First PCA is set up at Long Beach, California, in the fall of 1974 to operate scheduled local passenger and cargo services with a pair of Douglas DC-3s. The company is purchased by Pacific Northwest Airways during the first quarter of 1975 and the combined carrier is renamed Pacific Airlines.
PACIFIC COAST AIRLINES (2): United States (1981-1986). Late in 1981, Apollo Airways, which had declared bankruptcy in September, is purchased by a Houston-based holding company, Gulf Central, reformed, and emerges from Chapter XI under the name Pacific Coast Airlines (2). Employing 7 Handley Page HP-37 Jet-streams, the reborn company undertakes scheduled passenger and cargo flights, linking Bakersfield, Fresno, Lake Tahoe, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Monterey, Sacramento, San Jose, and Santa Barbara. Overall passenger traffic figures for the commuter, under both names, are not heartwarming.
Passenger bookings are down 22.1% to 94,835. Freight, however, does show 2.9% growth, to 59,000 pounds.
Customer boardings dip 4.1% in 1982 to 91,013, while cargo falls 3.7% to 57,000 pounds. As a result of the downturn, one Jetstream is withdrawn.
Service to San Francisco begins in January 1983. Traffic improves as enplanements grow 6.2% to 96,655. Employment grows by 17.8% in 1984 to 192. Terrance Cedar becomes president/CEO at year’s end. The carrier’s seven HP-37s, meanwhile, help to increase customer bookings by 32.2% to 140,063. In all, 40,000 pounds of cargo are hauled.
Still operating under Chapter XI, PCA, in 1985, becomes a subject of contention between President Cedar, who seeks new investors, and company creditors who wish liquidation. An 11.9% drop in passenger boardings, to 123,364, does not help management’s position.
President Cedar’s all-out effort to locate new financing leads his company into an ill-fated negotiation with United Imperial Airlines in 1986. When the merger effort fails, the onetime Apollo Airways, as well as its suitor, are forced to cease operations on February 7.
World History
