The purpose of this book is not to retell, in overview and analysis, the story of the world’s air transport industry. This has been done by others more adequately in their full-length studies.5 Brief biographies of airline companies have, in the past, appeared in aviation directories, either standalone books or insertions in magazines, such as the annual directory in FlightInternational. They have also appeared in corporation guides, such as Moody’s Transportation Manual or the various Hoover handbooks.
This is, however, the first guide written to specifically provide detailed historical and in-depth year by year operational and statistical profiles for a significant number of the commercial air transport concerns extant worldwide during the past 90 years.
Thousands of flying concerns have been in operation through the last nine decades; regretfully, many more than we are able to cover. The majority of these have quickly come and gone, usually stimulated by some grand opportunity. For example, a huge number of surplus aircraft and trained airmen became available after the Second World War and were joined together in a hoped-for air transport revolution. The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) once estimated that 3,600 U. S. carriers were established in the three years after World War II. There were 30 private charter carriers in France in 1946 and Flight listed 70 independent companies flying in Britain in April 1949. All of these were mostly one-man operations that quickly died.
Rotary-wing airlines and air charter operations were growth innovations of the 1950s and 1960s. Only a few helicopter airlines currently exist, although many others provide lift in support of such commercial enterprises as the offshore energy industry and forestry. In some countries, civil helicopter operators are contracted to act as coast guard search-and-rescue units. Charter companies have had a tremendous failure rate; although many continue to be formed, many have also failed. The same is true of commuter airlines (now known as the regional airlines), which grew out of the air taxi industry in these years. Most of those surviving are now affiliated with larger, scheduled carriers, either as partners or as outright fully owned subsidiaries.
Another period of intense growth came in the late 1970s and 1980s, with airline deregulation, privatization, and liberalization. In the United States, following the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, new entrants, many offering huge fare discounts to passengers, multiplied; in the fierce competition that followed, many of these also perished. Other regions have also seen similar growth; easyJet, Ltd. in the United Kingdom and Azzur Air, S. p.A. in Italy are recent examples.
The stories, often in considerable detail, of contemporary major and regional passenger carriers, large and small, scheduled and unscheduled, around the world. Examples include American Airlines, Japan Air Lines Company, Ltd. (2), Mexicana Airlines, S. A. de C. V., Transaero Airlines, Britannia Airways, Ltd., Iraqi Airways, and SA Express (Pty.), Ltd.
Major freight lines such as FedEx and Nippon Cargo Airlines, Ltd. are included. Rotary-wing airlines such as New York Helicopter Corporation, or helicopter companies that provide on - or offshore passenger charters, carry cargo, save lives, fight fires, or harvest timber, such as Bristow Helicopters, Ltd. or Erickson Air Crane are listed as well. A number of passenger-oriented general aviation or executive transport concerns are also included. Even small, often short-lived charter operators based on fixed base operators (FBO) are noted as data permits.
Very few airline types are specifically excluded. Military air transport divisions, such as Military Airlift Command, or covert operations with no civil cover, like Air America, are generally not included. However, space is given to a few military units in foreign countries specifically tasked to transport civilians, such as TAME (Transportes Aereos Na-cionals Ecuatorianos) operated by the Ecuadorian Air Force. Due to their number, dedicated air ambulance operators are excluded as are most, though not all, of the smaller helicopter and fixed-wing tour, cropdusting, or bush operators.
Entries within The Airline Encyclopedia, 1909-1999 are arranged alphabetically, from A to Z. Data enhancing the company profiles varies, being more complex for those larger concerns still viable at the time the work was finished. Corporate information for the very new is often spotty, sometimes consisting only of city/country location and start-up date. In addition to available traffic and financial information provided, every effort has been made to include information on the following points: Aircraft, routes, and services operated Associated personnel, both company and celebrity Alliances, pool, and interline services records Accidents and incidents Terrorism and in-flight crime
Government service in war and peace, including covert operations Major sporting or political occasions (e. g., Olympic Games or political conventions)
Natural disasters, such as hurricanes or earthquakes Literary or film references or production involvement Unusual anecdotes believed by the writer to have historical interest Literally thousands of different classes of service and special promotions have been offered over the years, some for only short periods of time; those believed to be of historical or other interest are noted, including many of those given specific names.
A primary consideration for an operator’s inclusion here was the identification of a beginning date. To claim a company was active in a given decade (say the 1930s or 1950s) is too vague a reference to obtain a slot for the concern herein because it would prove very difficult, if not impossible, to build a start to finish chronological corporate biography. I am aware that critics will argue that a number of carriers have thus been omitted which deserved inclusion. If they will assist me in obtaining correct information, new profiles will be constructed for the next edition.
If a company is known to have ceased trading before the completion of this compilation, the airline is noted by its name, nationality, and date of operation. If an airline is still flying (or believed to be, without evidence to the contrary in hand), the directory data is much more extensive. For those carriers, we offer not only name, but, as available, address, telephone and fax numbers, Internet website addresses, two-letter lATA or three-letter ICAO codes, and year founded. Traffic and financial data, taken from government, international organization, industry, and regulatory reports are also provided as available.
Every effort has been made to properly identify aircraft employed by the various carriers. However, with all the selling, trading, and leasing of airliners over the years, this is a nearly impossible goal. Rather than provide generic model numbers (e. g., All Nippon Airways Company, Ltd. Boeing 747-400), we have attempted to be correct (e. g., ANA Boeing 747-481). Where we have failed to be exactly correct (which can happen particularly with the advent of large-scale aircraft leasing), we assume the fault and await assistance from readers.
No effort is made to provide complete fleet lists; such data would require too much space and is available elsewhere in print and on the World Wide Web. I have been particularly impressed with the Herculean efforts made by William “Bill” Harris, who has given us a huge Commercial Jet Aircraft Census (Http://www. bird. ch/bharris). This site allows one to choose census lists from Airbus, Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, or Lockheed; it also allows its users to review the latest “Jet Airliner Status Report,” an updated “Jet Airliner Total Losses” list; or to review Harris’s database by “Airline 2- & 3-Letter Codes.”
A similar, though smaller undertaking is the online compilation of Aeromoe’s U. S. Airline Fleets (Http://www. geocities. com/~aeromoe/ airlines. html).
In addition, Luxembourg native Marc Schaeffer has published a very helpful homepage that not only provides remarkably full coverage for the de Havilland Comet, but also provides significant detail for those who would keep up with jetliner acquisitions and disposals. Among the subpages available are listings for all Boeing jet orders/backlogs since 1955, orders/backlogs for all jet aircraft orders (regardless of manufacturer) since 1997, a census of the latest order cancellations, and a census of the latest leased jetliners. It is hoped that the helpful, current Marc Schaeffer’s Homepage (Http://www. geocities. com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/8803) will be maintained for years to come.
The names, official and otherwise, assigned to aircraft by manufacturers or operators are often given. The author is aware that this is a reference quagmire in that these names are changed often, may be used more than once, and are not an accurate tool for identification. Like the names of specific services, they are, however, colorful and, in the case of certain earlier airlines, such as Imperial Airways, Ltd., and even some modern lines, such as the second Pan American World Airways, add spice to the tale and are therefore employed as known.
For the most part, company portraits are presented under the most recent airline name, as well as predecessor identity. For example, today’s British Airways traces its heritage back through British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), British European Airways Corporation (BEA), the first British Airways and Imperial Airways, Ltd. to several small companies merged in 1924. There are a few cases (and BA is one of them) where the name has changed slightly, usually by virtue of privatization; in those cases, identified in the text, the previous name may be retained for the sake of consistency and orderly profile completion. Where there have been more than one company with the same name, these are entered chronologically and identified by number, e. g., Japan Air Lines Company, Ltd. (1) and Japan Air Lines Company, Ltd. (2).
Each profile receives individual chronological coverage. Company cross-referencing is provided throughout the text and within entries, where names of other covered carriers are shown in bold type in the same manner as specific years, e. g., 1997. As a textual aid, italics are employed for book and motion picture names, and names of specific aircraft. To save space, airlines are sometimes referred to within their profiles by abbreviations.
Appendixes
This work contains two appendixes: a list of Acronyms and Abbreviations used in this book, and a list of Research Sources pertaining to the airline industry. The abbreviations include international and governmental organizations and institutions, airline codes, airports, and measurements. The descriptive list of sources includes bibliographies, newspapers and journals, indices, handbook, book publishers, and Internet websites dealing with all aspects of the airline industry.
Indexes
Two indexes are included: Regional Index of Carriers, and Name and Subject Index. The Regional Index lists airlines profiled by nation. Beginning with Africa and the Mideast, it proceeds to Asia and Oceania, moves on to Europe (including the CIS), then South America, and concludes with an accounting of the carriers of Canada and the United States.
The master Name and Subject Index is keyed to airlines and is designed to allow detailed entry into the “who” and “what” of the encyclopedia.
Serving as something of a “who’s who” or “who was who” of the airline scene, the Name and Subject Index covers individuals mentioned in the profiles. Among these are airline founders, chairmen, presidents, directors, vice presidents, and chief pilots. Other diverse personnel noted include transport ministers and other government officials (not excluding prime ministers, presidents, and dictators); aviation industry, union, association, and trade executives and representatives; sports, entertainment, and media celebrities; financiers, investors, and consultants; military, police, and intelligence officers; criminals, terrorists, and skyjackers; and average passengers.
The subject portion of the Name and Subject Index provides extensive coverage of such topics as skyjacking and fatal crashes. Information can also be found on other such relevant areas as: international incidents; bad landings/nonfatal ditchings; engine/propeller failures; turbulence and general weather related problems; near-misses; unusual in-flight events; crimes; ground fires and other difficulties; wars, crises, evacuations; hurricanes and floods; motion pictures and novels based on or depicting actual airlines; “firsts”; “records”; provinces and states of Canadian and U. S. based airlines; strikes/job related events; aircraft launch customers; named services; and manufacturing, legal and judicial, financial, government, and travel agencies sponsoring or otherwise involved in or with the airline industry.
While every effort has been made to ensure currency, a problem particularly difficult with some carriers beginning in the period 1999-2000, it is freely admitted that, for a lone-eagle author, the process of remaining up-to-date on a project this large and with its many entries developed into an art akin to that practiced by the circus plate-juggler. It is probable that a few dishes may have been dropped, particularly with regard to the dates of airline failures, and it is expected that critics and reviewers will gladly point these out.
Usefulness—an “airline” is a commonly used corporate name for what the law formally calls an “air carrier,” a term derived from the time when, in fact, the airlines were only regarded as mail carriers. Both terms are often interchangeably employed.
2. Early traffic figures are from ICAO reports. The 1997 data is taken from 673 airlines surveyed for the “World Airline Report 1997,” Air Transport World 35 (July 1998): 82. 1998 figures are provided for 696 airlines included in the “World Airline Report, 1998,” Air Transport World 36 (July 1999): 88. During these and other years, many hundreds of additional air taxi, unscheduled operators, and general aviation concerns not covered by the industry’s trade journal could yield another million plus passengers. The preliminary 1998 ICAO assessment comes from its December 23, 1998, PIO 15/98, available at Http://www. icao. org/icao/en/nr/pio98l5.htm.
3. “World Airline Report 1997,” Air Transport World 35 (July 1998): 57-58 and ICAO PIO 07/99, available at Http://www. icao. org/icao/en/ nrZpio0799.htm. Again, as with traffic figures, many small, corporate, or unscheduled operations are not included. Remarks concerning ground and water transport are based upon data provided in the 3d ed. of John
J. Coyle, Edward J. Bardi, and Joseph L. Cavinato’s Transportation, published by West in 1990.
4. See the entries in Michael Taylor and David Mondey’s The Guinness Book of Aircraft Records, Facts, and Feats (New York: Canopy Books, 1992), 29-30, 33, 92.
5. Beginning with R. E. G. Davies’ definitive A History of the World’s Airlines originally authored in 1960 and reprinted (New York: AMS Press, 1983). Davies has also penned histories of airlines in the United States, Asia, and South America, as well as pictorial reviews of a number of noted companies. Of particular value as a complement for Davies and covering another geographical region is Ben R. Guttery’s Encyclopedia of African Airlines (Jefferson, N. C.: McFarland & Co., 1998). Of course, no airline encyclopedia would be complete without a nod toward John Stroud’s classic Annals of British and Commonwealth Air Transport, 1919-1960 (London: Putnam, 1960).
Myron J. Smith Jr. Chuckey, Tennessee
World History
