Throwbacks

Delta once maintained a strong presence in Frankfurt, Germany. A relic of Pan Am, the airline also flew from Frankfurt to several European markets.

In the early months of 2001, low-cost competition was heating up in Canada. WestJet had started operations a few years ago in 1996 and was growing quickly. Discount airline Canada 3000 had been a charter operator in Canada for many years but began offering scheduled flights in May of 2001. The world was also seeing […]

On November 30, 1988, Air Europa performed its first transatlantic service in a twin-engine aircraft. It is 34 years since this operation marked an important milestone in being the first Spanish airline to perform an ETOPS flight. The ETOPS (Extended-range Twin-engine Operations Performance Standards) regulation was issued in 1985 and gathered the necessary requirements that […]

Zuliana De Aviacion was a Venezuelan airline formed in 1985 and based in the city of Maracaibo, Venezuela. Initially starting out as a cargo airline, it later started passenger flights. In addition to several domestic routes, the airline expanded into Colombia as well as started international flights to the U.S. with a route to Miami. […]

In the mid-1960s, Swiss entrepreneur Karl Jakob Rüdin was interested in branching out and creating a vacation getaway in Kenya that would create a complete getaway with the company taking care of everything for passengers along the way. The tour operator, called African Safari Club, would be founded in 1967 and would start with their […]

Western Airlines had a long and storied history spanning six decades. Like many early airlines, the carrier was founded with a mail contract and tasked with transporting mail for the government. In the early days of aviation, the U.S. Postal Service helped to provide the founding of numerous airlines. The time and speed saved by […]

A few months after PLUNA’s demise and liquidation, Uruguayan aviation was lacking a flag carrier and, most importantly, a strategy. There were a couple of private operators that jumped right into the extinct carrier’s routes. Former Pluna employees were bound to migrate to new companies, but a small group aimed for something higher. A company […]

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the newly-formed Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region of Europe would become a melting pot of new privatized airlines looking to capitalize on new markets and untapped services inside these newly independent nations. This trend would see airline rise in fall in the 1990s and early 2000s, one […]

Over the years Richard Branson and the Virgin Group have built an empire that spans the globe. Included in his empire has been multiple airlines, including the group’s flagship airline Virgin Atlantic. In the early 2000s, the Virgin Group and Richard Branson set its sights on conquering the skies above the United States. In 2004, […]

In the controversial 1990s, Argentina’s economy experienced a boom, a boom that can be only compared with its catastrophic awakening in the 2000s. We can say the same thing about Southern Winds, an Argentinian carrier that lasted nine years and whose incredible growth was just a buildup for its demise. Founded in 1996 with financial […]