Founded at Sierra Vista, Arizona, during the summer of 1982 to provide scheduled passenger and cargo flights to Fort Huachuca, Phoenix, and Tucson.
Employing a Douglas DC-3 and Piper lightplanes, the company begins revenue flights in August, continuing them until it is forced out of business in late fall 1988.
SIERRA WEST AIRLINES (1): United States (1987-1991). Sierra West is set up at Albuquerque, New Mexico, early in the first quarter of 1987 to provide scheduled passenger and cargo flights to Taos. Employing a Piper PA-32 Seneca and a Cessna 402, daily roundtrip revenue services commence on March 1 and are continued until the company goes out of business during the recessionary year of 1991.
SIERRA WEST AIRLINES (2): 4511 Cheyenne Ave., Suite 401, Las Vegas, Nevada 89030; Phone (702) 638-0144; Fax (702) 638-0156; Year Founded 1996. Sierra West is established at Las Vegas in 1996 as the airline division of Pak West Airlines, Inc. Deborah Robinson is president with Marino Johannsson as vice president-operations. FAR Part 135 charter operations, primarily cargo, commence and continue with five Fairchild Metros, four Learjets, a Fairchild Merlin, and a Dassault Falcon 20.
SI-FLY (COMPAGNIA AEREA, S. p.A.): Piazzale Ungheria 58, Palermo, Sicily, 90141, Italy; Phone 091-6117801; Fax 091-6117580: Http://www. sifly. it; Year Founded 1994. Si-Fly is established at Palermo on October 29, 1994 to operate passenger charters. Following a long start-up period, capitalization of L4.33 billion is acquired and orders are placed for a pair of Avions de Transport Aerien ATR42-320s.
Arrival of the first ATR allows the company to begin holiday flights to Tunisia.
On October 1, 1999, scheduled service is inaugurated between Rome and Albenga, with regular flights to Perugia and Ancona added on October 18.
Having been chartered by the UN’s World Food Program for a humanitarian service, the ATR42, with 3 crew and 21 passengers departs Rome for Pristina, Kosovo, on November 12. En route, the turboprop crashes into a mountain N of Pristina, killing all aboard.
By early 2000, two more ATR42-320s are on hand and revenue flights over the October routes have been resumed. At the end of March, new services are inaugurated to Olbia, Sardinia, Pantelleria, and Parma. On July 15, twice-daily return service is launched from Rome to Lamezia Terme.
Following receipt of a third ATR in September, a new route is started between Milan and Crotone.
SILICON VALLEY EXPRESS: 1250 Aviation Ave., Suite 140, San Jose, California 95110, United States; Phone (408) 292-0677; Fax (408) 279-8487; Http://www. mindspring. com/~siliconvalleyexp; Year Founded 1983. Leslie Bensing establishes SVE at San Jose in 1983 to provide executive jet charters to destinations throughout the U. S. and Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America. Operations commence and continue with a fleet, which by 2000 includes 2 Learjet 35As.
SILKAIR (PTY.), LTD.: Core L, 5th Storey, SIA Superhub, 30 Airline Road, 1781, Singapore; Phone 65 540 6403; Fax 65 542 6286; Http://www. singaporeair. com/ silkair/default. htm; Code MI; Year Founded 1992. In an effort to change its image from that of a holiday-resort carrier to Singapore’s second scheduled airline with a business-class orientation, Tradewinds (Pty.), Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, Ltd., is renamed on April 1, 1992. With a workforce of 310 and a fleet that includes 2 leased Boeing 737-3Y0s and 1 B-737-3L9, General Manager Michael Chen’s company is renamed, receives a new logo and color scheme, and continues both scheduled and charter operations.
Tradewinds Tours & Travel (Pty.), Ltd. is restructured and becomes a subsidiary of the airline. Following the delivery of a chartered B-737-3M8 in July, new twice-weekly scheduled routes are opened to Cebu, Phnom Penh, and Medan and business-class service is introduced. In November, business-class passengers are introduced to the Sony video Walkman as an in-flight amenity.
Passenger boardings skyrocket 77.2% to 453,809 and a net income of $990,000 is earned.
Early in 1993, Syn Chung Wah remains as chairman with Mr. Chan as general manager. The fleet of the 305-employee company comprises 4 Boeing 737-300s, 2 of which are leased from GPA International, and orders are placed with the parent for 2 Airbus A310s.
On February 3, scheduled services are undertaken or expanded from Changi International Airport linking Singapore twice weekly with Kunming, Phnom Penh, Cebu, Hat Yai, Phuket, Yangon, Jakarta, and Medan. In July, the company begins to participate with its parent in the new Passage frequent flyer program.
A daily service is also jointly opened with Pelangi Air, Ltd. employing Pelangi’s two Dornier 228-200s from Seletar to Tioman Island, Malaysia.
Customer bookings swell 28.6% to 583,426.
The employee population grows to 380 in 1994 and the fleet is increased by the addition of 2 Airbus Industrie A310-222s leased from SIA. On Feburary 24, the company celebrates its fifth anniversary; both air and ground staff are given new uniforms to mark the event. Prior to the beginning of the summer schedule at the end of March, three new stations are opened, at Hangzoh, China, Manado, Indonesia, and Chi-angmai, Thailand.
During the spring, new service is inaugurated from Singapore to Manado on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Thrice-weekly B-737-3Y0 flights are also initiated to Kao-hsiung, Taiwan; however, this service becomes a daily A310-222 run on July 1.
Late in the year, a lease-purchase order is placed for two Fokker 70s with which to operate the company’s shorter routes out of Singapore.
Passenger boardings for the year advance 13.2% to 660,428. Revenues are $111 million and an operating loss of $20 million is suffered.
In February 1995, the carrier, in cooperation with Sempati Air, begins four weekly joint frequencies from Singapore to Lombok employing a Fokker 100. The first Fokker 70 arrives in March and after training and route proving, enters service on April 1 on routes from Singapore to Solo City, Mataram, Padang, and Pekanbaru.
Too expensive to operate, the A310-222s are meanwhile turned back to the carrier’s parent in March. Some of their capacity is taken up by the Fokker 70s, the second of which is delivered in October. Departure of the large Airbus wide-bodies causes a suspension of flights to Kao-hsiung and Hangzhou.
Customer bookings dip 2.6% to 642,172.
Airline employment stands at 483 in 1996 and the fleet includes 2 B-737-3Y0s, 2 Fokker 100s, 2 Fokker 70s, and 1 each B-737-3L9, B-737-3M8, and B-737-33A, the last unit leased.
The progress interrupted the previous year is resumed; enplanements surge 17.4% to 754,134.
The workforce is cut 21.3% in 1997 to 380. Destinations visited include Cebu, Chiang Mai, Hat Yai, Jakarta, Kuantan, Kunming, Langkawi, Lombok, Manado, Medan, Padang, Penkanbaru, Phnom Penh, Phuket, Solo City, Tioman, Ujung Pandang, Xiamen, Vientiane, and Yangon.
Twice-weekly roundtrips commence on March 23 between Singapore and Davao City in the southern Mindanao region of the Philippines. In April, the older twice-weekly route to Cebu becomes a daily service.
Under a dual-designator agreement with SilkAir, Garuda Indonesia is able to place its code aboard the Singapore company’s twice-weekly Fokker 70 roundtrips, beginning on June 2, between Singapore and Ba-likpapan, East Kalimantan (Borneo).
Orders are placed in June for 3 Airbus Industrie A319s and 5 A320s to begin delivery in September 1998, plus options on a mix of 10 more. A $250-million request is also made for lAE V2500 engines with which to power them.
En route from Jakarta’s Soekarno Hatta Airport to Singapore, Flight 1185, a B-737-33A piloted by Capt. Tsu Way Ming with 6 other crew and 97 passengers, crashes nose-down into the Musi River, 56 km. N of Palembang, Sumatra, on December 19; there are no survivors.
Passenger boardings continue to march upward, climbing 4.8% to 750,000.
The airline is particularly hard hit in 1998 by the Asian airline recession. The Indonesian market, which accounts for a third of the company’s traffic, virtually dries up by the time Sukharno is overthrown in late May. Although aircraft are redeployed to Malaysia and load factors of 60% are maintained, yields lost cannot be regained.
The first of five A320-232s is delivered in mid-September and begins revenue service on September 25 from Singapore to Phuket, Thailand. Although it had been planned to acquire the remaining four by 2000, deliveries of the last two, in the face of the recent Asian economic crisis, are pushed back to 2002.
On November 28, Oetarjo Diran, chairman of Indonesia’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission, reports that accident investigators are still no nearer to providing any specific answers concerning the cause of the crash of Flight 185. Experts have, however, ruled out weather and terrorism. Delays in publication of an official report will become embarrassing.
Flights continue in 1999. On June 2, twice-weekly nonstop A320-232 roundtrips are inaugurated between Singapore and Trivandrum, in the southwestern Indian state of Kerala.
In August, officials in Indonesia release a report on the 1997 crash of Flight 1185 that focuses heavy attention on pilot Capt. Tsu Way Ming’s financial and discipline problems. The report is turned over to police in both Indonesia and Singapore. On September 2, the Criminal Investigation Division of the Singapore Police Force indicates that a review of the accident is underway and that the case has been, for that purpose, classified as a murder-suicide.
The first of four A319-132s is delivered on September 3. In mid-October, as the second A319-132 is received, the last chartered B-737-3Y0 is withdrawn.
Passenger bookings total 252,000, while 3.51 million FTKs are operated. A total of 505 are employed by the company at the beginning of 2000.
A tragedy 110 nm. E of Chek Lap Kok Airport is barely averted on January 22 when Dragonair, Ltd. Flight 437, an A330-342 preparing to land at the Hong Kong airport after a service from Kao-hsiung, narrowly avoids a collision with Silk Air Flight 928, an A320-232 taking off for the continuation of a service from Singapore to Xiamen, in SE China. At their closest before TCAS alarms allow evasive action, the aircraft are apart by approximately 1.3 nm. laterally and 900 ft. vertically.
After completing their final revenue flights, the two Fokker 70s are withdrawn in late March. The third A319-132 is accepted on May 29.
Carrying 100 passengers, an A320-232 completes the first night flight into Thiruvananthapuram International Airport on September 15. The company’s thrice-weekly roundtrips into the Indian airport from Singapore are now all switched to evening hours.
Twice-weekly A320-232 return service is inaugurated on November 3 from Singapore to Siem Reap, Cambodia.
In its final report on the 1997 crash of Flight 185, the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee report of December 15 indicates that its investigation has been unable to “explain how and why the accident happened.” Breaking sharply with the Indonesians, the U. S. NTSB releases a 49-page review of its own input into the crash review on December 18. The American document indicates that there is clearly enough evidence to issue a ruling of pilot suicide by Capt. Tsu Way Ming and is somewhat incredulous that the final Indonesian finding had not been the same, particularly since the NTSC interim report had also concluded suicide was the probable cause.
As the month ends, the Singapore Airlines, Ltd. parent names Alphonsus Chia Chung Mun CEO, succeeding Make Swee Wah, who becomes senior vice president-Southwest Pacific.
SILVER AIR, LTD.: Pernerova 16, Prague 8, CZ-18600, Czech Republic; Phone 42 (2) 232-1405; Fax 42 (2) 232-1405; Code SLO; Year Founded 1996. Silver Air is established by General Aviation at Prague in 1996 to offer passenger charters. Zdenek Skoda is president and he begins revenue operations with a single leased Boeing 727-230A and a Let L-410UVP. Flights continue in 1997, including a brief wet-lease of the Boeing to Vietnam’s Pacific Airlines.
Let service is maintained in 1998-2000, as the American-made jetliner is returned to its lessor.
World History
