaus of CAAC until 1987-91, led to the Beijing regional bureau, renamed as Air China, taking on all of CAAC's long-haul fleet, which consisted of Boeing 707s and 747s. The last of the Ilyushin Il-62s had been retired in 1988, while a small collection of Airbus A310s and Boeing 767-200s was also available.

This monopoly on international routes wouldn't last. Shanghai based China Eastern Airlines ordered 6 McDonnell Douglas MD-11s (5 passenger versions and 1 freighter) in January 1989, with the first arriving in May 1991. The big trijet had been gaining significant traction with airlines and had amassed a decent number of orders and options prior to its first flight in January 1990. However, the aircraft's failure to meet performance guarantees, plus strong competition and some bad luck led to that order book contracting significantly.

China's relationship with McDonnell Douglas was beginning to struggle by this time with the licence built MD-80 Trunkliner programme failing to deliver and no further orders for the MD-11 would be forthcoming in the Chinese market as airlines switched to Boeing 767-300s and Airbus A340s.

​Nonetheless the MD-11s enabled China Eastern to expand into long-haul services. Routes flown included routes from Shanghai to Los Angeles and Seattle, via Japan, as well as Bahrain and Brussels. ​The passenger versions were configured in a 340 seat two-class layout, but were equipped so that their internal layout could be easily altered by moving seats, dividers, galleys and lavatories.

The sole freighter was utilised on services from Shanghai to Seattle and Chicago. China Eastern reported 99% dispatch reliability with its MD-11s and added the remaining three aircraft (B-2173-75) up to December 1993. The extra MD-11s enabled China Eastern to expand its routes to include both Chicago and Madrid.

It wasn't all success however as on April 6, 1993 B-2171 experienced an inflight emergency en-route from Shanghai to Los Angeles when the pilot accidentally deployed the leading edge slats in cruise. Attempts to correct the aircraft's initial pitching resulted  in severe oscillations and a loss of 5,000 foot in altitude. By the time the aircraft was recovered two passengers had been killed and 149 others injured, as well as 7 crew members. ​

This was one of six loss of control events by that point with the MD-11 and the investigation revealed several design flaws in cockpit and horizontal stabiliser design as well as crew training. The MD-11s sometimes questionable handling characteristics, especially on landing, as well as relatively poor economics and performance was no doubt one of the reasons that the types sales were not as McDonnell Douglas had hoped.

Nevertheless, China Eastern persisted with the type and did not have any further issues, though no further orders were forthcoming either. The MD-11s were instead joined by 5 A340-300s from May 1996 and in July 1999 China Eastern announced it would begin to convert its MD-11s to all freight configurations using Israel Aircraft Industries to carry out the work. 

The MD-11 undoubtedly has proven a superior freighter to passenger aircraft and China Eastern wasn't the only Chinese airline to operate them this way. In June 2006 Shanghai Airlines Cargo was established as a joint venture between Shanghai Airlines and Eva Air of Taiwan. The airline’s initial equipment was a pair of 757s and a pair of Eva Air MD-11 freighters (later joined by two more). The MD-11s operated services through the main cargo hubs at Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Osaka, Singapore, Seoul, Bangkok, Anchorage, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Following the takeover of Shanghai Airlines by China Eastern the cargo division was merged into China Cargo Airlines in June 2011. This included the MD-11s, aside from B-2176 which was returned to GECAS. By this time however China Cargo had begun to take delivery of new Boeing 777 frighters and had just completed the disposal of all the former China Eastern MD-11s.

The ex-Shanghai aircraft would not serve for long with China Cargo and their last MD-11 appears to have been B-2179 that was stored in November 2013 bringing to an end 22 years of Chinese MD-11 operations. Three of the four would go on to careers with Western Global Airlines.

Deregulation brought incredible turbulence to the previously rather placid US airline system and this was only mad worse by the PATCO strike of 1981 and economic downturns. This led to many airline failures and consolidation, which in turn led to airline's operating aircraft they didn't really care much about and which formed orphan sub-fleets. The small force of Northwest Airlines MD-82s was one such example, but one that saw surprisingly long service with its new owner regardless of the airline's disinterest in it.

Northwest Airlines eventually operated 9 McDonnell Douglas MD-82s, although only 8 at any one time for a reason that will become obvious. They were inherited in the October 1986 takeover of Republic Airlines, but that is only part of their story. Incidentally if you're interested in Republic I have covered the airline in some detail here at the blog previously:

One of Republic's predecessor's Southern Airways (the airline that North Central tookover with the merged entity renamed Republic) had shown interest in the DC-9 Super 80 before. Southern had ordered 4 Super 80s, with 2 further options, in October 1977, but on June 8, 1978 it was forced to cancel the order and replace it with DC-9-30s because it's pilot union, ALPA, refused to fly the Super 80s without a third cockpit crew member.

I've seen it reported that it was Southern's Super 80 order that led to Republic taking delivery of the type, but that isn't true - the two events are unrelated. In fact, even the 4 replacement series 30s weren't delivered as the order was switched and added to an earlier North Central order to instead lease 8 DC-9-50s.

Nonetheless, the new Republic - formed in July 1979, was clearly a massive fan of the DC-9 series as both Southern and North Central had been stalwart Diesel Nine operators and both had large fleets of the type. Even so, North Central had ordered Boeing 727-200s for its premium routes and the first of the trijets arrived in February 1980. It is a little curious that therefore Republic ordered DC-9 Super 80s too, but in the immediate aftermath of the merger the airline was in a growth phase, still making profits and needed new aircraft quickly. The DC-9-80 was not exactly flying off the shelves so presumably McDonnell Douglas could offer both good terms and early delivery slots.

Republic ordered 14 DC-9 Super 80s (renamed MD-82s by the time they were delivered), but also unwisely tookover Hughes Airwest. Airwest, as the name explains, had a large West Coast network almost totally separate from Republic's Eastern one, but came with huge debts and operational inefficiencies. Airwest had also been offered the DC-9 Super 80, but couldn't afford new aircraft. The Airwest merger almost killed Republic and it was forced to slim down its MD-80 order from 14 frames to 8 prior to the first aircraft's delivery in August 1981. This led to an out of sequence registration scheme:

Northwest Orient, as it was called prior to the Republic takeover, never seems to have been interested in the MD-80 at all. In fact, they had been in discussions with Boeing for 737-300/400s during the phase when the Republic negotiations were ongoing. Northwest clearly saw that it would need a lot more smaller aircraft if it was to succeed with its Republic takeover plans and create a trio of fortress hubs. With Boeing not interested in meeting Northwest's pricing needs the airline went to Airbus, that had just launched the A320. They were a lot more willing to work with Northwest and offered them a win-win situation whereby they'd be able to buy 100 at the unit price discount that garnered, but would only have to acquire ten if the plane didn't work out. Of course it did, and the rest is history, but it meant there was no room for the MD-80.

When Northwest tookover Republic in October 1986 they acquired a massive DC-9 fleet, but also the 8 MD-82s Republic had taken delivery of. Being substantially different to the older DC-9s they were immediately orphans in the fleet, however they were nearly new, modern and Northwest needed aircraft.

The story could have been very different as not long after the Republic acquisition one of the MD-82s, N312MC, was written off in a highly publicised and devastating crash at Detroit. All six crew and 148 of 149 passengers onboard were killed, as well as two people on the ground. For more on flight 255 see the Wikipedia page:

The crash could have easily seen the end of the MD-80 in Northwest service, but it wasn't the aircraft at fault and in fact Northwest went to the trouble to replace the lost frame. In November they leased N931MC (ad ex-Muse, Transtar and Continental frame) to bring the fleet back up to 8.

The MD-82s served a role in the Northwest fleet that would be similar to that the A320s would play as they came online. They flew high density mid-range routes such as MSP-ATL and longer West Coast services such as ONT-MSP and SMF-MSP, especially where aircraft with a lower noise footprint were required.

They don't appear to have been particularly popular with staff, mainly because they never had their 1980s style interiors modified, Unlike the large DC-9 fleet, with only 8 aircraft it didn't make sense to upgrade them. In 1990 the MD-80s were flying the following routes:

​MSP to: BOS, ORD, CMH, DEN, GRR, MIA, MKE, SFO, TPA, DCA, MEM
MEM to: MSP, DCA
DTW to: ORD, MSN

As the A320 fleet continued to grow the need for the MD-82s diminished, however they continued in service until the end of the decade. The fleet was retired between September 1999 and October 30, 1999. Perhaps in a sign of their condition, none of the aircraft saw subsequent service and all were broken up. Despite not being an aircraft Northwest particularly wanted the MD-82s clearly served a niche, even if it was one Northwest would have rather had its new A320s on.

References

2009. Lost Schemes: #109 Southern Airways DC-9-80. Airliner Cafe.com
​2004. Northwest MD-80s, Airliners.net
​​

The Dutch Fokker 28 Fellowship proved to be a hardy design that after first flying in 1967 provided strong competition, at the lower end of the passenger scale, to the Douglas DC-9 and BAC One-Eleven. One feature of its design that was unusual was the split-section tailcone airbrake that enabled rapid descents - something no doubt of much use in a mountainous country like Peru. Accordingly, the Peruvian Army's airline SATCO came to be an early customer, but the type would soon be seen flying in more colourful liveries through the Peruvian Amazon.

SATCO had been formed in 1960 when the Peruvian government reorganised the state owned Transportes Aéreos Militares - TAM Peru which had been founded in 1946. As much a part of the Peruvian Airforce as an airline SATCO provided transport to remote areas of the country using classic piston types such as the Douglas DC-4 and Curtiss C-46.

Joining these rugged piston prop-liners from March 1973 were a trio of new Fokker F28-1000s (OB-R-1018, 1019, 1020), however their time with SATCO was short as in May a new civilian airline was formed from elements of SATCO, including the F28s. This was named Empresa de Transporte Aéreo del Perú, or for operational purposes Aeroperú.

​The initial fleet included the three F28s originally delivered to SATCO, which began service with Aeroperú on the Lima-Cusco route in October. The F28s were joined by a single ex-Eastern 727-25 in May 1974, and a pair of ex-VIASA DC-8-54s in July with which the airline began international services.

The F28s were joined on domestic routes by Fokker F27-600s. The first was an ex-Maersk Air frame built in 1970 and leased in 1974 for a short time, until Aeroperú's own pair of new build aircraft were ready in mid-1975. The F27s may well have replaced a pair of ex-SATCO Douglas DC-4s that had transferred across at the same time as the F28s.

The new Peruvian flag carrier debuted with a orange and hot pink livery that was very 1970s, but certainly stood out. The 1975 timetable shows the domestic services split into three sections - the North, South and Northeast:

Timetable images are from the always amazing timetableimages.com

As Aeroperú reached the end of the 70s and leased L-1011 Tristars they lost the hot pink livery, but the F28s continued to ply the jungle routes. One of the trio, OB-R1020 was destroyed in October 1988 when it crashed after takeoff from Juliaca. Passengers towards the front of the aircraft survived but 12 in the mid and rear were killed.

​Aeromexico took a 70% shareholding in Aeroperú during 1991, but the airline was not profitable and despite Delta taking a shareholding in 1998 it suspended all flights on March 10 1999. It's a little unclear when the F28s left service with at least one seemingly in storage by 1994, however both had been broken up by 1998. They had provided staunch service to Aeroperú for over twenty years in some of the most challenging flying conditions known.

The relationship between the, principally white, settlers of Australia and the native Aboriginal population has been one of exploitation, theft and effective extermination. However, despite the lack of redress, and continuing marginalisation of Aboriginal populations, aspects of Aboriginal culture have become popular in the mainstream. Qantas, an important standard bearer for Australia's image abroad, has done much to this end by showcasing Aboriginal artwork on four of its fleet beginning with the most famous - Wunala Dreaming.

During the early 1990s large-scale special liveries, which are almost ten a penny nowadays, were rare.  This was largely due to the limitations of digital design, printing and application to such large objects as aircraft prone to high stresses and highly variable atmospheric conditions. Given the logistical and political ramifications of undertaking the design it is little surprise that the initial idea for Wunala Dreaming was floated with Qantas for 18 months before the go ahead was given.

Originally planned as a 3 month promotion the livery was so successful that it flew (on 2 different 747s) for seventeen years until January 2012. Further it inspired a line of Qantas Aboriginal art decorated aircraft that continues today. The livery was the brainchild of John and Ros Moriarty of Balarinji Designs. Wunala means Kangaroo in the language of the Yanyuwa people of Borroloola on the Gulf of Carpentaria. Using styles from Northern and Central Australia, it features the spirits of Aboriginal people in the form of kangaroos travelling through the red desert landscape. The colours were inspired by the 'bright red sunsets of Uluru to the blue-lavenders of the Flinders Ranges to the lush green apple colours of Kakadu'.

As described by John and Ros themselves:

"In Dreamtime journeys, spirit ancestors in the form of kangaroos (Wunala) make tracks from camps to waterholes, leading the people to water and food. Today, as they have for centuries, Aboriginal people re-enact such journeys through song and dance 'corroborees'. These ensure the procreation of all living things in the continuing harmony of nature's seasons."

The design itself contains 1,324 irregular dots and 7 different colours whilst the 67 patterns took 12 days to paint, using 800 litres of paint in the process. The first aircraft to wear the scheme was VH-OJB, the second of four new 747-438s ordered by QF in 1987. She entered service on a SYD-IN-LHR service four days after her arrival in Australia on September 19, 1989 though at the time she still wore standard QF colours and was named ‘City of Sydney’. On September 4, 1994 she was rolled out wearing the special ‘Wunala Dreaming’ colours. She wore the scheme until March 2003 when she was repainted into standard colours and became 'Mt Isa'. She operated her final revenue service on April 25, 2012. She had a total time of 94,509 hours and 12,749 cycles.

OJB was replaced in the Qantas fleet as Wunala Dreaming by the new 747-438ER VH-OEJ who operated her first revenue service in August 2003. She survived in service in this scheme until January 2012 when she was repainted into Qantas' modified standard colours. In that sense the Wunala Dreaming outlasted its sister Nalanji Dreaming which was launched in 1995. 

​Also don't forget to check out the unboxing video for this excellent model at the YouTube channel here:

From the mid-1970s the Boeing 737-200 Advanced model became the backbone of the fleets of the three major Brasilian airlines - VARIG, Cruzeiro do Sul and VASP. Only Transbrasil resisted the temptations of the baby Boeing - opting for BAC One-Elevens and then 727s instead. VARIG and Cruzeiro had become inextricably linked in 1975 and together they used the marketing name 'Super Advanced 737' to promote their Fat Alberts.

By the mid-70s Cruzeiro was in financial trouble and this resulted on May 22, 1975 in the sale of the airline to the Ruben Berta Foundation, which was already the majority owner of VARIG. From that day forward Cruzeiro was operated as a subsidiary of VARIG though it kept its own identity. Unsurprisingly, the route structures and fleets of the two airlines were rationalised. The Brazilian market was regulated and the combined Cruzeiro / VARIG was alotted a 45% share with the remaining 55% split between VASP and Transbrasil. Despite this Cruzeiro / VARIG had a monopoly on international services.

VARIG began to take delivery of 737-241 ‘Super Advanced’ aircraft from October 21, 1974 when PP-VME was delivered. She was followed by nine other aircraft until June 1975 (PP-VME-VMN). All the 737-241s arrived with natural metal bellys.

VARIG added a pair of 737-2K9s fresh from the factory on lease from BIAL in 1982 (PP-VNF/G). They also acquired a fairly large fleet of new Boeing 737-300s from 1987, however none of these aircraft were purchased outright and all came on lease. Additionally one of the original 737-241s was lost in September 1989. That aircraft was PP-VMK and its fate was actually covered in a blogpost in 2016 by the guest writer Andy Payne. Check out his post here, which utilises a zinc-rotted 737 model to good effect:

All of Cruzeiro's 737s joined VARIG, which led to the image of VARIG 737-200s with the grey belly rather than natural metal. VARIG's increasingly perilous financial position actually led to the 737-200 fleet increasing at the expense of the newer (and no doubt more expensive) series 300s. Another pair of 737-200s were leased as late as 1997 and the rundown of the fleet did not begin until 2001, by which time VARIG's collapse was almost inevitable. 

It isn't often you see a company selling its competitor's products, especially when they are multi-million dollar airliners. However, when Emirates needed capacity quickly it was Boeing they turned to and Airbus A340-300s they acquired.

The roots of this unusual set of circumstances go back to the horse-trading between Boeing and airlines at the turn of the century. Boeing was fighting hard to keep Airbus in its place and was offering unusual deals to secure airline's business. This had already included signing a sole supplier agreement with American Airlines in November 1996 and undertaking a costly price war with Airbus. This aggressive sales programme would be topped at the 1999 Paris Air Show when Boeing and Singapore Airlines announced an even more controversial deal.

Boeing agreed to purchase Singapore's entire A340-300 'Celestar' fleet in return for an order for 10 Boeing 777-200ERs. Airbus called the deal 'an act of desperation' but there's no doubt it must have stung, especially as Boeing would go on to sell a large fleet of 777-300/300ERs to Singapore. The first 777-200ER joined the fleet in May 1997 even though Singapore was still taking delivery of its brand new A340-300s at the time!

Although this deal was highly unusual Singapore Airlines did have form in this department. They had, throughout their short history, often taken delivery of brand new aircraft, only to sell them not long afterwards. Aircraft to suffer this fate at SIA have included the McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 (1979-1983), Airbus A300 (1980-1985) and Boeing 757-200 (1984-1990). Even most of their 747-212Bs saw only short careers of 6-12 years.

Singapore Airlines had received its first A340-313, 9V-SJA, in April 1996 and by the end of the year was operating 6 aircraft. A further 9 aircraft joined the fleet, with the last being 9V-SJO in July 1999. That left two aircraft undelivered and these two frames, 9V-SJP and SJQ weren't produced until 2003 when they went straight to Boeing Aircraft Holding.

A340s began to leave the SQ fleet in 2001 with 9V-SJA-C switching to Cathay Pacific. Despite the temptation to upset Airbus further Boeing clearly saw the financial implications of scrapping nearly new A340s, and instead Boeing Aircraft Holding started looking for customers for the Airbuses.

Emirates was a much smaller airline at the turn of the century, but had expanded its fleet to include Boeing 777-200/300s and A330-200s. It was experiencing soaring customer demand on its expanding long-haul route network from Dubai. Emirates had significant orders for new aircraft in place, but was still looking for new jets. It was already an operator of the new A340-500, which it had put into service in July 2004, so the A340-300 had good fleet commonality.

This combination of factors allowed Boeing to secure nine year leases for 8 of the remaining A340-300s (two of which had served 15 month leases at Khalifa Airways already) at Emirates. The first of the 'new' A340s joined the fleet from Boeing on January 30, 2004 after ​major checks, repainting and preparations for conversion by Hamburg-based maintenance, repair and overhaul specialists Lufthansa Technik AG.

The fleet was configured in a three class layout of 12 First Class, 42 Business and 213 Economy seats. Service entry was from March 1st on routes from ​Dubai to Shanghai, Casablanca, Johannesburg, Perth and Osaka.

The A340-300s would see good service with EK. In fact, some outlasted the A340-500s and survived into 2016. Four would see further service with HiFly, but the rest would be parted out. The departure of the final A340-300s and A330-200s in late 2016 left the airline with a fleet made up entirely of Airbus A380s, and the A340's nemesis, the Boeing 777-300ER.

References

1996. SIA gets a new star. Business Today
2004, January. First Airbus A340-300 for Emirates. Times of Malta
2004, January. Emirates Takes Delivery Of First Airbus A340-300. Scoop
2025. Singapore Airlines. Key.Aero
Emirates A340s. RZJets.net

Following Canadian's takeover of Wardair in 1989, Canada 3000 would quickly grow to become Canada's largest charter airline and one that was consistently profitable too. At the turn of the century the massive changes wrought by the takeover of Canadian Airlines, by Air Canada, appeared to open up a space for C3 to become Canada's no 2 airline. A big part of that strategy involved acquisitions. However, C3 would soon live to regret its purchases and desperately try to offload them as it hit the turbulence of 2001.

I have discussed Canada 3000 here at the blog previously charting its rise and fall with a specific focus on its new operations between Canada and India. See that blog entry for more background: 

Heading towards the year 2000 Canada 300 was strong in international markets but weak in terms of domestic flights. Canada 3000 started to look at the opportunity presented by the messy and highly political takeover of Canadian Airlines by Air Canada and saw the chance for it to become Canada's new second airline.

Given its limited domestic scheduled service C3 was keen to expand quickly and the best way to do that appeared to be by acquisition. On January 29, 2001 Canada 3000 bid for Royal Aviation to the tune of $84 million. 

Canada 3000's chairman John Lecky summed up the deal as follows:

"​The combined airline represents an excellent fit and brings together Canada 3000's long-haul, international services with Royal's short-haul domestic capabilities. This will be a truly national and international airline, offering frequency, the lowest fares and broad-based excellent service"

The chief executive of Royal Aviation, Michel Leblanc, was similarly effusive saying:

"The combined company represents an excellent platform for dynamic growth in the business market. The enhanced organization will have a fleet of 34 aircraft, with further 10 aircraft on order. The current 30 domestic city pairs served by the combined airline is expected to grow to over 40 domestic city pairs by this summer."

Interestingly, Royal would keep its head office in Montreal and Leblanc would remain as vice-chairman. Even though Toronto based Canada 3000 had styled itself as a low fare airline the merger would see the expansion of Royal's scaled business-class product across the route network.

Leblanc owned about 45% of Royal so there was little difficulty in getting the merger approved, which was organised as a share swap - 1 Canada 3000 share for every 2.5 Royal shares. Leblanc became the second largest shareholder in the merged airline, after John Lecky himself.

The news of the merger was met with mixed reviews. Royal's share price rose but Canada 3000's dropped. Although some analysts saw it as a sound strategic move for Canada 3000 others saw it as throwing away the aspects that had made the carrier successful. It had reneged on statements it had made when it went public in July 2000 to not introduce business class or enter the ultra-competitive Toronto-Montreal-Ottawa triangle.

Canada 3000 was bullish about the prospects of merging the two airlines due to their relatively small size and 'fairly compatible' computer systems. Even so, their fleets were not at all compatible. Canada 3000 operated Airbus A320s, A330s and Boeing 757s. Royal Aviation operated a diverse fleet of Airbus A310s, Boeing 737-200s, 757s and Lockheed Tristars. 

Canada 3000's takeover plans didn't stop with Royal and in early April a deal was announced for the takeover of CanJet Airlines for C$7 million, which included its six 737s. CanJet had been struggling against strong competition from Air Canada. The C3 President Angus Kinnear stated at the time:

"The acquisition of CanJet's 737 fleet fits well with the aircraft acquired when Royal came into our family. We can now set up a schedule from coast to coat and penetrate most medium-sized communities in Canada. It allows us to reach a position that we wouldn't have on our own for at least another two years. I'm glad of what we have achieved in such a short time."​

Under the surface things were not as rosy as they seemed. There were major disagreements between Leblanc and the Canada 3000 management, which ultimately led to him being fired in June 2001. Two months later Canada 3000 filed a lawsuit against Leblanc, and the ex-Royal CFO Roland Blais, for $45 million. They alleged that the pair overstated Royal's profits and profit projections by $20.2 million to drive up the purchase price.

Lecky stated:

"While the prospects for Canada 3000 remain positive, this matter will negatively impact our short-term results. We have made considerable progress in integrating Royal's operations with those of Canada 3000 and CanJet, but we are disappointed with some of the issues we were forced to deal with when we formally took over Royal."

In September the pair of accused Royal executives counter-sued Canada 3000 for $30 million in damages.

By July Canada 3000 was already struggling for liquidity but it appeared that it would pull through but, of course the September 11 attacks led to massive economic problems for airlines and air travel in general. Suddenly all bets were off. C3 was already facing stiff competition from Air Canada's new low-cost Tango subsidiary that was launched on October 1st with the Royal problems and a worsening economy the 9-11 attacks were the last thing it needed.

Canada 3000 gained a $75 million loan guarantee from the Canadian government but part of the terms included cutting its costs by 30%. This led in early November to Canada 3000 undertaking the desperate action of petitioning the Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) to rule that Canada 3000 and Royal were not 'common employers'. In effect C3 was asking to annul the merger and the reason for this was that if it could do this it could simply shutdown the entire Royal Aviation side of the business to achieve the necessary cutbacks!

While the decision made some sense, given the lack of fleet commonality (and thus pilot commonality) and the fact that Royal's employees were paid more than Canada 3000's, it obviously was a massive shock to those Royal employees that had been working hard to merge the airlines. The desperate gamble didn't work anyway as the CIRB ruled against it saying it didn't have the jurisdiction.

It quickly became academic. The airline was now losing $700,000 a day. Negotiations with unions were begun but after they failed the carrier went to court to gain protection that would give it time to restructure. On November 9 the C3 President Kinnear said:

"The airline had sought creditor protection because of "delays in securing concessions" from its unions. This step allows us to continue serving the travelling public while restructuring our operations to ensure the long term viability of Canada 3000."

​Seven hours later the airline abruptly ceased operations saying:

"Canada 3000 Airlines regrets to advise that it will cease flying operations effective November 09, 2001. We are therefore unable to transport passengers to their destinations, and recommend that they seek an alternative means of travel. We very much regret this action and wish to thank our passengers for their patronage in the past."

References

​2001, January 29. Canada 3000 bids $84 million for Royal Airlines. CBC News
2001, January 30. Canada 3000 to acquire rival Royal Aviation in all-stock deal. The Globe & Mail
2001, August 16. Canada 3000 sues former Royal Aviation execs for $45 million. CBC News
​2001, September 21. Ex-Royal executives sue Canada 3000. The Globe & Mail
2001. Did Canada 3000 Botch the Takeover of Royal?. Airliners.net
​2001, Nov 5th. The Royal Kiss-off. Flyer Talk
​2001, Nov 9. Canada 3000 grounds planes; thousands stranded. CBC News

Deregulation has brought its share of turbulence to the Canadian aviation scene as it has elsewhere. With Canadian Airlines on the ropes, as the new century arrived the charter airline Canada 3000 transformed itself into a new competitor for Air Canada. It stretched its reach to global destinations like India, as well as scheduled domestic ops. Sadly for Canada 3000 it overstretched itself dramatically, resulting in a bizarre and unexpected collapse.

Canada 3000 was formed initially as a charter affiliate of the British tour operator Air 2000, partly no doubt to facilitate the movement of the airline's fleet between busy periods in Canada and Europe. Operations began in late 1988, after Air 2000 was forced to remove itself from an onwership position. ​

By 1991 Canada 3000 was the largest charter airline in Canada and by 1998 it was carrying 2.5 million passengers annually to over 20 countries. The fleet that year gained three of an eventual four Airbus A330-200s on lease from ILFC and was otherwise built around Airbus A320s and Boeing 757s. Impressively the airline had been consistently profitable since its creation.

Under the leadership of Angus Kinnear and John Lecky the carrier was in a strong position, which was bolstered in 2000 when the company went public with a $30 million IPO. Canada 300 began to see itself as the heir apparent to the no2 throne in Canada following Canadian Airlines takeover by Air Canada. It began scheduled operations and that year it ordered A319s for cross border and new domestic services. 

All of this activity and growth was a major strain on the airline's finances. By late July the airline was already having financial difficulties with only $82 million in cash available but liabilities of over $100 million. It seemed however that the carrier could pull through given time and the grandiose plans it had for expansion continued.

The Mumbai services could use Canada 3000s existing A330s (in an 18 club class, 309 economy layout) but for the other three weekly services new equipment would be needed due to the distance and flight time (14 hours). This came in the form of a new Airbus A340-313X leased from ILFC and registered C-GZIA. This aircraft was delivered on September 19 and configured with 32 seats in Executive First class and 264 in economy. The seats in the new first class were not quite flat beds but nonetheless were superior to anything Air Canada could provide.

That the delivery of the A340 went ahead at all is all the more surprising given that its finances were so weak and only eight days earlier the September 11 attacks had changed the world. The day before the attacks Canada 3000 had sold 25,000 tickets but in the week following its sales halved to only 46,000. It could ill afford the grounding of its fleet in the post 9-11 chaos, but the longer term impacts of the fall in traffic were to be cataclysmic. Ironically, on the day of the A340's arrival the airline was forced to report a steep first quarter loss of $15.8 million. Worse was to come.

The Canadian government's bailout for the airlines was miniscule but but still Canada 3000 persisted with the Indian service. The first flight took off on Monday October 8 only one day before the US and British began bombing Afghanistan. Canada 3000 at least made a nod to its dire situation by cancelling the Vancouver-Delhi service. To add to the woes Air Canada began operations competing directly against Canada 3000 with its new low cost Air Canada Tango subsidiary.

The situation was so bad at the airline that in an amazing game of brinkmanship Canada 3000's chairman and largest shareholder John lecky went on record, apparently without talking to anyone else, to say that without government aid it would be out of business by Christmas. This had the unintended affect of upsetting the Canadian government, causing creditors to begin to call in debts and sending the airline's bookings into a tailspin all at once. No government deal could be reached and the Christmas date became optimistic. The resulting whirlwind destroyed the once profitable airline and it shutdown for good on November 11 after grounding itself on November 9th.

References

2001, Nov. Canada 3000 placed in bankruptcy. CBC News
2001, Nov. McArthur, K & McNish, J. Canada 3000: Airline Woes. The Globe & Mail
2001, Oct. McArthur, D. Canada 3000 launches N.A.'s only non-stop India route. The Globe & Mail
2001, Jul. Canada 3000 plans more flights to Delhi, Mumbai. The Hindu Business Line
Canada 3000. RzJets.net

CP Air had been solidly profitable throughout the 1960s and first half of the 1970s, but in 1975 it recorded its first annual loss in 13 years. The carrier cut costs and focused on efficiencies, which included a fleet overhaul and rationalisation. In the long-haul department that would mean the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 would eventually become the only type in service. The big trijet would briefly take CP Air back into the Canadian Pacific era and then through to Canadian Airlines International.

CP Air had expanded its route network in the 1970s and added a quartet of Boeing 747-217Bs between November 1973 and the end of 1974. They operated alongside 5 Douglas DC-8-43s, 2 DC-8-50s and 5 DC-8-63s. As part of the fleet rationalisation that saw the departure of the Boeing 727s (see Chester & the Multi-Mark: Alaska's Orange 727) and cancellation of its 767-200 order, CP Air also decided to retire the short DC-8s and replace them with new DC-10-30s.

Three aircraft were ordered in 1977 for 1979 delivery, however the first pair were leased to VARIG until 1980 so it was the third aircraft, C-GCPE, that would be the first to enter service with CP Air - on November 17, 1979. The DC-10s saw service on European routes, such as Toronto-Milan, but also on services to Australia.

CP Air continued to expand it's DC-10 fleet with the addition of C-GCPF-I between late November 1980 and the end of 1981. A ninth airframe was added from the secondhand market in March 1982. C-GCPJ was a naerly new ex-Singapore Airlines aircraft that had only been delivered originally in 1979.

Liberalisation of the air traffic market in 1979 and the early 1980s allowed CP Air to expand into new Asian markets and compete domestically with Air Canada for the first time, but that also meant strong competition from the flag carrier in return at the same time that Canada experienced its worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

CP Air was hit hard and recorded huge losses in 1981 (C$22,781,000) and 1982 (C$39,214,000). CP Air's recently recruited President Daniel A. Colussy radically changed CP's business model, which also impacted the DC-10s. He orchestrated a lease-swap deal with United Airlines that saw 3 of CP's DC-10-30s (C-GCPF, PG and PH) go to United in return for 3 shorter range DC-10-10s. The first of the United frames joined in June 1983 and stayed until mid-1987. 

By 1985 Colussy had turned CP Air around and the carrier saw a profit of C$13,800,000, however he departed at the end of 1984 to be replaced by Donald J. Carty. The volatile Canadian market, plus acquisition of Eastern Provincial and Nordair, as well as several other failed ideas meant that the profit was short-lived. By 1986 the carrier was back in the red and facing renewed competition from airlines like Wardair.

CP Air had retired its DC-8-63s in 1983 as the DC-10s took up the slack, but it still operated the 4 747s. Once again fleet rationalisation was on the cards and in 1985 a unique deal was agreed with Pakistan International whereby CP Air would swap its 747s for PIA's four DC-10-30s. Three of these had been delivered new to PIA, in 1973, 1974 and 1976, while the other was a 1975 build ex-Alitalia frame PIA had acquired only in 1983. The deal made sense and allowed CP Air to standardise its long-haul fleet entirely on the DC-10s.

With the PIA swap deal the DC-10 fleet would grow to 12 made up of 9 series 30s and the 3 series 10s leased from United. However, the 'new' ex-PIA Tens would never wear the bright orange livery with the multimark logo. On December 17, 1985 CP Air announced it was to rebrand as Canadian Pacific Air Lines. When C-FCRE rolled out on January 12, 1986 she wore a brand new livery. 

​The new blue business-like livery was designed by Vancouver based West Graphika and modernised the Multimark into the Motionmark, now with five stripes representing the five continents operated to. The airline catered to Canada's multi-lingual population by placing English Canadian Pacific titles on one side and French Canadien Pacifique on the other.

Despite the new coat of paint, CP's fortunes weren't improving and its parent company decided to get out of the airline business. In March 1987 the airline was sold to the successful Calgary-based Pacific Western Air Lines for C$300 million and at the end of the year the combined airline would be renamed Canadian Airlines International. The new titles cleverly used an updated motionmark logo (inspired by PWA's own arrow logo) to cover for the different spelling of Canadian / Canadien in English / French.

This quick change of identities meant that most of the DC-10s never wore the Canadian Pacific version of the scheme in full. Some simply gained new titles over their CP Air titles, be they Canadian Pacific or Canadian.

The end of the United lease agreement would see the return of the trio of DC-10-30s bringing the Canadian fleet up to 12 series 30s. The DC-10s would continue to be important components of the Canadian fleet until the late 1990s despite the arrival of a large fleet of Boeing 767-375ERs, from April 1988, and 5 Boeing 747-400s, from January 1990. 

The first aircraft to leave the fleet would be the four ex-PIA aircraft. Three went to VASP of Brasil in 1991 and the other to Aeromexico in 1989. The ex-Singapore aircraft, C-GCPJ, was sold to Continental in December 1996 also. That still left the 7 aircraft delivered directly to CP Air to continue in service and most of these were still with the airline when it was finally acquired by Air Canada in 2000. 

​References

2004. Giannico, P. Remembering Canadian Pacific. Airliners No 86
Canadian Pacific RZJets.net

Ecuatoriana's cessation of operations in 1993 had been something of a shock as the airline's financial condition was unknown even though its service levels had been decreasing. Despite a lengthy period out of operation the Ecuatoriana brand wasn't finished however, and a white knight appeared in the form of the Brasilian airline VASP. VASP was keen to form a pan-South American VASP Air System including Ecuador's colourful national carrier.

For the story of Ecuatoriana from 1979-1993 see:

VASP was a Sao Paulo based Brasilian scheduled carrier which had been privatised in 1990 and under its new owner and president, Wagner Canhedo, had decided on an expansion push. It doubled its fleet using 737-300/400s and DC-10s and began international services, however by 1993 it was forced to return most of the aircraft due to failure to pay leasing fees. This didn't stop the airline though and in 1994 a second international expansion began using new MD-11s. VASP dreamed of creating a VASP Air System and the cornerstone of this policy was to buy into failing South American airlines and operate them together.

Accordingly in 1995 it acquired controlling interests in Lloyd Aereo Bolviano (LAB) of Bolivia, TAN of Argentina and Ecuatoriana. VASP acquired 49% of the non-flying Ecuadorian airline with a further 10% going to Ecuadorian investor Juan Eljuri Anton and the remainder staying with the Ecuadorian government. 

Nonetheless, the sale went through and VASP acquired assets worth approximately $15 million, including a DC-10 aircraft in need of a major overhaul, office space, and spare parts. The privatization process included a five-year business plan plus a minimum cash contribution of $10 million. The airline had rights to fly 30 routes, of which 18 had never been flown but included services to Madrid.

VASP's acquisition of Ecuatoriana wasn't without controversy. It was one of 9 consortia that were interested in the airline - others included ​Aces-Aeroecuador, Air France, Avro-British Aerospace, Carnival Airlines, Challenge Air Cargo, Continental Airlines, Protexa-Aerogal and Filancasa-Taca. There were questions raised about the manner of the sale, which the Ecuadorian Congress considered to be opaque and it went through while a report from the ​Comptroller General's Office was still pending.

VASP wet-leased Ecuatoriana's old DC-10 back to the airline so that international services to Miami and New York could be restarted, from June 1996, as the FAA had imposed operating restrictions on Ecuadorian airlines operating to the USA for safety reasons. The same trick was used to provide an A310 for Ecuatoriana also and this ex-TEA France / Sudan Airways frame became PP-SFH in November 1997.

Ultimately the combination of these factors led to Ecuatoriana's collapse once again. The USA had rescinded Ecuatoriana's permit to operate the vital Quito-New York route in 1999 and the Ecuadorian government filed a lawsuit against VASP for non-compliance with the agreed investment plan.

Already by 1998 VASP had been overtaken in the domestic market by TAM whilst its owned fleet was old and its newer aircraft subject to leasing agreements in US dollars. The devaluation of the Brasilian Real in 1999 was a major blow and VASP was forced to suspend all international operations. VASP desperately retrenched to stay in business which meant cutting loose its loss making subsidiary companies. In November in an attempt to force Ecuatoriana to pay overdue management fees VASP took back the A310, which was its primary source of revenue. Ecuatoriana stopped operations with its own aircraft in December 2000. ​

In November 2000 the Ecuadorian government signed a deal with Lan Chile to takeover Ecuatoriana's management and VASP agreed to sell its share. By this point there wasn't much left of Ecuatoriana as all its aircraft were repossessed aside from the DC-10. Operations continued using Lan Chile's own 767s and the DC-10 was broken up at Quito in 2004. ​

Lan Chile began to operate for Ecuatoriana on Ecuatoriana's old routes and started its own Ecuadorian subsidiary Lan Ecuador. Without backers or its own aircraft there was no way back for Ecuatoriana, though its a little unclear exactly when the company ceased existing legally. It seems Lan sold its share of the airline to Lloyd Aereo Boliviano, but LAB's own poor shape meant this achieved little. It seems Ecuatoriana officially ceased to exist in 2006, but it hadn't flown its own metal since December 2000.

References

1995, August. SOLD 50.1 OF ECUADORIANA DE AVIACIÓN. El Tiempo
1996, June. VASP Seeks Approval of Wet-Lease To Ecuatoriana. Aviation Week
2000, November. VASP Suspends Foreign Services. Flight Global
2000, November. ​LanChile/Ecuatoriana deal could loosen VASP's hold on Ecuador. Flight Global

Towards the end of the 1970s Ecuatoriana's fleet stood at a trio of ex-American Airlines Boeing 720-023Bs, acquired in 1975, and two ex-Pan Am 707-321s picked up in 1976 and 1978 respectively. All 5 were painted in the delightful individual liveries. The route network extended to Los Angeles, Miami and New York as well as a variety of Latin American destinations.

As with all of Ecuatoriana's 707s this aircraft was also of Pan Am heritage having joined PA as N451PA 'Clipper Union' on May 31, 1967.  Prior to her lease to Ecuatoriana she had been N451RN with Iran Air.  Named 'Manabi' she operated an all cargo service from Quito to Miami, Panama City and New York JFK. As you can see the livery involved six colourful bands - yellow, green and dark blue at the top and magenta, orange and red at the bottom. Along with the airline's traditional E logo this aircraft also gained a new freight motif, which to me looks like a stylised hand moving a cargo container.

That replacement would come in the form of a pair of Airbus A310-324s leased from new in September 1991, which became HC-BRA 'Guayaquil' and HC-BRB 'Quito'. That enabled the departure of the two 707-321Bs, one of which joined Arkia of Israel and the other the Ecuadorian Air Force.

For more on the third incarnation of Ecuador's flag carrier see part 3 of this series:

The A300 was an excellent product and yet Airbus really struggled to sell the type at first. Eventually, however, it gave them their break and also made a significant inroad into the Brasilian market, albeit one that was relatively short-lived. It wouldn't be until the 2000s that Airbuses would be seen in large numbers in Brasil and by then the last of the 'Silent Giants' was coming to the end of its service.

Airbuses' maiden product, the medium sized widebody A300, entered service on May 23, 1974 but faced a difficult beginning. Coming after the 747, DC-10 and L-1011, plus following the early 70s oil shock, it struggled to attract orders despite being better sized for many airline's routes. It of course didn't help that it wasn't made in the USA and that Airbus itself was an unproven entity. Nonetheless, slowly Airbus made some inroads outside of France and Germany with purchases by Indian Airlines and Korean Air. Even so no sales were made between December 1975 and May 1977, bringing the whole programme into doubt. Obviously Airbus weathered this storm and canny dealings with Eastern and Pan Am, plus further development of the A300 itself, guaranteed the type a bright future.

Within Latin America the first airline to put an A300 into service was Aerocóndor of Colombia, which acquired a single A300B4, HK-2057X 'Ciudad de Barranquilla' on December 10, 1977. The A300 was a success on the competitive Miami route but Aerocóndor was in a financial and management crisis from which it was unable to escape. It ceased operations in May 1980 and was never able to purchase the second planned A300 it wanted.

Fortunately by then Airbus had received further orders from this region of the world. By 1979 it was offering both the A300 and the shorter A310 and during 1979 alone it took orders and options for 221 aircraft (129 of which were for A310s). One of the orders received was from Brazil's Cruzeiro do Sul. Cruzeiro had been taken over by VARIG's owner, the Ruben Berta Foundation, in May 1975 removing VARIG's largest competitor on domestic services. Cruzeiro's brand was continued, however its fleet and schedule was rationalised with VARIG's. It seems VARIG used Cruzeiro to test out the A300, with the first pair of four aircraft joining on June 20, 1980 and the second arriving six days later.

The Cruzeiro A300s were used on trunk domestic services and the limited latin american network successfully. Known as the 'Silent Giant' they were quieter and more environmentally friendly than competing types, the former being especially important given the closeness of several major Brazilian airports to their cities. The A300s were the biggest type able to operate into Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport. They were also used to Miami, however this was really a VARIG route and Cruzeiro's service on the route gained a rebuke from US authorities. This along with the general success of the Cruzeiro A300s led to VARIG to take the next pair on order, which were delivered ten days apart in June 1981.

VARIG was not alone in recognising the benefits of the Airbus product. Its domestic competitor VASP was also keen (although the other Brazilian major opted for the Boeing 767-200). It ordered a trio of A300s in 1980 (as well as 9 A310s) however in the end only the A300s would be delivered. VASP's A300s were earlier B2 versions, the first pair of which arrived on November 5 and 8, 1982.

The third would arrive on January 31, 1983 during the airline's 50th anniversary year. The A300s were the largest aircraft in the history of the airline and introduced a new livery. They were mainly used on circular trunk routes from Sao Paulo such as Congonhas-Brasilia-Manaus and Congonhas-Rio de Janeiro-Salvador de Bahia-Recife-Fortaleza-Belem-Manaus. They also were sometimes utilised for charters to Aruba or Orlando.

The short field performance of the A300 was decreased in value in 1985 with the opening of São Paulo–Guarulhos International Airport, which could be used instead of the inner city São Paulo–Congonhas Airport. VARIG was convinced to replace its A300s by Boeing who sold it six replacement Boeing 767-200ERs at low prices in a successful effort to rid VARIG's fleet of Airbus products. The 767s had superior range to the base model A300B4s and VARIG followed up with larger 767-300s soon afterwards. The six 767-241ERs arrived from July-August 1987 and tookover many of the shorter lower density latin american international routes but also served charter services to Europe. Nonetheless the A300s were not sold immediately and continued on until being sold in 1989/90. By then Cruzeiro was merely a shell of its former self and it did not acquire any widebodies when its A300s were sold alongside the VARIG examples.

The two A300B4-2Cs were sold to Japan Air System in April and December 1989 whilst the pair of A300B4-203s were sold to Air Jamaica in May and June 1990. VASP's trio of A300s continued in service throughout the 1990s but towards the end of the decade the airline was haemorraghing money as a result of over expansion and mismanagement. Its fall was swift with all international services cancelled in 2002 and by 2004 its share of domestic services down to 10%. The fleet was reduced to the oldest paid for components, mainly 737-200s and the trio of A300s. However as early as 2001 the eldest A300, PP-SNL required a D check. This was never completed and instead her parts kept the other two A300s in the air. The remaining A300 pair flew Porto Alegre-São Paulo–Guarulhos-Rio de Janeiro-Salvador de Bahia-Recife-Fortaleza and São Paulo–Guarulhos-Salvador de Bahia-Recife-Fortaleza.

Keeping both A300s in the air was proving difficult with the perilous financial state of the airline. When PP-SNN blew an engine on take-off at Recife an engine had to be borrowed from PP-SNM to get her back to Sao Paulo for repairs. Even with this fixed SNN required a C check and then later in the year SNM blew an engine also. SNN's C check was nearing completion when VASP suffered its worst financial crisis. Neither of the A300s would re-enter service and indeed VASP itself was grounded permanently on January 27, 2005. Along with much of the VASP fleet all three A300s were unceremoniously abandoned.

It was a sad end for the 'Silent Giant' in Brazil, but the A300 had proven itself economic, safe and reliable. The Brazilian A300s were another small step forward in Airbus proving itself capable and competent on the international aviation scene and ably serviced the needs of Brazilians for more than 2 decades.

References

1980, February. Airbus Industrie's Eastern US tour. Flight Global
Varig Airlines A300. Varig-airlines.com
Varig Airlines B767-200. Varig-airlines.com
History of the A300 in Brasil. avioesemusicas.com
Varig case: The downfall of a Brazilian icon. jairm.org

I love the stories of the deregulated era US airline industry, and during the 1980s and 90s there were a large number of new startup airlines, most of which didn't last long. The economic downturn of the early 90s, caused partly by the Gulf War, killed off several startups, such as the first Midway, as well as grand old names like Eastern and Pan Am, but this clearout just opened the door for a second tranche of startups in the mid-90s. Mostly these failed to live up to expectations too. One of the less successful was a company called JetTrain.

It is somewhat odd that there is a model of JetTrain in 400 scale given the airline's short existence, but I'm very grateful there is even if it is on the not so great Gemini Jets / Phoenix mould. This release dates all the way from 2004 and was released by Phoenix, probably from stock originally earmarked for Tucano Line.

The turmoil in the US aviation sector at the start of the 1990s found many executives and pilots out of work. Their activity would lead to the creation of quite a selection of new airlines into the mid-90s. Many didn't get far, some didn't get off the ground at all and only a few, like Kiwi International and ValuJet, survived for any period of time that would make them at all memorable.

One of these new startups, formed in 1993, went by the name of AirTrain and was formed by ex-Wings West pilots and an air traffic controller called J Elliot Black. The plan was to operate low cost services, with ticketless travel and walk-up pricing, between Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Detroit.

Unsurprisingly, and probably also a sign of underfinancing, it took 3 years to get the airline ready to go. By that time the name had been changed to JetTrain to avoid confusion with another startup, AirTran, although this was obviously late in the day since the first aircraft wore AirTrain titles before service entry.

Based at Pittsburgh, at the time a major USAir hub, the first service was inaugurated between PIT-EWR-MCO. This was followed by a PIT-PHL schedule. The initial equipment was a single ex-Eastern DC-9-31 registered N8927E. 

The livery was quite smart and consisted of a black cheatline flowing onto the nose. The winged train logo on the tail nonetheless gave it a rather old-fashioned look. A second DC-9-31 joined the fleet in April. This one was registered N937ML, showing its heritage of being ex-Midway Airlines (it had started life with Ansett of Australia in 1967 as VH-CZC).

A third DC-9, N977ML, was also added at some point. This 1968 frame was both an ex-Midway and ex-Eastern bird. Both the ML registered DC-9s had seen service with Express One after there time with Midway ended. 

Unsurprisingly for a new startup, with limited capital, operating into major hub airports and using relatively old and fuel thirsty equipment JetTrain found the going tough from the start. I can only imagine how USAir percieved this new startup trying to find a niche at two of its biggest hubs! I suspect they did everything in their power to squash it.

To be fair they probably didn't have to do much! JetTrain dropped the Newark and Orlando routes and replaced them with Boston-Philadelphia-Nashville but time was swiftly running out. The end came after only 10 months with operations suspended on November 12, 1996.

Two of the DC-9s would switch to Venezuela in mid-1997 and join Aserca, who flew them into the mid-noughties. The third DC-9, N977ML, joined the US Department of Justice and was withdrawn in December 1999. JetTrain was just one of tens of startup airlines from the US scene in the 1990s. It seemed to have one of the more joined up concepts, but in hindsight it seems bizarre that it thought it could fight it out with USAir in the markets it chose, given its own limited brand recognition, political clout and cashflow.

References

​Norwood, T. Deregulation Knockouts Round Two
Airline Timetable Images JetTime page

Pacific Southwest had proven without a doubt during the 1950s and 60s that small well run airlines could compete against the large Trunk airlines and out compete the smaller CAB backed local service airlines. Of course it was only able to do this by keeping its operations intra-state and outside the CAB's regulated structure. By 1970 the airline had grown for 10 consecutive years and shown profits for the past 15. It was time for an audacious gamble and that meant widebodies.

This is the 4th part in a series on PSA's history:

Lockheed had decided to re-enter the civil aviation scene, following its late 1966 rejection in the race to build a supersonic transport, initially attracted to a brief from American Airlines for a large efficient short-medium haul airliner using the new technology turbofan engines then in development. The resulting Tristar was technologically superior to the competing McDonnell Douglas DC-10, but its development costs severely stretched both Lockheed and the engine designer Rolls-Royce. â€‹

Nevertheless initial sales, to the major Trunks Eastern, TWA and Delta, as well as a batch to Air Holdings for sale outside the USA, were promising. One of the smaller trunk airlines, Northeast Airlines, had also rather optimistically ordered a pair but their failing financial position and ongoing merger talks (initially with Northwest) led to their order being cancelled in 1970. By this time orders for new Tristars were getting hard to come by but Lockheed was able to replace the lost Tristar order quickly when it received the first new order in over a year - from PSA.

The letter of intent for PSA, to purchase a pair of Tristars with reservations for three more, was announced on the official rollout of the prototype Tristar on September 1, 1970. PSA planned to fly the massive widebody on the short 284 nautical mile route between Los Angeles and San Francisco from 1972. There was an expectation of heavy growth on the intra-Californian routes in the early 1970s and the Tristars were to be configured for 297 passengers with eight abreast economy seating. Working in the Tristar's favour was that PSA percieved that the RB211 engines for the aircraft were well suited for the more frequent cycling the short routes demanded.

The February 1971 collapse of Rolls-Royce shook PSA's faith in the Tristar but following further analysis and the stabilisation of Rolls-Royce PSA returned to the type and raised its firm order for the type to five aircraft. Two were to arrive in 1974, with one aircraft each year to 1977.

PSA's unique requirements for the Tristar meant that its aircraft introduced several unusual features. The high-density commuter style operations over short routes meant baggage was less important and PSA's aircraft were equipped with a underfloor lounge (replacing part of the baggage hold and galley) which could itself seat 16 paying passengers. â€‹

Even before the new Tristars went into service (in the new 1973 PSA fruit stripes colours) there were clear signs that the aircraft would no longer work for PSA. The October 1973 fuel crisis saw the price of fuel rise from 9-11 cents a gallon to 33 cents a gallon, and PSA's fuel supplier Shell also cut supplies by 20% for good measure. The Tristars operations had been priced at the pre-1973 scale and would never work at the new figures. It was too late to back out now though and PSA readied itself for its first L-1011.

PSA cancelled its remaining orders with Lockheed and the relationship between the two became acrimonious. Lockheed found itself struggling to sell new Tristars, in a market flooded with overcapacity and in which there was a surplus of barely used Tristars available on the seconds market (not to mention its failure to compete effectively against the long-range DC-10-30). 

​Known as the 'Club Lounge' the exclusive area was reached by a staircase from the forward cabin and had a leather-framed bar, sofa style seats and, as there were no windows, two illuminated picture frames showing an exotic sun-kissed Spanish landscape. It could accommodate 16 passengers who had the chance to upgrade for a small fee with meals served on china, extra snacks and free alcoholic drinks. The lounges lasted until 1983 when they were removed by Eastern Air Lines engineering at Miami.

PSA's two delivered Tristars were eventually returned to Lockheed in 1978 and sub-leased to Aero Peru until 1982. PSA's unique lounge configuration made them difficult to sell-on and it wasn't until 1985 that the pair joined Worldways of Canada. Worldways ceased operations in November 1990 and that was the end of the pair's airline careers. N10112 was converted into a flying hospital for Operation Blessing International Relief and was tored at Tucson in 2000. Registered as P4-MED she was still their in good condition as of early 2015.

References

Birtles, Philip. J. 1989. Modern Civil Aircraft 8: Lockheed Tristar . Ian Allan
PSA History Website