FLEET AIRLINES: United States (1967-1969). Fleet Airlines is set up at Hopkins, Minnesota, in the summer of 1967 to provide scheduled daily passenger and cargo services from the Minneapolis area to Duluth and Fargo. Regular de Havilland DH 104 Dove flights commence on August 26.
Early in 1968, corporate headquarters are transferred to Eden Prairie, Minnesota. From here, the route network is expanded by the addition of stops at Alexandria, Fergus Falls, Detroit Lakes, Baudette, and Roseau. Operations continue apace until the company goes out of business in December 1969.
FLEETWAY AIRLINES: United States (1967-1969). Fleetway is set up at Tyler, Texas, during the early summer of 1967 to provide scheduled passenger and cargo services to regional destinations. Outfitted with a fleet of Beech 99s and Cessna 402s, the company inaugurates daily roundtrips on July 24, linking its base with Austin, Longview, Houston, Dallas, Shreveport, Texarkana, and Nacogdoches. Service can only be maintained for two years.
FLEMING AIRWAYS SYSTEMS TRANSPORT (FAST): Philippines (1957-1965). Former Commercial Air Lines, Inc. (CALI) pilot James Fleming establishes FAST at Manila in October 1957 to provide low-fare Douglas DC-3 passenger charters around the Philippines. Revenue flights commence on March 5, 1958, but the company’s only aircraft, a chartered DC-3 with 3 crew and 37 passengers, fails its initial climb from Bacolod on March 22; although the aircraft is wrecked beyond repair in the subsequent forced landing, there are no fatalities. A second Douglas transport is acquired and undertakes services to Cebu.
Single-plane operations continue until March 5, 1961, when a four-engine DC-4 is acquired from KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines, N. V.) and is placed into service on the Bacolod route. After two years of half-hearted competition, the state carrier Philippine Air Lines (PAL) counters the Fleming DC-4 with DC-4 local services of its own.
By the middle of 1964, the nonscheduled carrier has once again bettered its equipment, acquiring a DC-7 from KLM. This is the high-water point for this company, which now flies 2 DC-3s, 1 DC-4, and 1 DC-7.
A DC-3 is destroyed in a hangar fire at Panay City on May 20. The two four-engine airliners must be grounded during the fourth quarter for lack of spare parts.
A C-47 with 4 crew and 13 passengers crashes near Milluni, Northern Panay, on December 8; there are no survivors.
The company’s last operational aircraft, a DC-3 and a Nourdyn C-64 Norseman, continue flying until May 16, 1965, when the Douglas crashes in northern Panay. Bankrupt, Fleming flees the country; what is left of his company is liquidated on July 6.
FLEMING INTERNATIONAL AIRWAYS: United States (19731983). Fleming International is established at Miami in 1973 to provide scheduled all-cargo freight and express services, both on its own and as a subcontractor, to New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Boston, Dallas, Atlanta, and Baltimore. Services are maintained through the remainder of the decade with a fleet that comes to comprise 4 Boeing 727-100s, 8 Lockheed L-188AFs, and 1 DC-8-20F. Subcontract work is also undertaken for such freight forwarders as UPS (United Parcel Service) and larger cargo airlines like Emery Air Freight. Charters are also flown and aircraft are leased upon occasion.
Problems with the No. 2 engine cause an L-188AF with three crew to abort its takeoff from St. Louis on July 6, 1977. After returning to the ramp where maintenance on the power plant is completed, a second takeoff is attempted. The plane rises 8,000 m. before veering left and crashing; there are no survivors.
In 1979 the firm employs 130. On February 3, a door falls off an L-188A, narrowly missing a home in Jacksonville, Florida.
A total of 68.03 million FTKs are flown during the year.
Operations continue apace in 1980-1982, during which years the Electra fleet reaches 10. The carrier shuts down in early 1983. It will be reincarnated as Cam Air International.
FLEXAIR, B. V.: The Netherlands (1989-1994). Set up by Flexifloat at Rotterdam in early 1989, Flexair’s board appoints C. Carlo Englebert as president. He in turn assembles the company’s fleet—a single Dornier 228-202K. Coming as the result of a company contract with London (LCY) for the development of a floating harbor for the Falkland Islands, weekly scheduled services to London (LCY) begin on September 25.
In February 1990, frequencies from Rotterdam to London (LCY) are advanced to thrice-weekday, with one flight on weekends. Financial difficulties now occur and cause the carrier to stop flying in September.
The remainder of the year is spent in the pursuit of new financing; in mid-December, company services are tested on the Galileo computerized reservations system.
New funding is fortunately located from sources in the U. K. and Netherlands in the spring of 1991. Services resume and an option is taken up on a second Dornier 228-202K.
The year’s enplanements for the 16-employee company total 17,502.
In 1992, the number of frequencies increase to four per weekday (and once on Sunday’s) on the lone route from Rotterdam to London (LCY).
Passenger bookings in this recession year dip 1.3% to 17,277.
A second route is inaugurated, between Amsterdam and London (LCY), on July 19, 1993, with a second Dornier 228-202K leased from Aerocondor Transportes Aeros, S. A. of Portugal.
The new service cannot be sustained; the company is shut down in February 1994.
World History
