HAH is established at Hudiksvall in 1994 as a subsidiary of Holm-stroem Flyg, A. B. to offer scheduled domestic commuter flights. Revenue services are inaugurated with three Shorts 360-100s. In July 1995, the decision is taken to provide the company with a new corporate identity. Its aircraft launch services on September 1 as Holmstroem Air Sweden, A. B.
HOLMSTROEM AIR SWEDEN, A. B.: Skogsta 41, Hudiksvall, S-82492, Sweden; Phone 46 (650) 24000; Fax 46 (650) 24224; Code HJ; Year Founded 1995. In July 1995, the decision is taken to provide Hultsfred-based Holmstroem Air (Hudiksvall, A. B.) with a new corporate identity. On September 1, Managing Director Sivert Andersson’s three Shorts 330s resume services over the previous Holmstroem routes.
The fleet is altered in 1996 to include 1 each Dornier 228-100 and 228-201 plus 3 British Aerospace BAe Jetstream 31s. Destinations visited now include Borlaenge, Gallivare, Goteborg, Huitsfred, Oskar-shamn, Mora, Stockholm (Arlanda Airport), Sundsvall, Umea, and Vasteras.
In order to provide itself with assured feed, the Swedish regional Skyways, A. B. purchases 91% majority ownership in March 1997. The company name remains the same and Managing Director Andersson is left in charge. In August, a former American Eagle Jetstream 32 is placed into service; it frees up one of the Dorniers for use on dedicated cargo frequencies.
HOLMSTROM AIR (HOLMSTROM FLYG, A. B.): Sweden (19891995). Holmstrom Flyg, A. B. is founded at Hultsfred in early 1989 to offer scheduled services to Stockholm. Founder John Olof Holmstrom becomes managing director and inaugurates flights with a fleet of 2 Dornier 228-100s, and 1 each 228-201, Beech 99, and Super King Air 200.
The year does not, however, begin auspiciously. While on final approach to Oskarshamn after a May 8 flight from Stockholm, a Beech 99 with 2 crew and 14 passengers suddenly enters a steep dive to the left and crashes 150 m. short of the runway; there are no survivors.
Operations continue apace in 1990-1991 and three Shorts 360-300s and a Piper PA-31-310 Navajo are purchased. In 1992, a fourth Dornier is acquired, a Dash-201.
Destinations visited in 1993 include Gavle, Hudiksvail, Idre, Mora, Oskarshsmn, and Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport. In response to the national airline recession that brings a traffic downturn, the fleet is reduced to the two Dornier 228-201s, the Shorts, and the Navajo.
Flights continue in 1994 and frequencies are increased after the addition of an Avions de Transport Regional ATR42-312 leased from Cim-ber Air, A. S. In July 1995, subsidiary Holmstroem Air Hudiksvall, A. B. is established to operate commuter passenger flights from Hudiksvall.
At this point, both the parent and its offspring are renamed. The former becomes Highland Air, A. B., while the latter becomes Holmstrom Air Sweden, A. B., better known as Swedeways, A. B.
HOLMSTROM AIR SWEDEN See SWEDEWAYS, A. B.
HOLYMAN’S AIRWAYS (PTY.), LTD.: Australia (1933-1936):
With capitalization equally provided by Huddart Parker Ltd., the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand shipping firm, plus Holyman Brothers, Ltd., the corporate identity of Tasmanian Aerial Services (Pty.), Ltd. is changed to Holyman’s Airways, Ltd. in late 1933.
Given Hart Aircraft Co. (Pty.), Ltd.’s subsidized mail route Launce-ston-Flinders Island-Melbourne, the carrier’s new de Havilland DH 61, Miss Hobart, piloted by Victor Holyman and Gilbert Jenkins, initiates service on October 1, 1934. Nine days later, the aircraft is lost (12 dead).
A new DH 89 is acquired in the summer of 1935; christened Memma, it begins weekday flights from Melbourne-Sydney via Canberra on October 7. On October 29, a Melbourne-Adelaide frequency is introduced.
The fleet at year’s end comprises the Memma, two DH 86s, the Lep-ana and Loila, two DH 84s, Golden West and Miss Launceston, plus a Fox Moth, a Percival Gull, and three DH Moths. Orders are placed for three Douglas DC-2s, the first of the large American airliners to be allowed entry into the Australian market.
The first DC-2 is delivered to the carrier in June 1936; named Bun-gana, it is placed in service on a Melbourne to Hobart via Launceston route. On July 1, Holyman’s is the largest of four airlines merged to form ANA (Australian National Airlines [Pty.], Ltd.); the company retains its identity until November 2, when it is officially absorbed.
HOME AVIATION, LTD.: Canada (1990-1999). Home is created in the early 1990s as the charter division of Home Oil Company, Ltd., which has had its own corporate flight unit for some years operating a de Havilland DH 103 Dove flown by the unit’s founder and chief pilot, Donald Douglas (no relation to the famous manufacturer).
In early 1996, Home Oil is sold to Anderson Exploration, Ltd., which in turn sells Home Aviation, together with its Beech Super King Air 200 and Cessna Citation II, to Richard Hotchkiss and three partners in March. In June, Hotchkiss adds a Learjet 55.
By 1997, Home, which is operating from an inherited, leased Esso Avitat hangar, is flying passenger and cargo charters with 8 aircraft. It also operates medevac flights and manages aircraft for various clients.
During the spring of 1998, merger discussions are begun between CEO Hotchkiss and Gordon Laing, who together with his wife and several partners own Calgary-based Sunwest International Aviation Services, Ltd., and his chief pilot, Mark Eberl. Although discussions between the two concerns continue into the summer, they end abruptly in August after Gordon and Kathy Laing are killed in an accident.
Southwest and Home resume amalgamation discussions in January 1999. On June 24, a merger is completed and the two concerns become Sunwest Home Aviation, Ltd., with Eberl and Hotchkiss as joint managing directors.
HONDA AIRWAYS COMPANY, LTD.: 51-3 Ooaza Shimogo Kawashima-cho, Hiki-Gun, Saitama-Prefecture, Japan; Phone 81 492-99-1111; Fax 81 492-97-7748; Year Founded 1964. Honda is established in 1964 to offer small group passenger and other contract service flights with a mixed fleet of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. By 2000, the company, which now also flies small package cargo and medevac, employs 96 full-time pilots. The rotary-wing fleet includes 1 Agusta AG-109AMk. II, 14 Eurocopter AS-350B Ecureuils, 1 Eurocopter BK-117, and 2 Robinson R-22s. Also flown are 18 Cessna 172 Skyhawks.
HONG KONG AIR INTERNATIONAL (PTY.), LTD.: Hong Kong (1966-1975). A subsidiary of Hutchison International, Ltd., HKA is formed as a helicopter airline to provide scheduled services between Kai Tak International Airport and Hong Kong Island.
Like many similar operations around the world, costs prove too high and the carrier is forced to cease operations in 1975.
HONG KONG AIRWAYS, LTD.: Hong Kong (1947-1959). With support and equipment from British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), HKA is set up on October 22, 1947 to feed traffic coming out of China to the British flag carrier at Hong Kong’s airport. Another purpose is to regain commerce lost to Pan American Airways (PAA) via its subsidiary China National Airways Corporation (CNAC). Outfitted with Douglas DC-3s from BOAC, HKA inaugurates twice-daily service to Shanghai on December 2.
Twice-daily frequencies are initiated on January 10, 1948 between Hong Kong and Canton. The new route proves so rewarding that it is doubled to four times per day on March 22.
Later in the spring, flights begin to Manila and a spirited competition is undertaken with Cathay Pacific Airways (Pty.), Ltd.
On May 13, 1949, the Hong Kong government, acting on orders from the Colonial Office in London, divides the routes emanating out of Hong Kong between HKA and Cathay. The BOAC-supported company receives all of those to the north, except Manila, which it must share with Cathay. When the forces of Mao Tse-tung take power in China, they order all Chinese contact with the West be severed, including HKA services. As a result, on November 30 BOAC sells its stake to Jardine, Matheson. The new owners sell the Douglas transports and consider new services.
In January 1950, Hong Kong Airways, which had once aspired to size, is reduced to operating a single route to and from Taipei with a Curtiss C-46 Commando leased from The Flying Tiger Line and a DC-4 chartered from Northwest Airlines. This service is the company’s entire business for the next five years. In October 1954, HKA orders a pair of Vickers Viscount 760Ds, while the TFTL Curtiss lease ends in November.
In January 1955, BOAC reenters the picture, taking back the stake it had sold six years earlier. While awaiting delivery of the Viscounts, an effort is made by the British company to revitalize HKA and expand its services with leased aircraft.
The Viscounts arrive in January 1957 and enter service on February 25 between Hong Kong and Seoul, South Korea. The turboprops expand HKA business in March when they begin flying to Manila, following up with services in April to Taipei and in May to Tokyo.
Strong, but unprofitable, competition now resumes with Cathay Pacific. Eighteen months into the fiscal bloodletting, BOAC and Cathay officials agree to rationalize the situation by combining forces. Cathay Pacific Holdings (Pty.), Ltd. is established in December 1958 for the purpose of organizing a merger of the two airlines.
Management of HKA passes to Cathay Pacific on February 1, 1959. Assimilation begins and is formally announced on June 8; the process is completed on July 1, with Butterfield and Swire (Pty.), Ltd. the majority owners and Cathay Pacific the surviving name.
HONG KONG DRAGON AIRLINES. See DRAGONAIR (PTY.), LTD.
HOOD AIRLINES: United States (1963-1972). Hood is organized at Killeen, Texas, in late 1963 to offer lightplane shuttle service for military personnel stationed at Fort Hood. Employing Beech 18s and Beech 99s, the new entrant inaugurates scheduled daily roundtrips, beginning on April 27, 1964, linking the company base with Dallas and Houston.
The carrier is unable to maintain economic viability and its fiscal situation deteriorates throughout 1967. On May 23, 1968, Ted C. Connell’s DAL Airlines, Hood’s major Killeen-based competitor, purchases the company from bankruptcy proceedings. DAL is merged into Hood and the amalgamated company emerges not as an upgraded DAL Airlines, but as a new Hood Airlines.
In 1969, Hood transports 34,700 customers.
In 1970, owner-operator Connell purchases Rio Airways, an airline begun as a charter operator in 1963 and operating a single Austin-Houston route with a Piper PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftain since August 1966.
The Hood fleet in 1971 includes the Rio Piper plus a Douglas DC-3 and a Cessna 402. With assistance from Air South President/CEO F. E. “Pete” Howe, then in the process of transferring to a similar post with Hood, Chairman Connell is able to acquire a new intrastate route from Dallas to Wichita Falls on November 15.
Howe’s presidency begins on January 1, 1972 and, on May 1, the merger of Hood into Rio is completed. The Hood name disappears and a stronger Rio Airways begin operations.
World History
