MCA is founded at Montauk, Long Island, in the spring of 1963 to offer scheduled passenger air taxi flights to New York (LGA and JFK) and to the islands of Long Island Sound. Daily roundtrip, Cessna lightplane revenue flights commence on July 14. During the next decade, summer seasonal services are introduced to Boston.
In the 1970s, the carrier establishes a Florida division, Ocean Reef Airways, which provides flights linking the Ocean Reef Club at Key Largo with Miami. Chairman Robert O. King’s carrier operates a mixed fleet that comes to include 1 each de Havilland Canada DHC-6-100 Twin Otter, Piper PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftain, Piper PA-31-310 Navajo, Beech 58 Baron and Bell 206B JetRanger helicopter.
In 1984, the carrier is reformed and renamed Long Island Airlines.
MONTENEGRO AIRLINES: Beogradska 10, Podgorica 81000, Montenegro, Yugoslavia; Phone 381 (81) 622 648; Fax 381 (81) 623 762; Http://www. montenegroairlines. com; Code MGX; Year Founded 1994. This new flag carrier is set up by the government of Montenegro in 1994; the state holds 51% shareholding with the remainder split among various private investors. Dr. Dejan Radonjic is named director general. It will take several years for the concern to launch operations and revenue flights finally commence in April 1997 with a single Fokker F.28-4000 Fellowship. Destinations visited include Bari, Milan, Skopje, Frankfurt, and Zurich.
Early in May 1998, the company agrees to establish air links into Bosnia. A second F.28-4000 is acquired and on June 1 weekly service is started from Podgorica and Tivat to Sarajevo and Banja Luka.
In anticipation of air strikes by NATO countries against Serbian military targets in a campaign to compel Belgrade to accept a peace agreement with the ethnic Albanians fighting for an independent Kosovo, Montenegro Airlines, on March 24, 1999, halts all service into Belgrade as Yugoslav airspace is closed. A spokesman, in making the announcement, indicates that the situation will be evaluated further; however, that evening, Operation Allied Force, the bombing attack on targets in Serbia and Kosovo, begins.
Service to Belgrade, as well as to Sarajevo, Mostar, Zagreb, Split, Skopje, Tirana, Ljubljana, Timisoara, and Sofia remains halted on March 25-31 and for much of the duration of the NATO bombing campaign.
Although the fighting requires that Montenegro Airlines be grounded, the company is able to generate some income by operating a number of refugee flights on behalf of the UN Human Rights Commissioner and International Organization for Migration. Additional relief flights north into Western Europe will also be completed in the days ahead until Operation Allied Force is concluded on June 11. At the end of the month, a former KLM UK, Ltd. Fokker 100 is chartered from the Transasian Air Group.
A ban against flights into the European Union is finally lifted on October 11. A second Fokker 100 arrives from the Transasian Air Group in late November. It, too, had last been flown by KLM’s U. K. subsidiary.
Arrangements are completed on July 10, 2000 for the charter of yet another Fokker 100 previously operated by KLM UK, Ltd. Christened Sveti Petar CetinJskJ, it replaces an F.28-4000 and flies from Podgorica to Budapest, Ljubljana, Zurich, Frankfurt, and Rome.
Hosted by JAT Yugoslav Airlines CEO Mihajlo Vujinovic, a “meeting of the scheduled airlines of Southeast Europe” is held at Belgrade in mid-December to consider possible joint cooperation. In attendance are representatives of MALEV Hungarian Airlines, Rt., Croatia Airlines, Air Bosna, S. A., Air Srpska, S. A., Monenegro, Macedonian Airlines, and Adria Airways (Adria Aviopromet) (2). Due to an unplanned management change, TAROM Romanian Air Transport (Transporturile Aerienne Romane, S. A.) is unable to participate, but expresses interest in joint activities.
Of the eight airlines participating in the conclave, six express interest in joint commercial operations, four in joint technical and maintenance activities, and five in joint training exercises. To study and discuss matters further, three working committees are established: commercial, chaired by a representative from Adria Airways (Adria Aviopromet) (2); technical, chaired by a MALEV representative; and training, chaired by a representative from JAT Yugoslav Airlines.
MONTGOMERY AVIATION CORPORATION: United States (1969-1970). MAC, the FBO at Montgomery, Alabama, elects to introduce scheduled daily roundtrip shuttle services to Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, and Jackson in 1969. Beech 18 revenue frequencies are duly inaugurated, but cannot be maintained beyond 1970.
World History
