Former major airlines that don't exist anymore:

[trof]

TWA
Pan Am
Eastern
Braniff
National

President Jimmy Carter and CAB chairman Alfred E. Kahn (may his name live in infamy) 'deregulated' U.S. airlines.

Yes, prices came down for a while.
Along with customer service.

meh

[Jenoch]

1. You forgot Northwest Airlines.

[trof]

3. Yeah, there were more.

Those were just off the top of my head.

[A HERETIC I AM]

2. Add Piedmont and Chalks...

chalks being the oldest passenger airline in the world when they folded.

FWIW, Pan Am bought National.

[Blue_Tires]

28. Piedmont and Eastern were my family airlines when I was a kid...

[JanMichael]

39. From Charlotte?

My wife grew up near Park Road Shopping Center.

[Blue_Tires]

40. Norfolk, VA

Of course when my dad traveled to a conference, or if he took mom to Mexico or wherever it was Pan Am/TWA...

When I was a kid, I actually thought Pan Am and TWA were foreign airlines, since I thought you could get anywhere in the south with Piedmont, and anywhere in the USA with Eastern!

[Rhiannon12866]

45. I think I used to fly on Piedmont from Charlotte to Asheville...

My grandmother lived in Black Mountain, NC.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. I miss PSA.......it was a local California airline that is no more, either.

The planes were colorfully painted in orange and yellow (?) and the flight attendants wore sexy outfits, and were uniformly nice people.

Their prices were low, low and low! We flew up to the Bay area often with the kids.

Those were the days!

[kwassa]

14. I traveled PSA, too. They were great and cheap.

[DFW]

36. I remember them!

There must have ben some kind of discriminatory hiring practice, because their flight attendants were uniformly beautiful. After one of their 727s went down near San Diego after being hit by a private plane, the whole airline folded soon after

[KamaAina]

37. Southwest bought them out

which is why they're the dominant carrier at all California airports that are not SFO or LAX.

[pink-o]

50. USAirways bought PSA

I know this Cuz the first airline I ever worked for was US--just after they ate PSA. Most of my co-workers in SFO were old PSA and had that left-coast mellowness which made my job a joy. Unfortunately I was let go due to downsizing and now work for another airline--which I've come to love a lot. But nothing will ever be like PSA. ✈️

[KamaAina]

51. Must have been USAir back then

so why are they not the dominant carrier intrastate? Did they sell the routes to Southwest?

[pink-o]

74. They sold their routes to a lot of carriers.

And stole PSA planes for US commuter routes btwn PHL/PIT/CLT. I remember seeing a half-smile that still survived the paint job and some East Coast ramper asked us if that was a line pointing to the cargo hold. Just a statement of our tragic loss!

[cemaphonic]

42. They had a promotional hot-air balloon too.

I knew the pilot, and he was one of the nicest guys I've ever met.

[Arugula Latte]

63. I loved PSA. We flew from the Bay Area to SoCal on it.

[MrScorpio]

5. I never had a chance to fly on PAN-AM

I wanted to go to the space station

[El Supremo]

61. You could have taken TWA to the moon.

[NRaleighLiberal]

6. Midway is gone too.

[shenmue]

7. I loved Eastern

They had the best silverware to steal.

Or so I heard.

[Kaleva]

8. North Cenrtral Airlines was the airline co. that served the area where I lived

It merged with Southern Airways in 1979 to become Republic. Republic merged with Northwest Orient Airlines in 1986 to become Northwest Airlines. Northwest in turn was acquired by Delta Airlines in 2008.

[IcyPeas]

9. B-O-A-C

welcomes the Beatles:

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[Art_from_Ark]

56. Is that Pete Best on the right side of the picture?

[IcyPeas]

57. no, it's Jimmie Nicol who stood in for Ringo when he was sick...

It's a great story:

James George Nicol (born 3 August 1939), better known as Jimmie Nicol or Jimmy Nicol, is a British drummer and business entrepreneur best known for temporarily replacing Ringo Starr in The Beatles for a series of concerts during the height of Beatlemania in 1964, elevating him from relative obscurity to worldwide fame and then back again in the space of a fortnight.

When Ringo Starr collapsed and was hospitalised on 3 June 1964, with tonsillitis on the eve of The Beatles' 1964 Australasian tour the Beatles' manager Brian Epstein and their producer George Martin urgently discussed the feasibility of using a stand-in drummer rather than cancelling part of the tour. Martin suggested Jimmie Nicol as he had recently used him on a Tommy Quickly recording session.[4] Nicol had also, as part of an uncredited session band, drummed on a Top Six budget label album and an extended play single (three tracks on each side) of Beatle cover versions (marketed as "Teenagers Choice" and entitled Beatlemania) which meant that he already knew the songs and their arrangements.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmie_Nicol

[lutefisk]

10. Western Airlines, 1926-1987

I remember sitting in the smoking section on a flight when I was a child...

[Brother Buzz]

13. Umm, the entire airplane was a smoking section when I was a child

including the outside:

[hifiguy]

59. I loved those commercials.

Almost as much as the animated Hamm's Bear beer commercials.

They were as common as muck on Twin Cities TV back when I was a pup.

[Arugula Latte]

62. Oh, wow, what a blast from the past.

I can still hear that bird saying the slogan: "Western Airlines. The ooonly way to fly!"

[Brother Buzz]

66. Indeed! I'm guessing we must have heard it a million times over the thirty-forty year run

[begin_within]

52. Their commercials featured the voice of Jim Backus,

in a relaxed, satisfied, country-club voice, saying, "Western Airlines... the only way to fly..." and the very end of the commercial showed a destination spelled out on the wing of the plane. These were cartoons.

[Arugula Latte]

65. Found a couple:

[begin_within]

68. Thanks

[madamesilverspurs]

11. Hughes Airworst

[Initech]

12. Continental, America West, Air Tran, Northwest

All the targets of mergers and acquisitions.

[kwassa]

15. Air Tran is still around.

My wife just flew on them.

[Initech]

19. They pretty much existence in name only.

Southwest are pretty much the majority shareholders in the company.

[Blue_Tires]

29. Southwest is in the process of dismantling them

Last edited Mon Oct 6, 2014, 05:38 PM - Edit history (1)

Which pisses me off to no end, since now Delta has the monopoly on direct routes to ATL from ORF...

That "merger" was classic bait-and-switch bullshit, all so Southwest could eliminate a low-cost competitor...

[orleans]

16. is delta still running? n/t

[auntAgonist]

25. Flew Delta to SFO from DTW last week, so yeah :)

[Art_from_Ark]

27. Delta's the one that swallowed up Northwest

[Marrah_G]

55. Delta is doing well

[kwassa]

17. Agony Airlines, er, Allegheny Airlines

Great adventures in turboprops.

[Rhiannon12866]

44. Didn't Allegheny replace Mohawk?

I remember flying to Florida to visit my grandmother when I was a kid.

[elleng]

18. and that was when 'deregulation' went public.

Has since gone on to devastate much.

[RebelOne]

20. Air Atlanta. The whole plane was first class. n/t

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

21. Don't forget Northwest Airlines.

For awhile it was the 4th largest. I used to work there, loved my job, until Delta bought it and moved my job to ATL.

[Sognefjord]

22. My sis worked NW and made the transition to Delta. Misses the f/a's union. Used to be Teamsters.

[Blue_Tires]

30. I took NWA all the time once I got to grad school...

Last edited Mon Oct 6, 2014, 05:46 PM - Edit history (1)

I fell in love with their policy of overbooking, since they always gave a FREE roundtrip voucher to anyone willing to give up their seat and wait for a later flight...AND they were transferable(!), so I gave them to my parents...

I got my dad 4-5 vouchers in a two-year period...This was obviously before the 9-11 era -- After that, airlines started getting a lot stingier...

[kwassa]

31. I hated flying Northwest. They owned Detroit Metro.

and were never cheap. If I was going to my parents for a visit ...

planes were not well-maintained, either.

[Blue_Tires]

41. My only problem with NWA

was flying to Omaha for a 2-day job interview, and they lost my garment bag with my suit...Went back to the airport later, and found that the bag and my suit had gotten caught up in the gears of some machine and were partially shredded...

I just wore what I had on for two days and had it cleaned at the hotel both nights...I ended up doing the interview in khakis and a polo shirt (no, I didn't get the job)...

I also didn't get any loss or damage compensation from customer service -- I don't remember the exact loophole reason they cited, but I do remember being pretty pissed off...

[csziggy]

23. 1966 my sister flew National back from Germany

She saved her ticket folder and put it in her scrapbook. Here's that page:

[Skittles]

24. I still have a National dog toy from JFK in 1971

[Sherman A1]

26. Ozark

merged with TWA and we know the end of that story....

[sharp_stick]

32. Canadian Airlines

Pretty much the only competition to Air Canada, now swallowed up by Air Canada.

WestJet provides pretty good competition now but they don't have the international reach that Canadian did.

[DFW]

33. I remember a bunch of them

Braniff
Mohawk
PBA
Laker
Aloha
Swissair (the real one)
Sabena
Interflug (not missed)
BEA
New York Air (the flying nosh!)
BWIA

I never flew with Laker or Interflug, but I remember them.

[El Supremo]

34. This really hurt.

My dad was a pilot with Braniff and my mom was a hostess for TWA.

[DFW]

35. I'll bet!

I shouldn't have put Braniff on my list in the first place, as the OP already listed it. A Dallas moment. My mistake!

[KamaAina]

38. Aloha

they were major in Hawai'i, anyway. They were Hawaiian's only real competition. Now all there is is mainland-owned, low-cost go!, and smaller carriers like Mokulele.

I couldn't believe it when the news crawled across my TV screen. There had been no signs that they were in any kind of trouble. Fun fact: The shutdown was so sudden that Love's Bakery, the dominant bakery in the islands, had to fly bread from O'ahu to Kaua'i via LAX!

[panader0]

48. I flew Aloha from Honolulu to Kahului, Maui a few times back in the day.

Lahaina was sooo cool then.

[Rhiannon12866]

43. The first time I flew as a kid, it was on Mohawk.

The plane had propellers and was not a pleasant flight.

[tinymontgomery]

46. People's Express

Norfolk to Newark $25 bucks each way. Didn't even have time to have a drink. Aluminum tube filled with smoke. Good times flying up to see my future wife on weekends.

[bluesbassman]

47. World Airways shut diwn in March. I flew with them as a service member.

World became a key military contractor during the Vietnam War, flying troops and equipment between the war zone and World's base at Oakland International Airport. On March 29, 1975, World operated the last airlift flight out of Đà Nẵng, Vietnam. Two 727s were flown to Đà Nẵng, one of which landed with Daly aboard. Thousands rushed the airplane and it took off on a taxiway under heavy fire. The aircraft with Daly aboard started its takeoff roll with the 727's back airstairs still down with Daly fending off additional people trying to leave due to over capacity (The film of this was later broadcast on the CBS Evening News on March 30, 1975).[3] When the airplane landed at Saigon, there were 268 people in the cabin and possibly 60 or more in the cargo holds. World did not return to Đà Nẵng until April 17, 2002, then with an MD-11 aircraft to pick up a team of people resolving Missing-In-Action cases from the Vietnam War.

[panader0]

49. Air America

Air America was an American passenger and cargo airline established in 1950 and covertly owned by the United States Government and was initially a CIA project for intelligence operations in China. The CIA did not have enough work to keep the asset afloat and the National Security Council farmed the airline out to various government entities that included the USAF, U.S Army, USAID and for a brief time the French Republic. Essentially, Air America was used by the U.S. Government covertly and clandestinely to conduct military operations, posing as a civilian air carrier, in areas the U.S. Armed forces could not go due to treaty restraints contained in the 1954 and 1962 Geneva Accords.

From Wikipedia

[begin_within]

53. Air California, 1967-1987

[AwakeAtLast]

54. American Trans Air aka ATA

Based out of Indianapolis. Went out in 2008.

[hifiguy]

58. There is no longer any such thing as customer service

from US airlines - or most other major industries - anymore. Once the customer was king. Now the shareholder is king and the customer is a tomato to be squeezed until dry.

[El Supremo]

60. Tree Top Airlines!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

73. Tinkertoy Airlines!

Trans-Texas International.

My sister flew home from college (SA to Houston) on a TTA prop job.

By the time I hit college, Southwest had just started. Girls in orange hot pants and go-go boots.
In 1973, it was $15 one way from Houston to SA (200 miles) and $13 on a student fare. Remember those? It was 40 minutes on a jet.

So I flew home with my dirty laundry in Aggie matched luggage (brown paper sacks) on Southwest. Mom was not pleased.

[Arugula Latte]

64. To me the saddest one is PanAm. That always seemed the epitome

of sophistication and international travel to me.

[trof]

67. For me the saddest was TWA. But that's a personal story.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

71. Same for me and NWA.

Don't get me started on the DAL merger.

[Danmel]

69. people express

New York Air
Air Florida
Olympus Airlines, please no dancing in the aisles.

[El Supremo]

70. Western Air Express

Does that end this thread?

[Glorfindel]

72. Pan Am and Eastern were my two favorites.

I flew on TWA to Vietnam in 1966, and Northwest Orient back to the states in 1967. Both were great airlines. How sad that consolidation and deregulation have led to the sardine-can air carriers of today.

[greatauntoftriplets]

75. Air Illinois.

Flew out of the late and lamented Meigs Field to places like Springfield.

[Lilyhoney]

76. Midway Airlines.