Unforgotten: Airlines of the Past

Small point: Many if not most of the airlines mentioned are still here in spirit, in the form of mergers. Ask around to employees of Delta, American, United, even Southwest...

A couple of quick comments. Trans-Texas was frequently referred to as Trans-Treetops for some of the smaller commuter flights, and World airlines was also a favorite of the military transport groups for U.S. to overseas movement of both service members and their families.

Excellent read! Thank you for the memories :)

They missed a couple:
Midway
North Central - Republic

I was flying Pan Am and TWA into late 80's. I used to work in West Berlin, and there were only a few airlines available. The 4 powers treaty only allowed airlines from France, Britain and the USA to fly into West Berlin. Pan Am and TWA operated the US Airlines, British Airways represented the UK, and Air France / Euroberlin represented France. My Pan Am experience was that if you were sitting in the rear of their 737, you probably wouldn't get service, as the fight was less than an hour in duration. Great memories.

Excellent article. I have fond memories of flying on many of those airlines, both for business and pleasure! I had memorable flights on an Eastern L-1011 and on a Prinair flight between San Juan and St. Thomas. I loved the colorful planes of Braniff and the luxury of leather seats. And I marveled at the comfort of flying on Republic in an old DC-3 between Chicago and Kalamazoo, Michigan. Big comfy seats! What a change today, flying cramped in coach in one of the major carriers!

Back in about 1987, I did fly on Peoples Express from Tucson to Newark to Detroit. I got my girlfriend and me on the plane with prepaid tickets. Soon after the initial takeoff, the stewards asked for our flight receipts and other passengers were asked for money to pay for their flight! I have no idea what they did against the freeloaders. Have them work it off in Newark? Of turn them over to the police?
We may have been uninformed or stupid to change planes in Newark. We enjoyed Christmas snow at my parent's home north of Detroit. We learned how to clear the driveway with the new snowblower. Watch which way the wind is blowing the airborne snow. No periscopes or face masks.
Excellent article, I agree.

Loved Western. Changed a flight from United to Western from SFO to SEA. Flew Northwest to and fro on military contract flights from McChord to Korea in 60's and 70's. Last military flight out of Korea was on Flying Tigers DC-8. Loved Continental. Think their B727's were one of the most beautiful planes ever. Never cared for Pan Am much. Braniff and National were ok. Same with Frontier and Hughes. Had a Continental military flight divert into Osan once because of fog at Kimpo. One thing I remember about all of them was the beauty of the Stewardesses and their professionalism.

The article mentions Midwest Express only in passing, but I have fond memories of 2x2 leather seats and fresh-baked cookies during flight. Ah, the aroma!

I have a soft spot in my heart for PSA. As a college student in northern California in the early 70's with parents in southern California, I have fond memories of their late night, $20 first-come-first-served service from SFO to LAX (or maybe Burbank?). If I recall correctly, their operations resulted in a plane "stranded" at the end of the day at SFO that needed to be shuttled back to LA, and somebody got the bright idea of selling seats on the flight. You'd arrive around 10, get in line, get a ticket and away you'd go around midnight. What a great deal!

Tangential story: I *think* it was one of these flights where the flight was delayed for quite some time. Finally, they loaded us up on a bus that took us out to a Lockheed Constellation for our flight. I don't have any idea how that came about, but it was pretty cool to fly in that old plane.

Anyway, when US Air took over PSA, they immediately screwed it up with terrible customer service, vastly overbooking flights and generating tremendous ill-will. Friends of mine and I were doing a lot of travel up and down California at the time, and we quickly learned to avoid Useless Air at all costs. If I recall correctly, Southwest cleaned USAir's clock in that market, and Useless was gone in a year.

Excellent memory flogger!
A shout out to my former 70's employer at KONT, Golden West Airlines, formerly Cable Commuter, formerly Aero Commuter. Their main equipment was the DHC-6 Twin Otter, along with the Shorts SD-330 and the Dash 7.

Capital Airlines flew Lockeed Electras between Detroit and Cleveland. I lived near Detroit and attended university near Cleveland. I would occasionally come home for long weekends or holidays. My dad had the choice of driving round trip to take me back to school or pony up $11 and dump me off at Metro. A grueling 10 hour drive versus $11 from his poker stash was an easy decision.

Having worked for Continental Airlines (66-69), and Pan Am (70-91), this finely written article brought back many memories of not only CO and PA, but the others as well. I'm looking forward to reading Part 2.

Getting nostalgic here...

One of my most memorable trips was from Cleveland to Abaco Bahamas. My father-in law made the flight arrangements and my wife and I took a regular commercial flight from Newark to West Palm Beach FL then a small commuter to Abaco. The stop in Newark was surreal. No terminal just a big hangar-like building with a huge mass of humanity trying to figure out what to do and where to go. The Florida to Abaco leg was interesting as well. Sitting in the two engine prop plane (with a number of instruments labeled "inoperable") waiting for the flight crew when a guy pops in thru the cockpit window and says "here's your safety briefing: If anything goes wrong, follow me because I'll be the first one out". We landed at Marsh Harbour International Airport, where there were several wrecks in the water on the approach and one on the side of the runway and de-planed at a terminal which was about the size of a 2-car garage. What a trip!

wow Thankyou for the Memories these wonderful Aircraft built the future for world Travel. Boeing 737 AND DC9's here in Australia were used as Interstate carriers with great safety records TAA Ansett were the carriers as Qantas the Flag bearer for International Flying Kangaroo still achieving long distance Records .

Before Hughes AirWest there was Bonanza airlines. I would fly on their Fairchild F 27 s from Phoenix to the LA area when as a kid we went to Disneyland. I remember the noise when sitting in the row next to the turbo props.

No mention of Air Florida out of Miami? Greatest airline family ever! We really were a family!

Article brought back some memories. Back in the mid-eighties I worked for Eastern in SLC, and my daughter worked as a flight attendant for Continental. Later in a different career and in Alaska, I flew many times on Mark Air and Wien.

I remember Trans International, and that long, interminable flight from Travis AFB to Clark AB, via Hawaii and Guam. Three years later the return trip was a Flying Tigers charter, via Guam and Hawaii. Those were single aisle trans-oceanic flights with no IFE, other than what we brought with us.

Oh the memories! Very well presented; I've bookmarked that website. Looking forward to Part two.

Lets not forget the heroes of the Aleutian Chain (Adak)Reeves Aleutian airlines. Brought our mail in some of the worst weather imaginable. Then someone missed Mohawk Airlines that was swallowed up by U.S. Air...

And, of course, Pan Am is now a railroad in New England.

Fond memories of Vanguard. Great service, great fares as I recall.

Our first flight ever was on a Continental DC-10. Was our Crew gave us a free drink, and then as we left a bottle of company branded champagne and two wine glasses with the company logo. We still have the glasses.

Now our son flies DC-10/MD-11 for FedEx. Hopefully not the same airframe we were on ** years ago.

Thanks for the post, Patrick!
Knew almost all of these airlines, flew on several.
Fond memories indeed.

Thank you Patrick, brings back memories especially Pan Am, flew them a lot from the us to the Philippines a lot, those were airlines sorry to see them go. thank you again Western airlines had a saying The only way to fly and there was a bird on the wing

Memories... Hired by Braniff in 1979, furloughed in 1981. Terminated in 1988 when I declined recall. The Flying Colors were quite a treat; best food in the industry (in First Class)!

I vividly recall flying as a young child on Southern Airways DC-3s, including an occasion when there were 13 pax on board and seven threw up. None of them in the sick sacks. Quite a flight.

No mention of Air-1. They hubed out of STL in the 80’s. All first class seating and service on updated 727’s

Great article - and a lot of great memories...

I'm still honked off about Continental being absorbed by UAL. KCLE went from being one of the best, dependable hubs anywhere to connections becoming a way of life.

One of the very best tag lines in all of advertising was Eastern's: "Eastern. The Wings of Man."

Piedmont Airlines was another staple at ATL. Their gates located directly below one of the best airport observation decks ever. You were close enough that you better pay attention to their aircraft leaving the gates! Too close to the fence and you could get a face full of fast moving dirt,debris and kerosene fumes.
many times, when arriving at the curb out in front of the terminal, you were treated by the sound of screaming Rolls-Royce Dart propeller-turbine engines. (Of course, they could also belong to one of United's Viscounts.)
A sure signal that an F-27 and later FH-227 or YS-11 was moving. They also had Martin 404's. One thing for sure is PI stayed busy at ATL. None of their aircraft stayed for long. The other thing I recall was how nice the Piedmont employees were. The were certainly efficient as well. It wasn't unusual to see six aircraft using two gates!

I won't forget the first time I saw a PI 727-100. Could hardly believe it. PI was getting competive with the big guys!
Then came the 737's. Like all the other carriers of the day those early JT-8D's put out some soot! I got used to the tails of the 727's being blackened or the fuselage aft of the wings on the 737's.
Another thing I recall is how strange the old livery looked on those new jets. When the new livery came out it looked really sharp. Especially on the 767's.

Over the years I only flew on PI three trips.An FH-227 from ATL to DCA that must have made five stops and provided a very scenic tour of North Carolina and Virginia through those large oval Windows. And then in the early 1980's a 737 from ATL to CLT x to a 727-200 CLT to TPA. I remember the 737 stopped in Tri-Cities along the way, and the 727 was full out of CLT. The surprise was a very good dinner that I thought rivaled any of the big guys of that era.

It was quite a shock when Piedmont got swallowed up by US Air.
Slowly the old Piedmont birds were repainted and the name finally disappeared,altogether.
Just like the disappearance of EA a few years later, ATL never seemed quite the same again without them.

With two major airlines closed or not performing to capacity (Jet Airways & Air India) Remainder pilots in the other existing three airlines in India (Indigo/Go Air/Spice Jet) are having tough time meeting the requisite effort of carrying the enhanced pax load & are always fatigued to say the least. Flight safety is bound to suffer in such a scenario what with the Indian Government for ever busy in fighting the unscrupulous opposition & unable to regulate Civil Aviation.

Flew to my first Army assignment in Korea on an Eastern jet (probably a DC-9) from BHM to STL connecting in ATL, then Northwest Orient 747 military charter from STL to Osan AFB via Yokota AFB. Back to the States on another Northwest 747 from Seoul to SeaTac. Flew back from Desert Shield/Desert Storm in Saudi Arabia via Frankfurt to Philadelphia on a still painted Flying Tigers 747 w/a small FedEx sticker on the side.

Don't forget, small but important,"L.A. Airways"! You could go direct from LAX to Disneyland on their S-76, helicopter!! They also flew S-55's,Twin Otters.

Having grown up in Atlanta, I have many fond memories of Eastern Air Lines. EA was Atlanta's FIRST airline and they really connected Atlanta and the Deep South with the midwest and northeast.
When I was a child in the 1950's they were by far the largest carrier at ATL. They also had a vast array of piston-powered aircraft to observe and fly on.
This eventually caused them a lot of trouble at the dawn of the Jet-age.
Due to poor planning by the head-honcho Eddie Rickenbacker, they failed to grasp the impact (along with Howard Hughes at TWA) that the jets would have on the flying public.
When other carriers were ordering jets in the mid-fifties, Rickenbacker ordered fleets of piston powered DC-7's and propeller-turbine Lockheed L-188's.
Then, when he finally ordered jets he made the monumental mistake of passing up his original fleet of (underpowered JT-3 engined) DC-8's preferring to wait until the series 20's came out with more powerful JT-4's. Delta, who was an old-time Douglas customer and a major EA competitor snatched them up and beat EA into service by a significant margin of time.

So by the late 1950's EA was still taking delivery of propeller-driven aircraft that became obsolete the moment the jets arrived. In the winter of 1960 National, who was a major competitor on the Northeast to Florida routes, leased 707's from PA and all EA got in the first winter of jets was the left-overs.
Also, the L-188's had some very serious design and teething issues to overcome and EA, who had the largest US fleet of them suffered greatly until the fleet had been modified by 1961.

In the early sixties after a long-overdue upper management change, EA really started to come on strong. They had ordered a small fleet of medium range 720's by then and became a launch customer for the highly successful 727 jets. They retired the old piston-powered aircraft and transferred some to the popular Air-Shuttle up in the northeast-corridor. New DC-8's and Dc-9s were ordered.
During "Operation Bootstrap" they really did get quite competitive. New levels of inflight service, new aircraft with new livery. Even the experience on the ground was vastly improved.
They had always been a large presence at ATL but, it took strong competition from Delta Air Lines to finally make ATL a major hub. DL taught them to "bank" their aircraft more efficiently.

Meantime, route expansion did not come easily. During the days of Government Regulation it was very hard for Eastern to expand. Even their name sounded "regional.
Meantime some major competitors grew by leaps and bounds. The last of the piston planes sold and the L-188's took over the shuttle along with DC-9's.
Orders were places for the first of the wide-bodied jets. Some 747's were leased and a whole new fleet of L-1011's was ordered. Them EA shocked the nation by make a great deal with Airbus to use their new wide-bodied twin A-300's.

When the 1980's and de-regulation dawned EA had a lot on it's plate. De-regulation really caused the long established carriers like EA to re-think their business models. Easier said then done. Braniff was one of the first major casualties. By the mid-1980's it was clear that any of the survivors were going to have to get their costs way down. Along with that came the issues with the Labor Unions.
Then there was the issue of "Corporate Raiding".
Waiting like a spider for a fly, the Corporate Raiders snatched up vulnerable established airlines either large or small.
EA fell victim to Frank Lorenzo along with Continental, Texas Air, and some other small fry.

By the time the dust settled, EA just could not hang on any longer. Torn apart by Lorenzo and the battle with the labor unions the airline finally shut down the winter of 1991.
It was a real shock. I saw it coming but like so many ATL people we were in denial.
The rows of idle EA aircraft at ATL alone were a sight to see. So many good people out of jobs as well.

So my memories of EA are very fond ones. I am glad to have known so many good EA folks from the ticket counters to the cockpit crews.The ATL maintenance base the ops office, ramp tower crew and all the good maintenance folks.

ATL has never seemed the same to me since.

Yes, obviously I flew into Charlotte, NC.

so nice to see the affection for early commercial aviation and personal recollections.

I flew on most of the former airlines, especially those that were on the East Coast. I did recently fly on a PSA retro painted American Airlines jet from Norfolk, VA to Charlotte, VA.

Eastern Airlines - one of the many companies that Donald Trump bought, destroyed and pushed into bankruptcy.

What finally killed off Pan Am was the Lockerbie bombing. TWA started a slow death with the crash of flight 800. Even though the accidents weren't the fault of the airline, people just lost confidence.