Throwbacks

Pacific Wings was founded in 1974 as Air Nevada. The carrier, based in Las Vegas, originally offered on-demand charter services using dual engine Cessna 402s. Like many small carriers in the Las Vegas area, flights involved charters to the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam. Four years after launch, the airline began scheduled services to Grand […]

Founded in 1968, Indonesian carrier Sempati Air under the name PT Sempati Air Transport was born. At the start. the airline offered transportation for oil workers rather than regularly scheduled passenger operations. However, soon afterwards, following the acquisition of the F-27 aircraft and additional DC-3s, Sempati Air launched passenger service to Kuala Lumpur, Manila, and […]

With the start of the Airline Deregulation Act in 1978, airports across the Midwest weren’t expecting too much in terms of growth. However, the ability for new airlines to appear became a common idea. Comair was created in 1977 by a group of investors interested in making Cincinnati (CVG) a hub airport. Operations started in […]

In Russia the aviation landscape is dominated by Aeroflot. The majority state owned carrier has been the flag carrier for Russia since their incorporation with the USSR in 1923. Until the fall of the Soviet Union, Aeroflot and her subsidiaries had a near monopoly on the Russian aviation market. However as the USSR began to […]

With the rise of air travel in the 1930s, airports started appearing around the Soviet Union for military and commercial purposes. Along with the new airports came rising levels of air travel and the creation of Vladivostok Air. The airline started as a hydroplane corporation with flights between Vladivostok and Khabarovsk starting on August 27, […]

Jamaica has always been a popular destination in the Caribbean. However, the country has primarily relied on the sea to bring people to the island. In the 1960s, as aviation was becoming more popular the government of Jamaica faced a decision. They could either invest in British West Indian Airlines, based in Trinidad and Tobago, […]

Founded in 1947 as Rimouski Airlines, Canadian airline Quebecair took its name in 1953 when the company merged with Gulf Aviation, and would grow to serve numerous cities across Canada over the next several decades. Their hub was based in Quebec until 1957, when Montreal became their main operating base. In their early years, the […]

With an expanding Indonesian economy in the early 2000s, the Indonesian aviation community saw quite a few new airlines arise, on of which was Adam Air. Adam Air was formed as a privately owned commercial airline by Agung Laksono in 2003 as a way to provide a cheaper alternative to other airlines like Gaurda Indonesia […]

In late October 1994, a group of private investors founded British Mediterranean Airways (BMED) to operate services from the British Isles to the Mediterranean. The airline operated an Airbus A320 on a route from London’s Heathrow to Beirut, Lebanon. The airline quickly found success in their routes to leisure markets, and the next year, routes […]

Established in 1953, Indian was set up as Indian Airlines Corporation, formed from the merger of eight domestic airlines; Kalinga Airlines, Indian National Airways, Airways India, Bharat Airways, Himalayan Aviation, Deccan Airways, Air Services of India, and Air India’s domestic branch. The new airline obtained 99 aircraft from the airlines involved in the merge, including numerous DC-3s, […]