Air Florida Across the Atlantic: Palm DC-10s

​Air Florida was, thanks to its President Ed Acker, one of the darlings of the first years of deregulation and exploded out of Florida with low fares and cheeky service in late 1978. Acker’s expansionist dreams would never be satisfied with just the USA and as well as trying to buy a selection of much larger airlines Air Florida also positioned itself for the long-haul. This is the story of their push across the Atlantic.

I have discussed the spectacular growth Air Florida experienced and the Acker effect in my earlier post covering their period from 1979-82:

Acker’s Gamble: Air Florida 1979-1982

In this post I plan to concentrate only on the DC-10 services, which became the jewel in the crown. Acker had always had a knack for finding funding for his dreams at Air Florida even in 1979 when the airline was still only operating a handful of DC-9-15s and 737s. In fact bizarrely when National Airlines was up for sale (National was second only to Eastern in Florida and one of the original, albeit smaller, US Trunk airlines) Air Florida was interested in getting in on the deal.

To be honest they never really had a chance and before they, and Eastern, had even put in their bids with the CAB Pan Am had, by August 1979, ‘won’ a harrowing battle with Frank Lorenzo’s Texas International for control of National. In reality Pan Am lost as they paid a staggering sum for National and then almost choked to death on the merger. Lorenzo meanwhile laughed all the way to the bank and made a huge profit on the 25% of National he bought during the fight. Anyway, that is another story.

Despite this defeat the game wasn’t up for Air Florida as part of the CAB approval for the deal required Pan Am to divest itself of National’s Miami-Europe routes. Throughout the short period after this Air Florida put on one of its customary campaigns declaring ‘Air Florida’s Battle for Britain’ as it tried to win the case to serve London from Miami with fares from $143 one way. Once again it lost as the route was awarded to Eastern in 1980.

Air Florida wasn’t about to give up though and sub-leased a single DC-10-30 from Seaboard World who themselves were actually leasing it from Loftleidir / Icelandair. This aircraft, N1035F, joined the Air Florida fleet in hybrid colours on March 11, 1980. She entered service on March 27 on a variety of transatlantic charters to destinations such as London Gatwick, Zurich, Brussels, Amsterdam, Dublin, Paris and Manchester.

DC-10-30CF N1035F. Used with permission from the collection of Adrian Balch

These charters would have perhaps been the end of Air Florida’s dreams of transatlantic schedules if it weren’t for the fact that Eastern so annoyed the licensing bodies with its demands to fly to Heathrow and not Gatwick that the route authority was taken away from them before they could fly it and reassigned to little Air Florida instead! See:

Eastern Cross the Atlantic: New Mark 10s

It was a major triumph for Air Florida and they pulled out all the stops despite there being three other airlines already serving the route. In 1981 the airline, which had only a few years earlier had a handful of old jets, opened a new route connecting Miami to London Gatwick. To fly this route, it leased a trio of DC-10-30s from Transamerica, the first of which, N101TV, arrived on March 16, 1981 ready for the first service on April 3.

The DC-10s services were enhanced with the offer of a door to door limousine service at each end of the journey for first class passengers who flew in what was known as “Upper Class”. All this for only $750, below the other airlines first class tickets.

N102Tv at Zurich in July 1982. Kambui [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Quickly Air Florida was able to keep its DC-10s busy with other scheduled services to Shannon in Ireland. The loss of Acker in September 1981 was a major blow to Air Florida and was followed by the tragic loss of flight Palm 90 in the Potomac. The airline could have survived this if it weren’t also for its huge debt-load and a nosediving economy. Nonetheless in 1982 further international services were opened so that by the end of the year the carrier was serving Amsterdam, Brussels, Oslo and Stockholm. 

Air Florida was now under the leadership of Donald J. Lloyd-Jones and despite serious cost cutting the debt load was still massive, and losses continuing. This meant that cutbacks were required and the DC-10 routes were not immune. The three Transamerica DC-10s were gone by February 6, 1983 whilst the original aircraft, N1035F, was returned in October 1982.

N103TV at Paris Orly in 1981. Christian Volpati [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Despite this Air Florida wasn’t ready to give up on its long-haul services, which still included London, Amsterdam and Brussels in April 1983, being serviced by a single DC-10-30 leased from World Airways (once again in a hybrid scheme). In fact, they actually increased services again and spent other money to try and make a success of it.

N19WA in December 1983. From the FlickR of Bob Garrard. Used with permission.

Football shirt sponsorship was in its infancy but in the 1983/84 season Air Florida sponsored Southampton Town Football Club (who finished runners up in the top division (the old Division 1) that season. New direct service was also begun to Madrid and Zurich. 

The Southampton FC home top 1983/84 Season

G-AXBB with small Air Florida titles near the Union Jack, at LGW in June 1984

In addition, Air Florida signed a deal with British Island Airways who operated a BAC One-Eleven with small QH stickers on it on tag on services for Air Florida from Gatwick to Frankfurt and Dusseldorf. To assist in servicing the extra services the cash-strapped Air Florida leased a Rich International Douglas DC-8-62, N1805, from November 1983 until March 1984. The DC-8 kept the entire Rich livery and gained only small Air Florida titles forward.

Left: Note the via London services operated by BIA

​By then Air Florida was in its death spiral but the international services continued right until the end. In fact, when bankruptcy was finally declared on July 3, 1984 the last service was flown by the leased DC-10-30 from LGW-MIA as QH201 arriving at the gate at 16:07. 

In the end it wasn’t the international routes that caused the demise of Air Florida and in fact they may have assisted its survival. The fallout was quickly resolved and Eastern didn’t complain this time when it finally got its route authority to fly the Miami – London Gatwick route after Air Florida made it wait 4 years.

Click here for Part 3

References
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Young, B. Air Florida: When I grow up I want to be like the big boys. Airliners #98
1979, August. Pan Am gains control of National. Flight International