Airlines that no longer exist--interesting

[birdguy 3,943]

John, I flew in SFO Helicopters from Sausalito to SFO when I visited my folks in Mill Valley.

Airlines weren't; the only one to go.  It happened to American railroads too.  New York Central.  Pennsylvania RR, Southern Pacific, Western Pacific, Great Northern, Monon, Santa Fe, and host of others.  All merged into 3 or 4 now.  Out here in the west we only have BNSF and Union Pacific...and old one that survived by eating up the others.

The only passenger service we have in the US is Amtrack which serves only a small portion of the country the old lines served.

Noel

[John_Cillis 2,406]

On 10/23/2018 at 1:39 PM, StAgre said:

I know this forum likes to get nostalgic about the old days of flying, but I think that we forget how far flying has come since the supposed "golden age" of the 1970s.

• You can fly non-stop between more destinations than were even imaginable 20 years ago, let alone 40 or 50 years ago. flights like EWR-SIN, AUS-LHR, or SWF-EDI are just a few of the literal hundreds of point-to-point flights that we can choose from now.
• The price of flying has dropped significantly in the last 10 years, let alone since Pan Am were still flying. People complain that the service standards of airlines have dropped, but the fact is you can fly in a lie-flat business class seat for the price of an economy seat on Pan Am, and receive better service to-boot. Economy service has declined, no doubt, but the price has declined so much further. You can fly from the east coast of the US to Asia and back for less than $800 these days, a ticket which would have cost $3,000 or more only a decade or two ago.
• Flying is safer than it ever has been. In 1970, there were 38 fatal accidents of civil aircraft, by 2013, that number was just 6.

Pan Am was certainly an icon of aviation, but I think we often get too caught up in the nostalgia of the old days to realize just how much more accessible and convenient flying has become.

Those are all important points to remember.  I would have never dreamed I could have flown non-stop from Phoenix to London last year and back on British Airways, but I did and it was the dream of a lifetime to fly from my home port so far and so fast to Europe.  For me it is an eerie and amazing feeling to be indoors in the US and eleven hours later be indoors on the other side of the Atlantic so quickly, without stepping outside.

John

[birdguy 3,943]

Fares may be cheap between major hubs but if you live in an out of the way place like Roswell NM it gets expensive.

We have two flights daily to Dallas and Phoenix on American Eagle.  1 hour and 20 minutes either way.  The fare either way is 488.00 and the city subsidizes American Eagle for the service.  

I imagine that is true for many small cities in the country.

Noel

[John_Cillis 2,406]

1 hour ago, birdguy said:

Fares may be cheap between major hubs but if you live in an out of the way place like Roswell NM it gets expensive.

We have two flights daily to Dallas and Phoenix on American Eagle.  1 hour and 20 minutes either way.  The fare either way is 488.00 and the city subsidizes American Eagle for the service.  

I imagine that is true for many small cities in the country.

Noel

I found that as a business traveler, quite often our internal travel agent would book us to a major airport then provide us a rental car and sometimes 200-300 mile drive to get to our final destination, it was cheaper.  Cheaper for them but hard on us, since we were required to work some hours on the day we arrived at a client's site.  Worst situation I was in was when I went to Capitol Reef Utah, which had no puddle jumper airport near it.  I had to fly into Salt Lake City and take a long long drive there.  I was assigned a partner that I would have had to drive to pick up in Salt Lake City, a near 500 mile round trip.  I did not want to drive the route again, so I told my client I could do all the work myself, saving them money since they had to pay for airfare and meal expenses and the daily rate of my partner. 

They were overjoyed and became fast friends with me, my employer was happy they were happy but sad at the same time, lost revenue for them--but I freed up a resource they could use elsewhere.  So I did the Project on my own.  The Controller, knowing my daughter was going to be born, asked for my home address which normally we were not supposed to give our clients.  But I gave it to him anyway.  Shortly before my daughter was born he mailed me a stuffed buffalo pet for her to cuddle with, which she did!  Nice client.  And they asked my employer for me to come up to Jackson Hole six months later to work with their other properties, which I did and I met the Controller again who was waiting for me up there. 

While there I was asked to do something that was bad karma, they asked me to pirate a copy of the DOS Program, Word Perfect.  Working for a software developer I could not break my code and pirate the software.  So I copied Word Perfect for them but used DOS debug to corrupt the executable.  When they ran it in front of me they got an error message that I expected and I said "I guess they have copy protection".  Which they did not.  So they shrugged their shoulders and thanked me for trying and I walked out of there knowing I did a little white lie to protect copyright on Word Perfect, one developer to another.  My employer heard of this and they were filled with mirth.  Only time I ever sabotaged a program.

John

[scott967 62]

On 10/28/2018 at 8:50 AM, birdguy said:

John, I flew in SFO Helicopters from Sausalito to SFO when I visited my folks in Mill Valley.

Airlines weren't; the only one to go.  It happened to American railroads too.  New York Central.  Pennsylvania RR, Southern Pacific, Western Pacific, Great Northern, Monon, Santa Fe, and host of others.  All merged into 3 or 4 now.  Out here in the west we only have BNSF and Union Pacific...and old one that survived by eating up the others.

The only passenger service we have in the US is Amtrack which serves only a small portion of the country the old lines served.

Noel

Well, at least Pan Am is a railroad now!

 

Here, Aloha remains sorely missed.  Employees still have reunions.  Aloha Air Cargo was spun off as a separate entity, and operates its old 737s.  Also Island Air was run into the ground.  There have been various attempts at restoring additional carriers, but it is hard to do.  Hawaiian has pretty much been able to freeze out anyone else.

 

BITD we could buy a book of 6 tickets.  You just showed up at the airport and first come, first served.

 

We've also had various Part 135 "airlines" come and go.  I usually use a Part 135 to get to Molokai.  For the most part they use Cessna twins, though one  from days gone by, Air Molokai, also had a DC-3 in its fleet.  Single pilot and depending on weight distribution, you might get put in the right seat.  One time the pilot saw a whale in the channel between Oahu and Molokai and he did a 360 over it so we could check it out.

 

scott s.

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