[caption id="attachment_1097" align="alignleft" width="300"] A TWA Lockheed Constellation | Photo provided by WikiMedia[/caption] TWA, one of the oldest airlines, ceased operations on Dec. 1, 2001, after nearly 76 years. Founded on July 13, 1925 as Western Air Express, it merged with Transcontinental Air Transport just five years later, causing the name to change to Transcontinental & Western Air, or T&WA. It was originally founded to transport air mail, but it soon extended far past it's intended purpose. [caption id="attachment_1099" align="alignright"…
Western Pacific Airlines, also known as WestPac for short, was a small Colorado airlines known for using their planes as billboards. The airline started in Colorado Springs in 1995 with eight Boeing 737-300 planes under the name Commercial Air. Soon after launch, Oklahoma millionaire and owner of Gaylord Hotels founder…
EXTRA: Read part one of our look back at Continental The 90s brought major changes to Continental. Frank Lorenzo resigned as president, in 1990, after 18 years in charge. He also sold his controlling share to Scandinavian Air System (SAS). Shortly after, Continental filed for bankruptcy for the second time…
Continental, originally Varney Speed Services, started out like many airlines from the 1930s, carrying mail for the United States Postal service. With a focus on the Southwestern United States and new mail routes, Robert Six bought the Southwest division of Varney. In 1937, he moved the airline's headquarters to Denver…
USA 3000, originally known as Brendan Airways, was a small airline formed in 2001 as a way of flying cheap flights from the northeast to the Caribbean. USA3000 officially launched on December 28, 2001 with their first flight from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Cancun, Mexico. USA3000 did most of their early…
Charter airlines are often overlooked in the aviation world. They operate irregular schedules on unusual routes. One of the more successful charter operators was Champion Air. Til their demise in early 2008 the airline provided service for sports teams, tour operators, and the United States government. The airline began was…
In the early 2000s, Delta and other legacy carriers had a major headache to deal with: budget carriers. Airlines such as Southwest and jetBlue had started to dominate the Florida and other leisure markets and steal passengers from Delta. After Delta's failed Delta Express model in the 1990s, the airline…
America West was formed in 1983 in Phoenix, Arizona using a fleet of three Boeing 737-200s that were leased. America West operated mostly West Coast flights with their farthest flight being to Kansas City. The airline saw major success in their 1983, quickly adding eight more Boeing 737-200s to 13…
Northwest Airways was founded in 1926 in Detroit, Michigan. Their main focus was to transport mail and established a route between Minneapolis and Chicago. During this early part of Northwest’s history, the airline focused on expanding to smaller cities in the Midwest, with a route to Calgary becoming the airlines…
