Airline History Blog - YESTERDAY'S AIRLINES

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Air Mike to Continental Micronesia

17/9/2024

By the end of the 1980s Air Micronesia was going from strength to strength, whereas its shareholder and partner Continental was struggling with the Texas Air ownership and the amalgamation of PeoplExpress, Frontier, PBA and assets from Eastern. Briefly it looked like Continental's influence would wane, but eventually as CO recovered the whole organisation was rebranded and gradually grew closer to the mainline operation.

Trust in Mike: Air Micronesia

6/9/2024

The sheer size of the Pacific Ocean has made air travel both a necessity and a significant challenge. In the immediate postwar years the USA gained effective control of a huge area of it - dotted with a large number of islands and remote communities. After a couple of initial attempts it would be third time lucky as Air Micronesia came into being, under the stewardship of Bob Six's Continental, to create an airline to serve and help develop Micronesia - then known as the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

Gotta Go: Rebirth at HK Express

27/8/2024

I last wrote about HK Express back in May 2017, but since then the world has changed. Hong Kong's airlines suffered especially badly from the Pandemic, with the extended late Chinese lockdowns, but even prior to that travails of the HNA group and unrest in Hong Kong itself caused issues. Now under new ownership the airline is bigger and more profitable than ever, plus in January 2023 it unveiled a new branding as well.

Taban Airlines & Iran's Only EP- 757

15/3/2022

I find Iran's aviation scene to be vibrant and interesting, the more so due to the sanctions the country's airlines have to operate under, or around. The 2000s have been a period of deregulation and continued liberalisation, which has led to the creation of a wide range of airlines often operating rather haphazard fleets. One of the larger and seemingly more siccessful recent entrants has been Taban Airlines.

Tabriz Feather: Eram Air

25/7/2021

Iranian aviation is famous for keeping elderly aircraft in the air, but that achievement shouldn't overshadow what is a vibrant civil airline scene, which has at least 16 jet operators in 2021. Even so, some Iranian carriers have fallen by the wayside including the operator Eram Air, an airline whose main claim to fame is probably that it has been represented in 400 scale with a model!

Neverland Bound: JAS Peter Pan DC-10

15/11/2020

Special airline colours are nowadays ten a penny and there are few major airlines without some form of promotional livery or retro-scheme. This wasn’t the case during the 1990s, although Japanese airlines have always been at the vanguard of the trend. One of the first of the special schemes from Japan was typically cartoonish but unusually was worn by a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and one in the colours of Japan’s 3rd airline – Japan Air System.

Karnali & Gandaki: The Nepalese 757s

27/9/2019

Few nations are as dependent on air travel as Nepal. Not only has it no access to the sea but is also extremely mountainous with a poorly developed road network. For many years Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation was the primary mover, both inside the country and internationally, for getting to Nepal and from 1987 its primary equipment included a pair of 757s, one of which was truly unique.

Soviet Airbuses in China: Xinjiang's IL-86s

23/7/2019

Even when it was first put into service the Soviet IL-86 was hardly a picture of modernity or efficiency, so it is little surprise that on the foreign market it was not a popular choice. Nonetheless, a few aircraft did make it out of the CIS and three ended up with Xinjiang Airlines in China, one of China's first non-CAAC airlines.

Bleeding Edge: Oasis Hong Kong

18/1/2019

There’s no doubt that low cost airlines have radically altered the face of the industry within the last twenty years, but primarily these have been narrowbody operators with A320s and 737s. In recent years the movement has been into long haul low cost and it appears to be working for more carriers. Unfortunately, being on the cutting edge leaves you open to bleeding, something that the second long-haul low-cost airline (after Laker Airways), Oasis Hong Kong, learnt to its cost.

Hainan Specials Pt2: Scenic 800s

11/12/2018

Hainan Airlines had been the first airline in China to operate the next generation series 737-800 and given that they began to colour their older series 300s with special schemes it is no surprise that they also chose the newer 800s to gain some colour.

Cathay Cargo Pt2: 747-8Fs for the Future

17/8/2018

Cathay Pacific Cargo was in a strong position in 2007 and in November placed its largest ever direct order with Boeing. This incuded 7 extra Boeing 777-300ERs but more importantly a commitment to 10 747-8Fs with 14 further purchase rights. At the time CX Cargo still had 6 747-400ERFs and a pair of 747-400BCFs on order. The idea at the time was to use the 747-8Fs for growth and to replace the 747-200Fs but the global financial crisis changed all that and instead the 200s were replaced largely by the 400ERFs.

Panda Buses: Sichuan's A320s, the First in China

26/6/2018

Sichuan province is one of China's most important and diverse. Today its home airline has grown into as major carrier but it was the acquisition of new Airbuses that gave it the leg-up it needed to fend off Air China and others. Naturally to celebrate Sichuan looked to the province's most famous inhabitants - a certain big black and white bear.

Pork for Planes: Sichuan's TU-154s

31/5/2018

The late 1980s and early 1990s saw a proliferation of small Chinese airlines in addition to the major regional bueraus spawned from CAAC. Many of these smaller carriers were swallowed up in the great agglomeration of 2003 but some like Sichuan Airlines have gone from strength to strength. In Sichuan's case this is despite a formative period with obsolete equipment.

CAAC Tupolevs: 154s in China Pt2

8/5/2018

Although the PLAAF and its China United subsidiary would get the first 4 TU-154s in China the CAAC itself would acquire some of this first batch of TU-154s too. In fact it got the lion's share with thirteen aircraft joining in 1985/86. They didn't remain with the CAAC for very long however due to the changes afoot in the Chinese industry.

CUA Tupolevs: 154s in China Pt1

26/4/2018

Despite being fellow Communist states relations between the Soviet Union and China were often poor, especially during the 1970s. This and the limited needs of the CAAC meant that it wasn't until the mid-80s that TU-154s found their way to China, by which time they were obsolete. So why were the Chinese buying them at all?