WEST COAST CHARTERS: 19711 Campus Drive, Suite 200, Santa Ana, California, 92707, United States; Phone (714) 852-8340; Fax (714) 260-3999; Year Founded 1987. WCA is set up at John Wayne-Orange County Airport in 1987 to provide executive and small group passenger charters throughout the U. S., Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Twelve years later, the company employs 10 pilots at this location, 1 of 6 from which it operates.
A large fleet of turbojet, turboprop, and piston-engine aircraft are stationed at Santa Ana, including 1 Dassault Falcon 20, 1 Cessna 550 Citation II, 2 Beech Super King Air 200s, 1 Super King Air 300, 2 King Air 90s, 1 Beech 58 Baron, and 2 A36 Bonanzas.
A Citation II is flown from Carlsbad, California, and another from Camarillo. A Super King Air 200 is based at Daugherty Field, Long Beach, with a C-650 Citation VII stationed at Van Nuys. A Citation V and an IAI 1124 Westwind I also operate for the company from Phoenix.
WEST INDIAN AERIAL EXPRESS, C. A. (WIAX): Dominican Republic (1927-1928). In the fall of 1926, the famous air racer and stunt pilot Basil Rowe and his companion, Bill Wade, having found the U. S. market for their peculiar skills nearly dried up, take ship (with two automobiles and two WACO 9 biplanes) for Puerto Rico. The islands of the Caribbean prove more receptive to the two pilots, even if the terrain is more dangerous.
Having worked their way accident-by-repaired-accident over to Bara-hona in the Dominican Republic by late spring 1927, the two flyers are more than ready to listen to the requests of a group of local sugar plantation owners and other businessmen. Led by H. L. Harper, the gentlemen are ready to put up $50,000 to create an airline that will connect Barahona with the outside world. With their WACOs constituting the initial airline fleet, Rowe and Wade, with Roscoe Dunten as operations manager, incorporate WIAX on June 27.
With Rowe gone north to purchase aircraft, an Australian pilot named Jenkins makes the company’s first proving flight to Port au Prince on July 14. En route, Jenkins is lost. WIAX seeks the aid of USMC Observation Squadron 9, based in Haiti, which quickly locates the WACO downed with engine failure on the shores of Lake Enriquillo. Once repairs are made, Jenkins is able to take off and complete his run to Port au Prince, where he crash-lands. From Port au Prince, Jenkins, having repaired his plane overnight, flies on to Santo Domingo on July 15.
Meanwhile, having approached several manufacturers in New York and Pennsylvania, Basil Rowe purchases the former American Legion, a Keystone Pathfinder (one of only three built) originally outfitted for the transatlantic Orteig Prize competition won by Charles A. Lindbergh. In addition to this trimotor, which is rechristened Santa Maria, he purchases a Fairchild FC-2, which is named La Nina, and embarks for Barahona after having obtained the service of his friend Cy Caldwell to fly the Fairchild.
During a stopover at Miami to repair an oil leak, Caldwell is telephoned by J. E. Whitbeck, Key West representative of the infant Pan American Airways (PAA), on October 18. Unable to obtain its own aircraft, PAA needs to get a mail shipment over to Havana the next day in order to qualify for a Post Office subsidy. Required to reach the Dominican Republic by way of Cuba anyway, Caldwell agrees to a $145.50 charter and flies down to Key West about dusk.
On the morning of October 19, Caldwell departs Key West and drops off Whitbeck’s mail sacks before proceeding to his original destination. Caldwell’s good deed for Pan American Airways (PAA) is made without company authority and inadvertently allows the rival to begin a growth surge that will eventually swallow WIAX.
Regularly scheduled WIAX services commence on December 1. Rates charged for seats from San Juan on either the 10-passenger Santa Maria or four-passenger La Nina are $50 to Santo Domingo and $85 to Port-au-Prince. The frequency to the former destination is thrice weekly and the latter once per week, with cargo carried at 250 per pound.
Also, mail contracts are held from the governments of Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic at $2.50 per pound, while subsidies from the Haitian government total $500 per month and $200 per month from the Dominican Republic. As the company is not authorized to fly U. S. mail from the U. S. territory of Puerto Rico, there is no subsidy there; however, the monthly rental fee at San Juan airport is kept by local authorities at only $10.
Service continues apace through the Christmas season and on into the new year. On February 6-7 1928, while on his Caribbean goodwill trip, Charles A. Lindbergh contracts to carry WIAX mail to Havana aboard the Spirit of St. Louis—the only time that famous Ryan monoplane is ever used for commercial purposes. On February 20, the carrier stretches its three-stop route to five by adding Santiago de Cuba in the west and St. Thomas/St. Croix in the east.
This expansion proves expensive.
At one point, credit for gasoline is stopped. Later in the month, having sold all of its seats to buy gasoline, Rowe pilots the Santa Maria to Puerto-au-Prince on only two engines, having blown a cylinder in a side mount. There he is able to beg sufficient fuel from an oil company agent to get back to Santo Domingo, where he talks another agent into just enough to reach San Juan, where a new propeller awaits. The 1,000-mile trip is made in 10 hours.
In response to the March 8 passage of the Foreign Air Mail Act, the U. S. Post Office, on May 31, puts out bid requests for FAM Route No. 6 (Miami-San Juan), which may be contested by U. S. airlines. To meet that requirement, Manager Dunten travels to New York to enlist support. He even talks to PAA chief Juan Trippe, who immediately offers to buy Dunten out in exchange for 7,000 Pan Am shares worth $100,000. The offer is left on the table, neither accepted nor refused.
Meanwhile, West Indian Aerial Express, Inc. is formed in June as a holding company for WIAX, C. A. Initial capitalization is $92,000 and the officers include Graham Grosvenor and Sherman Fairchild, who becomes president. When the bids are opened on July 14, both Pan Am and WIAX have bid the same amount: $2 per mile. Postmaster General Walter Folgler Brown, lobbied earlier by Trippe and his technical advisor, Lindbergh, but not by Rowe or Dunten, awards the contract to Pan Am, which has already demonstrated its ability to exercise a FAM route (FAM-1, won thanks to Cy Caldwell’s flight the previous October).
Recognizing that it cannot be profitable without a United States mail contract, WIAX opens—or rather reopens — merger discussions with its rival on August 7. This time, Juan Trippe offers 5,008 shares, with a value of $75,120. On September 12, with a deal all but concluded, a hurricane grounds La Nina and wrecks the company’s headquarters at Santo Domingo, destroying all files and records. Still, the acquisition process continues. Even before a formal merger is announced, the Santa Maria is delivered to Pan American Airways (PAA) on September 20.
In perhaps an ironic twist on the company-saving gesture of a year before, Basil Rowe, on WIAX’s last flight, is allowed to take the first U. S. mail service out of San Juan to Port-au-Prince on October 15—in La Nina, under contract to PAA. On October 16, it is announced that the Aviation Corporation of the Americas will purchase the company, its first significant takeover of another carrier, on November 28. WIAX is dissolved on December 22.
Offered a pilot’s position by the new owner, Basil Rowe accepts and goes on to a noteworthy three-decade career that he will recall in his 1956 autobiography Under My Wings (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill).
Roscoe Dunten, who had negotiated with Juan Trippe in June and August, is allowed to remain as San Juan station chief. In 1933, he will commit suicide.
WEST ISLE AIR: 4000 Airport Road, Suite A, Anacortes, Washington 98221, United States; Phone (206) 293-4691; Fax (206) 293-0517; Code 7Y; Year Founded 1990. During the first quarter of 1990, the Ana-cortes, Washington-based charter carrier Island Air is sold to Jim Burton, who wishes to begin scheduled services linking his base with Bellingham, Bayview, and other points in the San Juan Islands. After changing the corporate identity, Burton commences revenue flights in April with a fleet of Cessna 172s/182s, 1 Cessna 206, 1 Cessna 210, and 1 Piper PA-32 Cherokee Six. Operations continue apace in 1991-1995.
President Burton’s concern employs 7 workers in 1996 and devotes 2 Cessna 206s and 1 Cherokee Six to the transport of scheduled passengers. By December 31, enplanements reach 22,472.
Customer bookings in 1997 climb 13.2% to 25,432. That boarding figure grows by 2,000 (6.8%) in 1998.
Passenger boardings jump another 4.9% in 1999 to 28,000.
WEST OF SCOTLAND AIR SERVICES, LTD.: United Kingdom (1935). In July 1935 , West of Scotland Air Services, Ltd. is given a five-year concession by the Stornoway Trust to open air transport services between Stornoway and Glasgow. Employing a de Havilland Fox Moth, a Short Scion, and a Short Senior Scion, the company flies an experimental daily Greenock-Arran frequency that is shortened to weekend-only during August and September. Unsuccessful, the operation is abandoned.
WEST PACIFIC AIRLINES: United States (1970-1971). West Pacific is set up at Seattle, Washington, in 1970 to provide scheduled intrastate commuter services. Employing a pair of Beech 99s, the new entrant begins flying to Yakima, Pasco, Spokane, and Bremerton. Unable to achieve viability, the carrier folds in 1971.
WEST PENN COMMUTER: United States (1985-1986). Mike Cardi-mone and Leo Angevine establish Bradford Air Transport at St. Mary’s, Pennsylvania, during February 1985 to provide scheduled passenger and cargo flights to Pittsburgh. Employing a Piper PA-32 Cherokee Six, Bradford inaugurates daily roundtrips in March. Operations continue apace until the following March when the company is renamed.
Recession and lack of traffic conspire to put the company out of business in April 1986.
WEST WIND AVIATION, INC.: Hangar 10, Saskatoon Airport, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, 87L 6S1, Canada; Phone (308) 652-9121; Fax (308) 652-3958; Http://www. avcanwest. com/sk. westwind/index. html; Code WE; Year Founded 1995. West Wind is set up by Dennis Goll at Saskatoon Airport in 1995 to provide both scheduled and non-scheduled passenger and cargo services to local and regional destinations. A hub is simultaneously established at Regina and revenue flights commence with a fleet that includes 6 Cessna 401s, 1 C-402, 1 Piper PA-31-310 Navajo, 1 PA-31T Cheyenne, 1 Swearingen SA-226 Merlin IV, 2 Beech King Air 100s, 2 British Aerospace BAe (HS) 748-B2s, and 1 BAe Jetstream 31.
The Jetstream 31 is temporarily replaced in 1996 by a pair of Super King Air 200s. The BAe returns to the fleet in 1997. Flights continue in
1998-1999. The workforce, at the beginning of the latter year, totals 110.
WESTAIR: 5005 East Anderson, Fresno, California, 93727, United States; Phone (209) 454-7844; Fax (209) 454-7840; Code PCM; Year Founded 1992. Late in 1991, Westair Commuter Airlines Chairman Timothy Flynn announces that the scheduled division of WestAir Holdings will be sold to rapidly expanding Mesa Airlines the following summer.
When the WCA transfer is completed on July 1, 1992, the former owner maintains this all-cargo unit to operate a lucrative contract on behalf of Federal Express (FedEx). Flynn remains chairman, with Lawrence W. Olson as president. Bases are set up at Oakland and Ontario, California, and Westair begins service to 10 cities from each of these hubs with a fleet of 24 Cessna 208 Caravan Is, 7 Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirantes, and 1 Beech Super King Air 200.
Two more Caravans are acquired in 1993 and five Bandeirantes are withdrawn. The last two Embraers leave the fleet in 1994. One more C-208B arrives in 1995, followed by seven additional units in 1996.
No changes are made in Chairman Olson’s fleet in 1997-2000. The workforce, at the beginning of the latter year, totals 60.
WESTAIR AVIATION, LTD.: General Aviation Centre, Shannon Airport, County Clare, Ireland; Phone 353 (1) 61 475166; Fax 353 (1) 61 474544; Http://ireland. iol. ie/~westair; Year Founded 1977.
Westair Aviation is established at Shannon in 1977 to provide individual and small group passenger charters, with both rotary - and fixed-wing aircraft. Over the next 22 years, the company operates long - and short-haul jet charters, all-weather day and night helicopter services, provides pilot training, and operates a maintenance service.
By 2000, the fleet includes 6 helicopters and 5 British Aerospace (HS) corporate jets. The company, which not only coordinates an air ambulance service, remains Ireland’s only all-weather corporate helicopter operator.
World History
