 By 1957 PSA had succeeded where hundreds of others had failed. By staying within California they had avoided the CAB's attention and this had allowed them to compete successfully against the big trunk airlines on their own terms. They could set their own prices and decide what routes they would fly. Combining that with reliable friendly service they had been rewarded by strong patronage. With the jet age on the horizon PSA was ready to take it to the next level.
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 Pacific Southwest Airlines, or PSA for short, was one of the great postwar US airline stories and it is forever associated with the smiles that adorned its aircraft from the late 60s onwards. The grinningbirds, as they were known, made travel throughout California affordable for millions, but prior to the smiles PSA had already shook up the airline scene on the US West Coast.
 By 1972, the year that Delta acquired Northeast Airlines, it had risen to the mid-rank of the US Trunk majors, but whereas its fellows together operated 412 Boeing 727-100s and 256 Boeing 727-200s (a staggering 35% of the entire fleet of the 12 Trunks and Pan Am) Delta flew precisely zero of the popular trijet. That was going to change quickly as Northeast just over 50% of the NE fleet was made up of the type.
 Alaska Airlines was one of the airlines that took the post-deregulation era by the scruff of the neck and ran with it. Unlike the majority of its competitors it has survived too. In the early 80s Alaska expanded into the lower 48 with an eye focused on California. For that it needed more aircraft and that briefly included a bright orange 727.
 Pan Am had initially ordered more Douglas DC-8s than Boeing 707s, but although it took delivery of 19 of the 25 ordered they had all been retired by mid-September 1969. They had all been series 32s, but then all of a sudden in 1970 there was a 'new' Pan Am DC-8 and this time it was a series 62. It would be the only Super 60 ever flown in Pan Am colours and it was all down to an interchange service.
 With Covid firmly behind it China's air traffic stats have regained their impressive growth. It has just been reported that in 2024 passenger numbers rose by 18%, flight hours by 13.1% and flights by 9.5% to record highs, but it isn't just in the passenger arena that China's air traffic growth continues as it also has a vibrant cargo scene. One of the newest entrants into that space is Air Road Cargo, backed by the Chinese major Xiamen Airlines.
 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.
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.
 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.
 Even though East Germany was an important member of the Warsaw Pact it's national airline, Interflug, never operated the Tu-154 trijet, basing its jet fleet around the smaller Tu-134 and larger Il-62 instead. That doesn't mean a couple of 154s didn't wear the Interflug scheme though, and these aircraft would serve beyond the German reunification with one being involved in a tragic mid-air collision.
 I generally try and avoid Bluebox / Jet-X Tristars but some of them are just so unusual that they are hard to turn down. This model was part of a big box of fabulous obscure models (mainly 10 IL-76s but also Vanguards and others) that arrived late last week. I'm gradually getting sucked in to these types of unusual model offerings and it is somewhat surprising to see that Jet-X was putting this sort of effort in, and doing such a good job too. But, just what is an L-1011 doing with a rocket strapped to its belly?
 Deregulation of the US aviation market wasn't kind to the local service airlines. They faced being gobbled up by rampant former trunk airlines or kamikaze low fare competition from a host of new startups. Frontier Airlines was in a more difficult position than most and attempted to buttress itself with a low-cost offshoot of its own. Sadly, this only served to strain relations with its own employees and fell short of the hopes that it could stabilise the failing airline.
 The advent of low cost carriers led to a raft of legacy airlines setting up low cost subsidiaries across the globe. From New Zealand to Germany, and South Africa to the USA the established airlines were on the defensive. Canada was no different, and faced with the challenge of WestJet, Air Canada decided it too would jump on the bandwagon, at least until it could get its own cost's under control. The result was ZIP!
Collecting model airliners can give you a window into other cultures, which can sometimes seem bizarre by Western standards. Chinese airlines have a wide variety of interesting special schemes, often based upon the destinations they come from or serve. Air Travel is one of China's smaller airlines but has painted one of its new A320neos in a firey scheme, paying homage to its home province of Hunan and the women that reside there.
 If the Convair 240 ensured TAA was able to survive its formative years the Vickers Viscount proved more than capable of finally allowing it to consistently return a profit and outcompete its longtime opponent ANA. Indeed ANA's failure to also buy Viscounts would prove to be terminal and lead indirectly to TAA facing a stronger competitive force in that of Reginald Ansett's Ansett Airways.
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AuthorI'm Richard Stretton: a fan of classic airliners and airlines who enjoys exploring their history through my collection of die-cast airliners. If you enjoy the site please donate whatever you can to help keep it running: Archives
January 2026
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