THAC is established at Terre Haute, Indiana, in the spring of 1980, initially operating as H & D Aviation. Piper lightplanes are employed to initiate daily scheduled roundtrips to Lawrenceville on June 1 and are maintained until April 1, 1981, when the company is renamed. The new corporate identity is not sufficient to keep the airline from going out of business on August 1.
TERRITORIAL AIRLINES: United States (1990). Territorial is founded at Albuquerque in early 1990 to offer scheduled third-level passenger services to Las Vegas with a Piper PA-31-310 Navajo. The jump in fuel prices caused by Iraq’s August invasion of Kuwait conspires with the nation’s deepening recession to force the new venture out of business at year’s end.
TERRITORY AIRLINES (PTY.), LTD. (TAL): Papua New Guinea (1952-1975). Formed as a charter operation at Lae, TAL obtains two de Havilland DH 84 Dragons and a license that allows it to commence revenue flights on May 5, 1952. Nonscheduled flights to Madang and a variety of other local destinations are undertaken over the next 15 years. The company’s main work becomes the resupply of remote stations.
Airline employment stands at 98 in 1967. During the year, the company operates a fleet of 3 Beech B-55 Barons, 3 Cessna 402s, 3 Cessna 336s, 6 Cessna 206s, and 5 Cessna 185s. Enplanements are 27,000 and a total of 6,500 tons of cargo is lifted.
In 1968 a scheduled license good for the New Guinea Highlands is acquired from the government. Three additional Cessna 402s are acquired with which to begin the new commuter operation.
Rapid route and system expansion occurs over the next 7 years, bolstered by several acquisitions; by 1971, enplanements are 56,141.
Airline employment in 1972 stands at 300 and the fleet includes 1 de Havilland Canada DHC-6-100 Twin Otter, 3 Beech B-55 Barons, and 24 Cessnas. Sepik Air Charters, Ltd. is acquired in July.
Air services in New Guinea are reorganized late in 1973. As a result, Territory opens new terminals in Wewak, Madang, and Port Moresby and acquires three more Twin Otters. Two hotels are also purchased. On December 20, Bryan Grey is appointed general manager. Additional terminals are opened at Awar and Karkar Island in 1974. Three more hotels are acquired and another is built. More Twin Otters join the fleet as the carrier begins to phase out its single-engine planes. Plans are made to reform the company late in the year; it will be renamed and given a new corporate image.
Enplanements for the final year are 78,442.
In April 1975, Macair (Melanesian Airlines Charter Company, Ltd.), together with its Solair (Solomon Islands Airways, Ltd.) subsidiary, is acquired. Although Solair continues as a flying subsidiary, Macair is merged into Territory Airlines, which now changes its name to Talair (Tourist Airlines of Niugini (Pty.), Ltd.).
TESIS AIR ENTERPRISE (TESIS AVIA PREDPRIYATIE): 117858 Moscow Profsoyuz Street, Moscow, 934406, Russia; Phone 7 (095) 336-4733; Fax 7 (095) 335-5111; Http://www. tesis. ru; Code UZ; Year Founded 1992. TAE is set up at Ekaterinburg in 1992 to offer long-haul domestic passenger services. Aleksei V. Kiumov is appointed general director and launches revenue flights with 3 Tupolev Tu-154Ms.
Service is maintained in 1995-2000, although the company during these years is reformed into a Moscow-based all-cargo operator. George Lipaev becomes director general, with Boris Panukov as president, and the fleet is revised to include 1 owned Tu-154M and 2 Ilyushin Il-76TDs, plus 7 leased Il-76TDs. Scheduled destinations visited from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo Airports include Irkutsk and Chkalovski.
At the end of the latter year, Tesis joins with Abakan Avia, Atlant-Soyuz, Ilavia, and Kras Air (Krasnoyarsk Avialinii-Krasair) in seeking government support in their search for credits to upgrade their aging freighter fleets and to provide customs and tax breaks on the imported equipment necessary to accomplish the task.
TESLINOGRAD UNITED AIR DETACHMENT: Kazakhstan (1992-1996). When Aeroflot Soviet Airlines is reformed by the CIS in 1992, TUAD is formed at Akmola Airport in the Akmolinsk Region of Kazakhstan. Mikhail R. Peshkov is general director and oversees a workforce of 1,276. Domestic and regional services are begun and continued with an all-Antonov fleet that includes an unspecified number of An-2s and An-24s. Flights continue until 1996.
TEXAS AIR TRANSPORT: United States (1927-1930). Fort Worth motor coach operator Temple Bowen forms Texas Air Transport on November 12, 1927 to bid upon two short U. S. Post Office Contract Air Mail Routes, Nos. 21 and 22. After the routes are awarded in January 1928, a Curtiss Swallow and four Pitcairn PA-5 Mailwings are purchased and four pilots plus three mechanics are hired. Revenue services commence in February, from Dallas to Galveston (CAM-21) and from Dallas to San Antonio (CAM-22).
Although Pitcairn Aviation, the airline division of builder Harold Pitcairn’s operation, had received the first airmail contract for its purpose-built aircraft, delays allow TAT the honor of first employing the Mailwing.
Owner Bowen sells out to Tennessee financier A. P. Barrett in November; Barrett immediately reforms his company into a three-division operation for flight training, service, and airline operations. In perhaps his greatest service to commercial aviation, Barrett appoints young Texas bookkeeper Cyrus R. (“C. R.”) Smith to his first airline position, vice president/treasurer.
The airline operating division is subdivided. Mail operations continue under the company’s previous TAT name while passenger services are relabeled. The latter opens scheduled flights to Brownsville from San Antonio on March 9, 1929. On March 30, flights begin from Dallas and Fort Worth to San Antonio and Houston. On March 31, owner Barrett forms Southern Air Transport, incorporating it in Delaware, into which he merges Texas Flying Service and several other aerial activities and companies. TAT will retain its name and fly mail until the following July.
In May, the subsidiary takes delivery of a brand new Lockheed Model 5 Air Express, which is placed into service over the CAM routes from Dallas. Flown by Robert H. Grey, the plane crashes while landing at Big Springs, Texas, on September 12 when its landing gear collapses. Southern has the plane rebuilt by the following February.
TEXAS AIRLINES: United States (1984-1988). Texas Airlines is established at Galveston during the fall of 1984 to provide scheduled passenger and cargo intrastate service with a fleet of Piper lightplanes. Daily and limited weekend revenue flights are inaugurated linking the company’s base with Austin, Beaumont, Lake Jackson, and Houston.
Frequencies are maintained with little fanfare until the fall of 1988.
World History
