Airline History Blog - Yesterday's Airlines

Three Swallows Pt2: Go Getters Go Ozark

28/11/2018

During its first 20 years of operation Ozark had fulfilled exactly the promise that the local service airlines had been created for. It had started and proved a wide range of feeder services and grown demand to the point that it could sustain not just prop-jets but pure jets as well. Even better it had done so profitably and begun to wean itself off of subsidy and pick-up longer routes that the trunk airlines no longer wanted. All in all it found itself in good position to grow into the 1970s and face the challenges of deregulation to come.

Three Swallows Pt1: Get Up & Go Ozark

26/11/2018

Ozark was St Louis's hometown airline and as with many of the local service airlines was a true pioneer of service for the regional customer. A well run and well equipped airline that proudly wore its three swallows for forty years. Its story started in 1943 when four local businessmen (two bus line operators and two attorneys) from the Ozark region of mid-west America came together to try and acquire one of the new licenses being offered by the CAB for feeder airline services.

Cuban Commandos: Aerovias Q and Cuba Aeropostal

20/11/2018

Despite almost constant political turmoil and rampant corruption Cuba was, by the mid-1950s, doing well by many measures. Accordingly, civil aviation was also flourishing and there were no less than four commercial airlines operating in the postwar period funnelling passengers and freight between the US, Mexico and Cuba. Two of these were Aerovias Q and Cuba Aeropostal but neither would long survive the Cuban revolution.

C-GRYN: 707 Voyager from OZ to Canada

13/11/2018

Charter operations in Canada have a long and colourful history and much like charter services in Europe an impressive variety of airlines have come and gone in the service of flying the masses to the sun for their summer holidays. Even so Ontario Worldair must rank as one of the more obscure airlines, but their short operational history didn’t stop one 707 from gaining over 4 and half years of flying time in Canada with them and Worldways.

Interflug 154s: East Germany’s Mysterious Trijets

31/10/2018

The Tupolev TU-154 is the most successful jet airliner that the Soviet Union ever produced. Sturdy, reliable (at least from the TU-154B onwards) and at least vaguely efficient it went on to have a production run of over 1,000 units and serve extensively with almost every country that had any kind of allegiance to the USSR. About the only exception to this was East Germany where only two TU-154s were ever entered onto the register.

Birth of a Titan: Emirates' Early Years

25/10/2018

When I first saw Emirates at London Gatwick in 1987 I would never have guessed that they would change the face of air travel and grow into a global megacarrier. Yet even in their early years they showed the spark with which they would shakeup the conservative Middle Eastern national carriers and disrupt the networks of long haul carriers like Qantas and British Airways.

Golden Light: Pan Am’s Interchange DC-8-62

20/10/2018

Usually interchange services did not outwardly impact the operations of the airlines taking part in them, since although aircraft were shared across the entire route the airlines were comfortable leaving the paint scheme of the planes involved as standard. Since the aircraft were not dedicated to the service this made sense as it enabled them to easily move back onto normal services. Occasionally however the interchange concept enabled the creation of a unique combination of aircraft and airline.

Interchanges: Through Plane Service in the Regulated Era

16/10/2018

Nowadays if you are an airline operating within the US domestic market and you wish to serve a route pair you simply do just that, after relatively little fuss and bother, but prior to 1978, when the US market was regulated by the Civil Aeronautics Bureau (CAB), starting new routes was a marathon process. Indeed, most of the time getting permission to start a new route, especially if there was any competition involved, was a non-starter. Whence the regulated period threw up a selection of idiosyncratic practices that made sense then but look a bit weird today. One of these was the concept of interchange services.

Jet Clipper Eights: Pan Am DC-8-30s

11/10/2018

The battle between the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 was yet another of the classic duels between competing manufacturers during the 1950s. In the end Boeing would be the winner but a portion of the responsibility for this must like with the mercurial Pan American that initially had ordered both types.

Crash Course: Egypt’s Soviet Adventure

4/10/2018

Since independence Egypt has had a volatile history, which included a period where ties with the Soviet Union grew stronger. It also however coincided with a time when you had to be brave to fly the national airline at all and the number of aircraft, both Soviet and Western that it crashed was quite staggering. Here I take a look at how Soviet types fared flying from Cairo.

Mexicana's Unique Liveries Pt2: 1993-1996

16/9/2018

The reimagination of Mexicana's image from 1991 onwards had been a great success but unfortunately in the highly competitive deregulated Mexican aviation market Mexicana couldn't really support the cost outlay of such a programme. As financial realities hit the new liveries were gradually scaled back, however there was still plenty of colour to come.

Mexicana's Unique Liveries Pt1: 1989-1993

13/9/2018

The deregulation of the Mexican domestic market in late 1988 was to provide both opportunities and pitfalls for Mexicana, which, as with its competitors, lurched from famine to feast as the Mexican economy likewise lurched from boom to bust. Nonetheless the period also provided huge amounts of interest for the aviation enthusiast as new competitors arose and Mexicana itself underwent a startling albeit short-lived metamorphosis.

Aviacsa Pt2: Pakal Falls

6/9/2018

Aviacsa entered into the 21st Century as Mexico’s leading private airline and a serious competitive force to the nationalised Mexicana and Aeroméxico. Unfortunately it was not able to establish itself as a permanent fixture due to its inability to finance fleet replacement and compete as a low cost rather than a low fares airline with the new breed of LCCs in Mexico such as Interjet and Volaris. Within 10 years Pakal would be dethroned.

Aviacsa Pt1: Pakal Expands

29/8/2018

Consorcio Aviacsa, S.A. de C.V. (commonly known as Aviacsa) grew from a struggling small regional airline into Mexico’s 3rd largest carrier during the first decade of deregulation, as competitors failed and Mexico’s economy see-sawed from feast to famine. Despite having regular issues with corruption and finances by 2000 it had survived and grown as a proud private Mexican airline still holding on to its Southern roots with King Pakal on its tails and a smile firmly on its face.

Cathay Cargo Pt2: 747-8Fs for the Future

18/8/2018

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.