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.
Both the above models by Aeroclassics in 1:400 Scale
Bob Six’s Continental Airlines was heavily involved in operations in the Pacific during the 1960s to support the war in South-east Asia. Not only were Continental’s Boeing 707s regularly utilized on cargo and troop transportation duties but they were actually the most common civilian visitors to Saigon’s Tan Son Nhat airport. In 1965 Continental set up a subsidiary operation, Continental Air Services (CASI), with which it used a wide range of aircraft types including C-47s and C-46s to fly operations for the US government, USAID and CIA in support of the wars in Vietnam and Laos.
A Continental Air Services Porter in Laos
Flag of the TTPI
Alongside his patriotism Six was also interested in securing future civilian routes in the Pacific and part of this included promoting services in the US controlled islands of Micronesia, at the time known as the “Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands” or TTPI. The TTPI had come into being in 1947 following the end of the Pacific War through the actions of the new United Nations. It covered a massive area, about the same as the continental United States, and consisted of six districts including a variety of cultures and island communities, often with little in common. The TTPI was administered by the USA, initially from Guam, but after 1951 from Saipan.
Map of the TTPI area (dotted) and successor states
With such a massive area, a population of 100,000 people by 1969 and very limited infrastructure the whole TTPI desperately needed air links to communicate and develop. These links had been served since 1951 by a partnership between the large supplemental airline Trans Ocean (TALOA) and the Trust Territory Air Services (the latter initially operated PBY-5A amphibians). Following TALOA's failure in 1960 Pan American took over the longer services with DC-4s while TTAS Grumman Albatrosses flew the shorter routes.
The situation came up for review in the late 1960s and after reviewing submissions from Pan Am, Northwest Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines and a new company called Air Micronesia it was the latter that won. Given Continental's close contacts with the US government it was not surprising that Air Micronesia won as Continental was a major shareholder in the new company.
At Rota in 1968. From the KIT PORTER VAN METER COLLECTION
Air Micronesia was formed as a joint venture between Continental (31%), Aloha (20%) and the United Micronesia Development Corp (49%) using Continental Airlines certificate, personnel and equipment. It quickly gained the nickname Air Mike (that was also its callsign) and started operations on May 16, 1968. The network included rights to fly a selection of island-hopping routes between Yap, Majuro, Saipan and Guam. It also included rights West, to the then American controlled island of Okinawa, and East, to Honolulu in Hawaii. Also associated with the deal were the construction of several hotels in the islands.
The initial equipment was a single Boeing 727-24C, Douglas DC-6B and a pair of Grumman Albatrosses. The propliners were required due to some of the primitive conditions available for service in the islands with the Albatrosses used to fly between Chuuk (Truk) and Pohnpei (Ponape) until a field could be built that land planes could use. The 727 was registered N2475 and had been delivered to Continental only in September 1967. It was nicknamed 'Ju-Ju' and had its underside coated with Teflon to help manage damage from using the coral runways.
The DC-6B ‘Super-Cloudmaster’ was registered N90961 and had been delivered new to Continental in January 1955. She was in fact the aircraft used in a mixed colourscheme for the Continental/United interchange route. By this time, she had been fitted with a large cargo door on her port side and, considering all of Continental’s other Douglas props were long gone by this time, it is likely she had been in service with CASI prior to Air Mike.
It had never been the intention for Air Mike to use the piston propliners for long, however N90961 continued in service until 1972, although she wasn’t returned to the USA until 1975. Air Micronesia had put a lot of effort into upgrading the airfields in its network to allow jet ops with the 727s and gradually the fleet of short 727s expanded with a pair of ex-Southern Air Transport 727-92Cs joining. N18476 joined in 1973 followed by N18479 in November 1979.
English: TTPI(Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands) Headquarters日本語: 太平洋諸島信託統治領政府, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Unfortunately N18479 was destroyed not long after on Friday 21 November 1980 in a crash landing at Yap. Fortunately there were no casualties and Air Micronesia's growth was seemingly unaffected. In fact, 727-224s began to join the airline in 1981, leased as per usual from Continental, and Tokyo Haneda, Japan had begun being served direct from Saipan in 1978.
An Air Mike 727-224 at Tokyo
The 1984 Route System
The 727s being Combis had the welcome ability to ship freight in the forward part of the cabin. They provided a lifeline to the people of the TTPI and enabled the islands to connect to new Asian markets. Even so, by the end of the 1970s the people of the TTPI were yearning for independence and the TTPI itself would finally be dissolved in 1986. The resulting sovereign states were:
The fourth section of the old TTPI became the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, which remains a territory of the USA.
The result of the breakup of the TTPI was that the importance of Saipan, its old capital, diminished and Guam's importance increased, but Air Micronesia was also impacted by the upheavals Frank Lorenzo and deregulation had brought to its partner Continental Airlines. Even so, reorganised the airline would thrive into the 1990s and introduce widebodies to its fleet.
Above: The flags of the 4 modern TTPI components
Check out this impressive old video for a lot more on the early history of Air Micronesia:
For part 2 of this story see: References Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. Wikipedia 1972. Davies R.E.G. Airlines of the United States since 1914 Air Micronesia. RZjets.net
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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
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