Intra-State Airlines of the United States

During the deregulated era the only area of civil aviation where competition was allowed was internally within a State as the CAB only had jurisdiction over inter-state and international airline operations. Relatively few airlines attempted to enter the intra-state market on anything other than commuter operations but those that did proved to be popular, dynamic and often very profitable. Intra-State airline development centred primarily on three states California, Texas and Florida. Increasingly during the 1960s and 1970s the intra-state airlines fought successfully against the Trunk and Local service airlines with such success that they forced mergers upon the CAB (for example the Air West tri-merger could be seen to be partly the result of PSA's success against Pacific Air Lines).

As deregulation began, after 1978, it was natural for the low-cost and flexible intra-state airlines to expand into the inter-state market and even international services. Though initially successful they were susceptible to over-expansion and absorption by the majors. Only Southwest Airlines survived into the 1990s and it has fundamentally changed the way the US market operates with its methods.

Here is a list of the primary inter-state airlines of the regulated era:

California

Air California (later AirCal) - see their genealogy here
Pacific Southwest Airlines - see their genealogy here

Florida

Air Florida - see their genealogy here

Texas

Southwest Airlines - see their genealogy here