TBT

Dutch Antilles Express, also known as DAE, dates back to 2003 when the airline consisted of various smaller carriers inside one parent company. The parent company, named Exel Aviation, started operation in 2003 with BonairExel with a single ATR 42 to operate within the Netherland’s Antilles. The airline quickly became profitable, adding an Embraer ERJ-145 […]

Similar to Michael Scott and the rest of the cast from the hit television show The Office, Midwest Airlines started from a paper company. In 1948 the Kimberly-Clark Corporation opened a corporate flight department to transport employees and executives between the company’s headquarters in Eastern Wisconsin and the company’s paper mills across the country. The […]

Founded in 1995, Eastwind Airlines was short-lived and maintained a small fleet of only five airplanes. Known by their call sign, “Stinger,”  the bee-themed airline experienced several major events that shaped the course of their history, alongside the multitude of problems that ultimately led to their bitter end. In August 1995, Eastwind took flight using […]

In 1968, with the Airline Deregulation Act in its tenth year, small local carriers across the United States were feeling the pressure of larger carriers that were rapidly invading their markets. In an effort to combat the intense pressure from the large carriers, Airwest was born. The carrier was formed from three smaller carriers originating […]

The success of Ryanair in Europe has lead many groups around the world to attempt to copy their business style, with most having lackluster results. One of these airlines was Skybus Airlines in the United States. Founded in 2004, the airline attempted to use low fares and no frills to fly routes that other airlines […]

Prior to Caribbean Airlines’s dominance of the Caribbean market in recent years, another Trinidad and Tobago carrier used to own the title of being one of the biggest island fliers. Its name was British West Indian Airways, or BWIA for short. BWIA dates back to 1939, when New Zealander and World War I pilot Lowell […]

Pacific Southwest Airlines had humble beginnings in 1949. Kenny Freidkin founded the airline using a single DC-3. With knowledge from a previous attempt to start an airline and help from local travel agents, Freidkin began service between Oakland and San Diego with a stop in Burbank. The airline used war surplus buildings as a ticket […]

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 in their history. This was […]

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 Stapleton Airport and changed the […]

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 decided to try again, and […]