Enid, Oklahoma-based Air Central is reformed in January 1980; renamed, it is transferred to Oklahoma City and begins scheduled passenger services on June 1. Robert P. Lammerts’s 90-man workforce operates and supports a fleet of 2 Fairchild-Swearingen Metro Ils and 2 Metro Ills. Flights are undertaken to Little Rock, Memphis, Dallas (DFW), Topeka, and Wichita.
The company highlights for 1981 are the addition of a third Metro III and a move into new facilities at Will Rogers World Airport. Enplanements for the first full year of operation total 17,938.
Airline employment is increased by 110% in 1982 to 110 and the fleet is enhanced by the addition of 1 Metro II. A new hangar is completed and Lubbock joins the route network.
Passenger boardings skyrocket 175.6% to 49,444. Cargo climbs 46.3% to 16,000 pounds.
Service is started to Kansas City Downtown Airport early in 1983 as the first two of seven ordered NAMC YS-11As join the fleet.
Customer bookings accelerate 31.2% to 65,600.
All other aircraft are retired as the remaining five Japanese turboprops arrive in the winter and spring of 1984. In deep financial difficulty, the carrier ceases operations on August 19.
Prior to its closure, the carrier flies a total of 48,549 passengers, a 53.8% increase.
TRANS CHARTER AIRLINES: Russia (1994-1998). Trans Charter is established at Moscow on April 5, 1994, to offer international, regional, and domestic scheduled and charter services, both passenger and cargo. A workforce of 160 is assembled and flights to Bombay and Maastricht begin a week later with 3 Antonov An-32s, 1 An-74, and 1 Yakovlev Yak 40.
Business continues until late 1998, when fiscal difficulties caused by the Russian currency crisis forces the company to shut down.
TRANS COASTA RICA, S. A.: Costa Rica (1989-1995). TCA is established at San Jose in the fall of 1989. All-cargo services are inaugurated throughout Central America with a single de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou registered in Honduras. Flights continue until the middle years of the next decade.
World History
