Was going through an old box of system timetables that I collected over the years and found some for North American airlines I had forgotten even existed - Pennsylvania Airlines, Tennessee Airways, Pilgrim Airlines, Britt Airways, Wright Air Lines, and Altair. Does anyone have any recollections of flying on these carriers?? My favorite is a Southwest schedule dated February 15,1983 - its complete route map shows flights concentrated in Texas, but not extending beyond New Orleans to the east, Kansas City to the north, and San Francisco to the west! How times have changed...

This isn't exactly in line with what you're looking for, but here is a 'forgotten airline' that's still flying: Island Airways http://www.islandairways.com/ They fly between Beaver Island and Charlevoix in Michigan using Britten-Norman Islanders. It might be fun to take a flight with them to get the feeling of one of those small, obscure local airlines flying tiny planes that seem to be overlooked by even hardcore airline geeks.

One of the "we're-in-we're-outta-here" airlines to fly into BFL was Air L.A. At first there were just a couple of daily flights, and then for a brief period of time, nearly every flight seemed to fly through BFL. For a very short time, BFL was kind of a hub. And then in a couple of months, they were gone. I have absolutely no memory of the airline's logo, and there are certainly no photos in the database here, and even a Google image search comes up with a USAir logo. Only Wikipedia has information on it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_L.A.

VLM/Cityjet is heading that way. It used to be big, now it's offspring is a obsecure airline flying out of Maribor of alle places.Even though they seem to have ceased operation, I wouldn't be surprised if the name is used again.

Down inn SE.Asia:
Thailand:
PBAir
Phuket Air
Skystar Airlines
Air Siam
Malaysia:
FlyAsianXpress
Indonesia:
Sempati Air
Bayu Air
Mandala
Merpati Nusantara Airlines
Philippines:
Zest Air
Asian Spirit
Cambodia:
Kampuchea Airlines
Siem Reap Air

LAP Lineas Aereas Paraguayas.

I remember them flying at the beginning of the 90s on DC10s FRA MAD ASU.

Eastern Provincial Airways is long gone. I think I flew them around 81 or 82 for my first flight.

Air Oregon
Cascade
AFS
TransWestern
Colorado Airlines (I think it was called)
Empire (based in Coeur d'Alene, ID)
Sunworld

I have a CO schedule just after they merged with Texas International. The route map shows both airline's routes.

I can't seem to think of any...

Muse Air/TranStar. I never flew them as they ceased operations before I was born but my dad had a model of a Muse Air MD-80 when I was a kid. He used to fly them out of Tulsa all the time for work in the 1980s. Southwest acquired them in the mid 80's and phased them out by 1987.

Also, there was an airline called Jet Train that only operated a single DC-9 in the 80's or 90's for a few years. It's almost impossible to find information on this defunct airline.

KentB27 wrote:

Muse Air/TranStar. I never flew them as they ceased operations before I was born but my dad had a model of a Muse Air MD-80 when I was a kid. He used to fly them out of Tulsa all the time for work in the 1980s. Southwest acquired them in the mid 80's and phased them out by 1987.

Also, there was an airline called Jet Train that only operated a single DC-9 in the 80's or 90's for a few years. It's almost impossible to find information on this defunct airline.

I flew PSA to LAX in 1986 and saw TranStar. I always thought they were painted beautifully! I did a Google search for Jet Train and it looks like there are three pics on this site.

East West Airlines in India......first private airline in India.....1991 to 1996...small fleet of 737-200s and Fokker F27s

How about Holiday Airlines. They flew into TVL from SJC, OAK, BUR, and LAX with Electras in the early 1970s.

When they went under, Air California and PSA started TVL service with Electras.

I flew Transwestern between SLC and LGU in the early 1980's. They were bought by Horizon I believe but never went back to Logan.

I also flew Royal Hawaiian from Kaanapali to Kona in 1979.

And yes this is my first post after 12 years. I forgot I joined. I do enjoy reading everyone's contributions.

I vaguely remember Jet Train advertising, but they were gone before I got a chance to fly them.
I also recall Interstate Jet, serving SWF to LAS with a stop somewhere.

I flew an early 90's version of SkyBus from EWR-FLL and the return was FLL-SFB-EWR. I had never heard of Sanford before. lol

I flew a Cityjet MD-11 to BRU, I forget if it was EWR or JFK, but I know it was $200 roundtrip and my first trip across the pond.

around the same time I flew with Western Pacific on one of their Mystery Flights. I think that was $200 roundtrip. We ended up being booked into SFO, but COS was fogged in and they diverted their whole connecting bank to DEN and busing pax to COS. It was a madhouse!

spinkid wrote:

I vaguely remember Jet Train advertising, but they were gone before I got a chance to fly them.
I also recall Interstate Jet, serving SWF to LAS with a stop somewhere.

I flew an early 90's version of SkyBus from EWR-FLL and the return was FLL-SFB-EWR. I had never heard of Sanford before. lol

I flew a Cityjet MD-11 to BRU, I forget if it was EWR or JFK, but I know it was $200 roundtrip and my first trip across the pond.

around the same time I flew with Western Pacific on one of their Mystery Flights. I think that was $200 roundtrip. We ended up being booked into SFO, but COS was fogged in and they diverted their whole connecting bank to DEN and busing pax to COS. It was a madhouse!

You probably mean CITYBIRD, not CityJet ...

lonhahn wrote:

And yes this is my first post after 12 years. I forgot I joined. I do enjoy reading everyone's contributions.

So after 12 years you didn't feel like contributing yourself other than making a point of mentioning that you haven't posted in 12 years, very strange to say the least!

masgniw wrote:

I can't seem to think of any...

You must be at least five years old then!

To the OP there are absolutely hundreds and hundreds of airlines from the past with some long forgotten and some still remembered with great affection the list would be absolutely endless.

For my part I will only add one airline.

Long gone and definitely not forgotten is British Caledonian Airways a major British airline that was purchased and merged into British Airways just over thirty years ago in July 1988.

Netherlines was a small dutch airline.
NLM the predecessor of KLM CityHopper
ALM carrier from the Dutch Antilles

Flanker7 wrote:

Netherlines was a small dutch airline.
NLM the predecessor of KLM CityHopper
ALM carrier from the Dutch Antilles

NLM was formed in 1964 as a KLM subsidiary using two F27s leased from the Royal Dutch Air Force to operate domestic flights within the Netherlands.

The addition of the words City Hopper were added in 1968 and the airline received it's first jet aircraft the F28 in 1978 when it started RTM to LHR.

Netherlines which was owned by the Nedlloyd Group flying Saab 340s merged with NLM City Hopper which was a subsidiary of KLM in 1991 to form KLM City Hopper.

ALM was formed on the 01 August 1964 after the conversion of KLM West Indies Division, the airline operated as part of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines but the Antillean Government purchased 96% of the airline in 1971 and it became an Antilles state owned company.

Early in 1991 KLM reinvested in ALM with minor shares but the company eventually fell into difficulties and ceased operations in 2001.

The Dutch aviation scene has always been an interesting one and former airlines also include the following,

Air Holland
KLM Excel
Schreiner Airways
V-Bird

For a rather small country during the mid seventies to mid eighties the Netherlands had quite an active aviation scene with the likes of KLM (A310, B747, DC8, DC9, DC10) NLM (F27, F28) Martinair (A310, B747, DC9, DC10, MD82) Transavia (B707, B737, Caravelle) Netherlines (S340).

FlySSC wrote:

spinkid wrote:

I vaguely remember Jet Train advertising, but they were gone before I got a chance to fly them.


I flew a Cityjet MD-11 to BRU, I forget if it was EWR or JFK, but I know it was $200 roundtrip and my first trip across the pond.

!

You probably mean CITYBIRD, not CityJet ...

Yes, I did. Thanks for the correction.

Dan Air came to mind.

I flew PAN AM JFK-GIG-EZE B747, Republic Airlines MIA-MEM DC9, Eastern Airlines EZE-GIG DC10, Northwest Airlines MEM-MIA B757, Canadian Airlines EZE-YYZ-FCO B767, Varig EZE-GIG-LHR DC10, Cruzeiro GIG-EZE A300, Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano EZE-VVI-MIA B727, LADECO YUL-SCL B757 , Air Afrique ABJ-FCO DC10, Nigeria Airways LOS-ABJ B737, Air Inter ORY-LYS Dassault Mercure , UTA TIP-CDG DC8, SWISSAIR EZE-ZRH DC10, Olympic Airways ATH-TIP B707.

When it first opened London City Airport was not popular with the big boys and the early flights were operated by London City Airways and Brymon Airlines, both of which are no more. Both ended up through mergers and absorbtion effectively being succeeded by British Airways and their LCY based subsidiary BA City Flyer.

Flanker7 wrote:

Dan Air came to mind.

My first ever flight!

Where do I start?
Post-USSR, Soviet Aeroflot, a.k.a. MAG (Ministry of Civil Aviation) of USSR separated into its constituent parts -- each Unified Aviation Enterprise (i.e. base airport, fleet, and personnel) became a separate airline. Internationally, they got collective nickname Babyflots. The name "Aeroflot" was grabbed by Sheremetyevo-based fleet, Moscow, Russia.

In Russia, these Babyflots were numerous, and most of them went away by now: Domodedovo Airlines, Vnukovo Airlines, Pulkovo Airlines (lives on inside Rossiya), KrasAir, Cheboksary Airways, Dalavia, Perm Air, Air Tatarstan, Bashkir Airlines, Orenair, Kuban' Airlines, hundreds of them! Variety at the airports was astounding. Reliability -- not so much.

Carnival Air Lines, flew them only once, shortly after the merger (acquisition by PA2). PSE-BQN-JFK-BQN-PSE, all Y A300, it was like a sea of never ending seats. Delayed flights in both PSE and BQN, I recall irate and screaming passengers due to the delay. On the return flight they ran out of catering asking people whether they wanted a meal or not, the tag between BQN and PSE had like 20 pax at most (on an A300). They seemed to have their act together until the PA2 acquisition, at least their flights seemed to operate on time until that time.

Flew ATA a few times, mostly on the 753. They were very popular on the SJU-MCO run, never had a negative experience with them. Crews were your typical US crews, not very friendly but not exactly mean. Got you to your destination in one piece and on time. Exactly what you paid for.

Quickie in-outs from the 90's and 00's In Canada : Greyhound Air, Roots Air, Royal, to a lesser degree Skyservice

My very first flight was in 1967 ORD/LAX on AA and we connected to SNA on Bonanza Airlines

During a few years in the early to mid 80’s.....Best Airlines. They had a pair of brightly painted DC-9-15’s that flew multiple stop straight line routings on the east coast to mid west. I took them once from BDL to IND with brief stops in BUF and CLE along the way. A few days later the same journey in the opposite direction. The planes still had their original Ozark interior...even the safety cards still carried Ozark titles, but everything was clean and the crew was friendly. Had a very Mom and Pop feel to it.

Delete

Cunard wrote:

masgniw wrote:

I can't seem to think of any...

You must be at least five years old then!

To the OP there are absolutely hundreds and hundreds of airlines from the past with some long forgotten and some still remembered with great affection the list would be absolutely endless.

For my part I will only add one airline.

Long gone and definitely not forgotten is British Caledonian Airways a major British airline that was purchased and merged into British Airways just over thirty years ago in July 1988.

All posters, including you, have misinterpreted my inquiry. I asked "Does anyone have any recollections of flying on THESE carriers??" I never implied that I wanted a list of all defunct airlines anyone has flown on or heard of, although the replies have been very interesting...

USAfrica Airways and Skybus are two that come to mind.

Vision Airlines scheduled service was pretty short-lived.

Rich International

Planet Airways

Suncoast Airlines

Southeast Airlines (I'm surprised they actually lasted 5 years)

Eastwind

Shuttle America branded operation

Ozark II

Great Plains Airlines

Jet America

Independence Air

PennPal wrote:

Cunard wrote:

masgniw wrote:

I can't seem to think of any...

You must be at least five years old then!

To the OP there are absolutely hundreds and hundreds of airlines from the past with some long forgotten and some still remembered with great affection the list would be absolutely endless.

For my part I will only add one airline.

Long gone and definitely not forgotten is British Caledonian Airways a major British airline that was purchased and merged into British Airways just over thirty years ago in July 1988.

All posters, including you, have misinterpreted my inquiry. I asked "Does anyone have any recollections of flying on THESE carriers??" I never implied that I wanted a list of all defunct airlines anyone has flown on or heard of, although the replies have been very interesting...

That's all well and done but it's quite obvious that all those posters including myself had read your headline which is titled

Forgotten (?) Airlines

If you had actually described your headline title in a more appropriate fashion such as

'Recollections of Forgotten Airlines'

I think that you would have had the replies that you were actually looking for.

Everyone reads the headline title and I suggest that in future you make them a bit more descriptive when starting a post otherwise the scenario will probably be the same!

What actually surprises me is that it has taken you this long to actually explain this to myself and everyone that has posted in what is a thread which was started by yourself.

Have you not been reading your own thread up until this point?

If you had done you should have made your point a lot sooner shouldn't you and nipped in the bud long before everyone got carried away listing former 'forgotten' airlines so I'm afraid that your totally misleading headline title is to blame for our errors.

Cunard wrote:

That's all well and done but it's quite obvious that all those posters including myself had read your headline which is titled

Forgotten (?) Airlines

If you had actually described your headline title in a more appropriate fashion such as

'Recollections of Forgotten Airlines'

I think that you would have had the replies that you were actually looking for.

Everyone reads the headline title and I suggest that in future you make them a bit more descriptive when starting a post otherwise the scenario will probably be the same!

What actually surprises me is that it has taken you this long to actually explain this to myself and everyone that has posted in what is a thread which was started by yourself.

Have you not been reading your own thread up until this point?

If you had done you should have made your point a lot sooner shouldn't you and nipped in the bud long before everyone got carried away listing former 'forgotten' airlines so I'm afraid that your totally misleading headline title is to blame for our errors.

Ditto.

Anyway, if it's about recollections, then here we go:

Cheboksary Airways, Russia -- ruined my suit, when chewing gum, glued to the lower part of the armrest, first found my trousers, and then jacket. Tu-134

KrasAir, Russia -- unassigned seating on their flight; the leg to Moscow, that I booked, was the final leg of a milk run, and all passengers boarding for the final leg, had the lowest priority. To add insult, they let us leave the bus and start climbing the stairs, and only then realized that one passenger from the previous leg was missing. The boarding process stopped, we were in the open, the bus left, and we were waiting until they found the missing passenger. Did I mention that it was raining cats and dogs, and umbrellas had to be checked-in (happened just after 9/11, so aviation security people, in Russia as well, went nuts, inventing limitations)? Anyway, to add injury to insult, the only available seat, when I climbed on board, was broken. Goes without saying that half of the plane (at least the one near me) decided to celebrate flying with copious amount of drink. 5 hours of lying in a broken seat, surrounded a continuously more drunk crowd, was fun. Tu-154.

Tatarstan Air (or Air Tatarstan, sorry cannot be sure), Russia -- passport checks upon arrival, on a domestic Russian flight. And all of that, following extensive passport and security checks pre-departure. Made you wonder, if Tatarstan was really that much a part of Russia. An-24

SibirAviaTrans/SIAT, Russia -- flew them from Barnaul, and Barnaul at that time was a very quiet airport -- one flight per day to Moscow, and the other (and maybe not every day) SIAT departure to Krasnoyarsk. The process itself was very memorable, with a lot of people involved in running the airport and servicing this single An-24 (48 seats); I would gather more people were visibly (opposed to those, who also worked on it, but were less noticeable) involved in getting us boarded and flying, than passengers themselves. An-24

seb146 wrote:

KentB27 wrote:

Muse Air/TranStar. I never flew them as they ceased operations before I was born but my dad had a model of a Muse Air MD-80 when I was a kid. He used to fly them out of Tulsa all the time for work in the 1980s. Southwest acquired them in the mid 80's and phased them out by 1987.

Also, there was an airline called Jet Train that only operated a single DC-9 in the 80's or 90's for a few years. It's almost impossible to find information on this defunct airline.

I flew PSA to LAX in 1986 and saw TranStar. I always thought they were painted beautifully! I did a Google search for Jet Train and it looks like there are three pics on this site.

Agree, I was flying out of Love field in those
years and I thought the Transtar livery was stunning, still one of the best I’ve seen


I think that Uzbekistan has a similar look in their VIP aircraft

How could Braniff be left out of this list ?


Talk about colorful


I never flew on the original carrier, did ride on version 2.0 which was ok but, like most attempts to resurrect airlines that had ‘died hard’ it would have been better to let them rest !