WEDELL-WILLIAMS AIR SERVICE CORPORATION: United States (1929-1937). W-WAS is formed at New Orleans in August 1929 by race car driver Jimmy Wedell and lumberman H. P. Williams to offer scheduled passenger services to Fort Worth via Baton Rouge, Alexandria, Shreveport, and Dallas. Ryan Brougham revenue flights commence on November 30, the same day a Loening C-2 Air Yacht amphibian is employed to begin offering flights to Grand Isle.
During the spring of 1930, a Ryan inaugurates a weekly service from New Orleans to St. Louis via Memphis. The overnight stop at Memphis is the first regularly scheduled air service enjoyed by that western Tennessee community.
Caught in a winter storm while flying from Fort Worth to Shreveport on January 7, 1931 , a Lockheed Model 5 Vega piloted by Art Brown with two passengers, crashes west of Marshall (three dead). Operations continue until December when the airline is temporarily closed down.
During April 1933, a rejuvenated company undertakes a new service from New Orleans to Laredo. A New Orleans-Houston route won by the Robertston Airplane Service as the result of the May 1934 renewed issuance of government airmail contracts is taken as the result of the Robertson brothers decision, reached within months of its September start-up, to exit the airline business.
In 1936, the carrier is purchased by Eastern Air Lines for $160,000.
WELCOME AIR LUFTFAHRT, GmbH. & CO., K. G.: Postfach 81, Innsbruck, A-6026, Austria; Phone 43512295296; Fax 43512288888; Http://www. welcomeair. com; Code 2V; Year Founded 2000. An affiliate of Tyrol Air Ambulance, A. G., Welcome Air is established at Innsbruck in the spring of 2000 to offer scheduled passenger flights. Outfitted with a single Fairchild-Dornier 328JET wearing a bright yellow and purple livery, President/CEO Jakob Ringler’s 50-employee Welcome launches flights in May from Innsbruck to Graz.
World History
