EXPRESS AIRE: United States (1984-1991). Founded at Osterville, Massachusetts, in 1984, Express Air inaugurates scheduled Cessna 402 services from Hyannis on Cape Cod to the island of Nantucket. During the next four years, President Michael Josefek continues operations from the municipal airport at New Bedford and adds another Cessna 402.
In early 1989, former Provincetown-Boston Airline (PBA) official Richard Pereira takes over the airline. Ben Garneau becomes president and the fleet is increased by the addition of two more C-402s. Unable to maintain its economic viability in a time of recession, the small regional ceases operations in 1991 .
EXPRESS AIRLINES I: 1777 Phoenix Parkway, Suite 303, Atlanta, Georgia 30349, United States; Phone (404) 991-3300; Fax (404) 9970127; Http://www. nwairlink. com; Code9E; Year Founded 1986. In January 1986, it is announced that Northwest Airlines will purchase Republic Airlines and its Republic Express commuter partner on August 12, with integration to be completed by October 1. When the takeover occurs in mid-August, Republic Express is renamed and plans are undertaken for it to become a Northwest Airlink partner. Former Republic Express CEO Michael J. Brady is named president with H. E. Belcher as vice president-operations.
The fleet comprises 23, later 26, British Aerospace BAe Jetstream 31s and 8 SAAB SF340As. With a base at Atlanta, Georgia, Express is certified to continue its operation of an extensive commuter network between Memphis and Minneapolis.
Enplanements for the year total 707,323.
Arriving at Joplin, Missouri, after a flight from Memphis on December 14, 1987, a Jetstream 31 with two crew and six passengers is destroyed as the result of a bad landing at its destination; there are no fatalities.
The 850-employee large regional has otherwise enjoyed a successful year as passenger boardings jump 24.9% to 941,841.
In 1988, the carrier becomes a member of the Northwest Airlink commuter network and the fleet now includes 25 Jetstream 31s and 11 SAAB 340As.
During the past 24 months, 50 cities have been added to the route network. Bookings for this year are up to 967,004.
The 1,000-employee large regional adds 6 SAAB 340As to its fleet in 1989 and passes the million mark in annual boardings for the first time (1,000,004). Freight, on the other hand, declines by 5.5% to 667,000 pounds.
The fleet is increased in 1990 by the acquisition of 2 additional Jetstream 31s and 7 SAAB-340As.
While feeding its major partner’s Memphis hub, the large regional increases its ridership by 9.4% to 1,093,809. Cargo recovers and rises 8.6% to 724,952 pounds.
Company employment is cut 9% in 1991 to 900 and the fleet’s 2 aircraft types are evenly matched in numbers (25 each).
As the result of the Gulf War, fuel prices rise 150% and load levels decline, at least during the first part of the year. Passenger boardings increase by 16% to 1,268,880.
The workforce grows 11.1% in 1992 to 1,000, but fleet standardization is disrupted when 8 SAABs are withdrawn in the face of recession and a damaging fare war. Still, despite the loss of over $13 million since Iraq invaded Kuwait 2 years earlier, customer bookings ascend 35% to 1,713,361.
In 1993, President/CEO Brady’s fleet includes 11 Jetstream 31s and 17 SAAB 340s. Eight SAABs remain on order.
With icing a factor, Flight 5719, a SAAB 340A with 3 crew and 28 passengers, stalls while landing at Hibbings-Chisholm Airport in Minnesota on a January 2 service from Minneapolis (MSP). Having approached too steeply, the plane lands hard, causing the right main landing gear to collapse, the fuel tank to rupture, and the right wing spar to bend forward. There are no fatalities.
Frequencies continue to be offered to some 40 cities in 15 states.
In April, the company is fined $92,000 by the FAA for unauthorized Jetstream 31 flights to Owensboro, Kentucky, and errors on weight manifests for 194 flights.
Former WestAir Airlines executive Bryan Bedford becomes chief financial officer and joins Brady in a restructuring effort that includes relief from creditors, help from NWA, Inc., and the launching of a new fleet standardization plan centered on the SAABs. At Northwest’s request, twice-daily roundtrips are inaugurated between Memphis and Atlanta.
While coming in behind schedule to Hibbings-Chisholm Airport from a December 1 service in heavy fog and freezing drizzle from Minneapolis (MSP), Northwest Airlink Flight 5719, a Jetstream 31 with 2 crew and 18 passengers, has approached too steeply and below minimum altitude. The turboprop strikes a tree and 634 feet further on, a group of aspen trees. After bounding off two ridges, it comes to rest upside down and lying on its right side. There are no survivors.
Passenger boardings for the year decline by 6.5% to 1,599,070 and although there is a $289,000 operating profit, there is also a net loss of $3.47 million.
CFO Bedford departs in early 1994 to become president/CEO of the “Delta Connection” partner Business Express Airlines. Meanwhile, Northwest makes the carrier a 3-year, $7-million loan to help it transition from Part 135 to Part 121 standard.
Customer bookings drop another 31.3% to 1,071,637, but revenues leap ahead by 31.5% to $152.31 million. Expenses rise 21.7% to $140.63 million and there are profits: $11.68 million (operating) and $4.81 million (net).
The workforce stands at 1,500 in 1995. The fleet now includes 22 Jetstream 31s and 36 SAAB 340s. Orders are outstanding for 10 of the latter type, plus 10 SAAB 2000s. By the end of the year, the carrier is offering 350 daily departures, serving 15 cities from Minneapolis (MSP) and 40 from Memphis. Enplanements soar 37% to 1,469,398.
The employee populations grows 6.7% in 1996 to 1,600. Negotiations with pilots over a new contract come right down to the wire of a strike before they are successfully concluded. Most of the flyers, and many cabin personnel, have not forgotten a plan by CEO Brady, several years earlier, to relocate crews to rural outposts to cut travel costs.
Passenger boardings accelerate 16.6% to 1,783,851 on 136,342 scheduled departures. Revenue figures, though not released, are estimated by airline analysts to average between $95 million and $150 million annually.
In something of a surprise move, the St. Paul Pioneer Press on March 25, 1997, reports that Northwest will purchase its Northwest Airlink partner outright when its contract expires on April 30. Terms of the sale are not initially released. The $20-million buyout, which is closed on April 1, also includes all of the airline’s stock and that of its affiliate management company, Phoenix Airlines Services. The retirement of CEO Brady is part of the package.
At the same time, a new contract between Northwest and Mesaba Airlines takes effect; Mesaba takes over the Express Airlines I services at Minneapolis, with Express shifted to Memphis. At the West Tennessee metropolis, Philip H. Trenary, former president of Lone Star Airlines, is installed as the carrier’s new CEO. By summer, the airline is feeding 50% of its parent’s Memphis flights from cities in the South and Southwest.
Customer bookings slide 3% to 1,592,642 on 112,585 scheduled departures.
Working begins during the spring of 1998 on the transfer of corporate headquarters from Atlanta to Memphis.
The fleet now includes 32 SAABs.
Upon departure from Huntsville, Alabama, for Memphis on June 4, Northwest Airlink Flight 5545, a SAAB 340A with 3 crew and 15 passengers, experiences the activation of a baggage compartment smoke warning alarm just after takeoff. The fire suppression system is activated and the turboprop returns to its point of origin. After landing, the aircraft is stopped on the runway and the passengers are evacuated.
The company unveils the latest aircraft in its refurbishment project on July 21 at Chattanooga. In a ceremony attended by state, local, and company officials, the mayor of the Tennessee community christens the SAAB 340A The Spirit ofChattanooga.
On August 20, the airline notifies the Essential Air Service Division of the DOT that Express might be faced with an involuntary interruption of service in the event of a strike by Northwest pilots.
Following the strike by Northwest pilots on August 29, President/CEO Trenary informs his 1,400 personnel on September 1 that plans are in hand to retain all of them for a minimum of two weeks even though the regional, itself, must be shut down. On the morning of September 3, Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater orders Express Airlines I and its fellow Northwest Airlink feeder Mesaba Airlines to resume service to 17 small towns in 11 states in the Midwest and South. As the DOT official puts it, federal rules prohibit the carriers from suspending air service below mandated levels without first filing a 90-day notice.
Secretary Slater requests the return of air service to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Owensboro, Kentucky, Greenville, Laurel, and Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and Jackson, Tennessee. President/CEO Trenary response is that the company is within the law, which permits a company to suspend service without notice “for any interruption of service that the carrier cannot reasonably be expected to foresee or control such as. . . strikes.”
Following negotiations between President/CEO Trenary and Assistant DOT Secretary Charles Hunnicutt, an agreement concerning EAS services is reached on September 8. Under the accord, Express will be allowed time to examine a number of different service scenarios that will allow cost-effective flights to the five affected cities. The plan chosen will be made available to DOT in two days.
Even though the company continues relatively amiable discussions with DOT, Secretary Slater and Attorney General Janet Reno file suit against it, together with Mesaba Airlines, on September 10 seeking to force a resumption of Essential Air Services. In addition, the suit seeks to require Northwest to provide support for the operations of the two, even though the major is shut down by the pilots strike.
Northwest itself now steps into the dispute between the DOT and the DOJ and its Northwest Airlink affiliates. The major, presenting the same arguments that both Mesaba Airlines and Express have unsuccessfully employed with government officials, files an emergency petition with the U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia asking it to stay the effects of the DOT order requiring NWA to provide support services so that its affiliates can resume EAS services.
Northwest argues that its constitutional right to a hearing has been violated because the DOT issued a final order adversely affecting the carrier’s interests without providing it with notice. Furthermore, as preparations for the pilot strike were made earlier in the month, the major had specifically and legally executed an agreement with the Northwest Air-link partners suspending all of its obligations, including code-sharing (an important legal point now in play), should a job action occur.
None of these lawsuits come to trial as the Northwest strike is tentatively settled late in the evening. Air service is reinstated along the company’s entire route network on September 16. Express is at 100% prestrike status two days later.
The last Jetstream 31 is retired on October 1. Thereafter, all flights are operated with 33-seat SAAB 340s.
Tragedy strikes the airline on November 3 when a ground worker is killed. Northwest Airlink Flight 5858, with three crew and eight passengers, is being prepared for departure from Memphis for Cincinnati. While assisting with the starting of the No. 2 engine of the SAAB 340A, a ground crew member is given the signal by the flight crew to disconnect the ground power unit (GPU) parked behind the right wing. Turning, she walks toward the GPU and straight into the rotating right propeller.
On December 5, Northwest, which has vowed to complete a deal with Continental Airlines despite an antitrust lawsuit by the government, completes its acquisition of a controlling stake in Continental. The arrangement gives the nation’s fourth-largest airline a 14% equity stake in Continental as well as voting control of up to 51% of the No. 5 carrier. Executives from both airlines indicate that they will proceed to implement domestic code-sharing involving upwards of 850 flights.
Due largely to the Northwest strike, customer bookings this year plunge 28.5% to 1.19 million.
Northwest and Continental Airlines begin linking a major portion of their domestic flight schedules and implementing more international dual-designator flights on January 7, 1999. The two majors, despite DOT opposition, initiate code-sharing on approximately 850 domestic and international flights to 95 destinations. As part of the arrangement, Continental code-shares daily on Northwest Airlines and Northwest Airlink domestic flights, including cities where it does not currently fly, such as Sioux City, Boise, Knoxville, and Spokane.
In February, an order is placed by Northwest with Bombardier Aerospace for the acquisition of 54 CRJ200LR aircraft, with options taken on another 70 aircraft. Express moves its six daily Fayetteville flights on March 15 from the city’s Drake Field to the new Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport.
On May 3, in what could be described as a model for the rest of the airline industry, management and the local ALPA chapter, headed by Capt. Garth Thompson, ratify a new 6-year labor contract by an 89.5% margin-even though the current agreement still has 18 months to run.
On May 7, Northwest officials announce that Express will be the launch operator for 42 of the CRJ-200LRs that it has ordered from Bombardier in Canada. To accommodate the new jetliners, Northwest and the Memphis Shelby County Airport Authority will combine forces to expand Concourse A and build jet bridges.
Customer bookings drop 5.1% to 1,147,000.
Airline employment at the beginning of 2000 stands at 1,209. Following receipt of the first CRJ200LR, christened Spirit of Memphis, the new Canadair enters four-times-a-day roundtrip service on June 1 between Memphis and Greenville and Spartanburg. On June 15, the airline’s second CRJ200LR replaces Mesaba Airlines’ RJ85s on the Memphis-Witchita route and on one route from Memphis to Huntsville.
Receipt of a third CRJ200LR on June 24 allows the initiation of four-times-a-day return jet service between Memphis and Mobile on July 1.The fourth CRJ200LR arrives on July 14.
Thrice-daily SAAB 340 roundtrips are inaugurated on July 17 between Memphis and Tallahassee. The four-times-a-day SAAB 340 service from Memphis to Branson and Springfield is simultaneously upgraded to CRJ200LR. The fifth CRJ200LR arrives on August 1.
On August 28, all four daily Memphis to Tulsa roundtrips are upgraded from SAAB 340 to CRJ. Much of the carrier’s service within Tennessee is new or boosted on September 5, including initiation of thrice-daily roundtrips between Knoxville and Nashville and an increase of the number of flights between Memphis and Nashville from four to six. New thrice-daily return flights begin on September 11 between Memphis and Bristol’s Tri-Cities Regional Airport. The sixth CRJ200LR is delivered on September 18.
In a special ceremony at McGee-Tyson International Airport on October 1, Northwest Airlink Vice President Philip Reed joins with University of Tennessee President Dr. J. Wade Gilley, Mayor Victor Ashe, and Tennessee Department of Economic Development Commissioner Bill Baxter to celebrate the new service linking Knoxville with Nashville. Accompanied by the UT the pep band’s rendition of Rocky Top and a water cannon salute, a SAAB 340A is christened the UT in honor of the Spirit of the Volunteers. Northwest Airlines and its Airlink partner now serve every major airport and area in the state of Tennessee.
Also on October 1, CRJ200LRs replace SAAB 340s on two of the carrier’s four daily return flights from Memphis to Pensacola. Simultaneously, a fourth daily roundtrip is added between Memphis and Tallahassee. The thrice-daily SAAB 340 roundtrips from Rapid City to Sioux Falls via Pierre are discontinued on October 15.
The seventh CRJ200LR arrives on October 18 and twice-daily CRJ200LR roundtrips begin on October 29 between Memphis and Pittsburgh.
Three of the carrier’s four daily roundtrips between Memphis and Montgomery are upgraded on November 20 from SAAB 340s to CRJs.
It is announced on December 15 that the company will launch twice-daily CRJ200LR roundtrips on April 1 from Memphis to Monterrey, Mexico.
EXPRESS AIRWAYS, GmbH.: Heuserweg 13-15, Troisdorf-Spich, D-53842, Germany; Phone 49 (2241) 9433010; Fax 49 (2241) 9433033; Http://www. farnair. com; Year Founded 1998. Express Airways is established at the former USAF base at Hahn in late 1998 to offer express and overnight package delivery.
In February 1999, the company’s air operating certificate is purchased by Basel-based Farnair Europe Aviation Group. Employing a leased Shorts 360-300, daily roundtrip service is inaugurated between a temporary operating base at Paris (CDG) and Madrid. Although headquarters remain in Hahn, the Paris base is made permanent in May, after which the company also initiates frequencies to Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, all under contract to Federal Express.
In October, additional aircraft are acquired and new routes are started to additional points in Spain, as well as Ireland.
Managing Director Peter Sanden’s workforce totals 75 at the beginning of 2000 and during the first quarter the fleet acquires 2 Fokker F.27-500Fs and 11 Shorts 360-300s. The Shorts all wear FedEx titles and are painted in a modified version of the U. S. major’s colors. Additional frequencies are added in April from Cologne to Glasgow, Berlin, Amsterdam, Nice, Venice, Hamburg, Stuttgart, and Madrid, along with new services to Vienna.
To handle the new services begun in the spring, arrangements are made to acquire between two and four more F.27-500Fs. In July 8, company headquarters are transferred from Hahn to Cologne.
EXPRESS AIRWAYS, LTD.: Nigeria (1989-1994). Organized to provide domestic commuter services, Express Airways is founded at Lagos in 1989. Managing Director Mohammed Joji’s fleet comprises 5 Em-braer EMB-110P1 Bandeirantes. Services are continued into the 1990s. The fleet in 1990-1992 includes 4 Bandeirantes. The number is increased to 5 in 1993, but services cease in 1994.
World History
