TRINITY AIR BAHAMAS, LTD.: Bahamas (1993-1994). TAB is organized at Nassau in the fall of 1993 to offer scheduled service to the U. S. in competition with the state airline Bahamasair, Ltd. Employing 2 former Delta Air Lines Douglas DC-9-32s, the new entrant launches flights to Miami and Fort Lauderdale on November 11.
Unable to achieve viability, the airline will not see its first birthday.
TRISTAR AIRLINES: United States (1995-1996). TriStar Airlines is established by Chairman/President/CEO Donald Martin at Las Vegas, Nevada, in the spring of 1995. Martin had previously served as president of Rocky Mountain Airways.
Marketing alliances are established with All Nippon Airways Company, Ltd. and Japan Air Lines Company, Ltd. (2) and 3 British Aerospace BAe 146-200As, previously flown by the Hawaiian carrier Discovery Airways, are leased from Asset Management Organization to begin scheduled services on July 17.
Chief Pilot Capt. Norman Sevigny and his pilots fly the U. K.-made jetliners on daily nonstop roundtrips from Las Vegas to Los Angeles and San Francisco, with tourist flights to Grand Canyon Airport. Meanwhile, a contract is let with SABRE for computerized reservations services.
In November, flights are launched from Los Angeles to Eugene, Oregon. The following month, BAe services are inaugurated, on behalf of Peak International, from Los Angeles and Dallas (DFW) to Aspen and from Eugene to Reno.
A total of 73,944 passengers are flown over the next 6 months.
A fourth chartered BAe 146-200A arrives on March 1, 1996. It is employed on March 18 to start twice-daily nonstop frequencies connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco. Departures are advanced to thrice daily on April 7. Although USAir begins to withdraw from the Los Angeles (LAX)-San Francisco (SFO) market, the company faces stiff competition from Southwest Airlines (2) and the Shuttle by United division of United Airlines. Winter services to Aspen end on April 14.
Fast Fare discount fares are introduced systemwide on May 1 and charter flights from Fresno to Las Vegas are offered every evening on behalf of Fun Jet Express. The same day, Super Size Me Fares are introduced on the Los Angeles-San Francisco route. The new $88 tickets will be good through June 15.
New marketing agreements are signed during the spring with Asiana Airlines, Ltd., British Airways, Ltd. (2), Cathay Pacific Airways (Pty.), Ltd., China Air Lines, Ltd. (CAl), Continental Airlines, Frontier Airlines (2), Hawaiian Airlines (HAL), KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines, N. V.), Korean Air/Korean Airlines (KAL), Midwest Express Airlines, Northwest Airlines, Qantas Airways (Pty.), Ltd., Singapore Airlines, Ltd., Trans World Airlines (TWA), USAir, and Virgin Atlantic Airways, Ltd.
On June 7, a joint marketing, ticketing, and baggage agreement is signed with Eagle Canyon Airlines at Los Angeles. The two will also share codes on connecting services from Los Angeles or San Francisco to the Grand Canyon; through passengers are allowed a Las Vegas stopover at no additional cost.
In cooperation with the air services company Peak International and Aspen Skiing Company, Los Angeles to Aspen flights commence thrice weekly on June 12 (with direct connecting service during the summer to Aspen from San Francisco). These services will operate for 14 weeks, after which the parties will switch over to a winter schedule similar to that operated in 1995.
The Fun Fare promotion is reinstated on August 14 covering flights made through October 15.
The carrier has a tough year and reports its financial returns through July and traffic through August. Although revenues in the first half are $10.64 million, expenses are $15.69 million and leave an operating loss of $5.04 million and a net loss of $6.07 million. In 8 months, customer bookings reach 120,000. The airline stops flying after giving and goes out of business in December.
TROPAIR (PTY.), LTD.: South Africa (1965-1970). Tropair is established at Johannesburg on March 28, 1965 to provide regional freight charters throughout Africa. Revenue flights commence with a pair of Lockheed L-100-20 Hercules freighters and continue until March 18, 1970.
TROPIC AIR: United States (1967-1982). TA is founded by Hank Younge at Honolulu in the summer of 1967 to offer Piper Aztec scheduled passenger and cargo flights around Oahu and to Molokai, Maui, and Lanai. Revenue flights commence on August 16 and over the next 15 years the fleet grows to include 2 Douglas DC-2s and 5 Cessna 402s.
The company is acquired by Air Hawaii (2) in 1978, but regains its independence in 1980. Late in 1982, the carrier is purchased by the Connecticut-based Concord Development Corporation. It is reformed and renamed Air Molokai.
TROPIC AIR (TROPICAL AIR SERVICES, LTD.): San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize; Phone 501 (2) 62 012; Fax 501 (2) 63 338; Http://www. tropicair. com; Code PM; Year Founded 1979. Tropic Air Service, Ltd. is established at San Pedro, Belize, in 1979 to offer domestic and regional scheduled passenger and cargo services; charters will also be flown. The company, headed by John Greiff III, is a formalized outgrowth of a Cessna 180 service that John Grief Sr. has been providing from Ambergris Caye since 1965.
Scheduled Cessna 172 revenue flights commence in November and in 1981 a terminal building is constructed at the Belize City Airport. A new terminal building is added in San Pedro in 1984 and the name of the airline is shortened to Tropic Air.
Operations continue for the next 18 years linking the company’s base with Belize International and Belize Municipal Airports, Caye Caulker, Corozal, Dangriga, Flores, Placencia, and Punta Gorda.
Celi McCorkle is chairman/president in 1998, with John E. Greif III as managing director/chief operating officer. The workforce stands at 65 and the fleet includes 2 de Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otters, 3 Cessna 208 Caravan Is, and two each C-207A Stationairs and C-172Ps. The company is now the largest carrier providing intrastate services in the nation.
On October 20, Tropic receives a Model 208B Grand Caravan, the 1000th example of the Caravan single-engine turboprop utility aircraft delivered by Cessna.
By the beginning of 1999, flights are also offered to Flores (Tikal) in Guatemala, with connecting service to Corozal. The first airline in Belize is now tha largest and remains the only one with an air operator’s certificate and certified for maintenance. During the year, the company opens a homepage on the World Wide Web. A total of 120 workers are employed at the beginning of 2000.
TROPIC AIR (TROPICALAIR SERVICES [BARBADOS], LTD.): Barbados (1973-1981). This small, private charter company is established at Christchurch in February 1973 to offer nonscheduled passenger and cargo flights to various Caribbean destinations. The fleet includes 1 each Aero Commander and Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander.
Two Douglas DC-3s are acquired in mid-decade. One DC-3 is destroyed in early 1979 during the filming of the motion picture The Island. Later in the year, the company is purchased by the Canadian operator Air Dale, Ltd.
Operations cease in 1981.
TROPIC AIRWAYS (PTY.), LTD.: South Africa (1950-1953). Three ex-Royal South African Air Force pilots form Tropic Airways on September 21, 1950 to offer charter flights from South Africa to Europe. Equipped with a single ex-military Douglas C-47 converted to civil DC-3 standard, the company initiates service on March 18, 1951, flying multistop from Johannesburg to London via Entebbe, Wadi Halfa, and Malta. During the remainder of the year, Dutch and German immigrants are flown to South Africa from Amsterdam and Hamburg.
While crossing the Mediterranean one day in July 1952, the company’s DC-3 with 28 passengers is forced to ditch at sea. All are saved when Royal Navy warships pick up the plane’s two lifeboats.
Early August, Tropic purchases an ex-RAF Dakota with which to resume business; however, British regulations require that, for the purchase to be consummated, a U. K. subsidiary be formed. As a result, Meredith Air Transport, Ltd. (named for founder Thomas Meredith) is formed and registered on August 12. In December, radio parts are hauled to Khartoum.
In 1953, inclusive-tours are undertaken to the Mediterranean from London while the South African Dakota continues to fly immigrants southward. In June, the Meredith DC-3 is sold to raise capital that will allow Tropic’s founders to reform their South African company into Trek Airways (Pty.), Ltd. The Meredith subsidiary continues in Britain as a separate entity.
TROPICAIR (TROPIC AIR SERVICES [PTY.], LTD.): Australia (1969-1994). TropicAir is founded at Carnarvon, Western Australia, in 1969. Equipped with a Cessna 206, the company begins revenue operations in early 1970. Nonscheduled services are expanded to include not only air taxi and passenger and cargo charters but air tour and sight-seeing flights as well. The fleet grows to comprise 1 each Cessna 172, Piper PA-28-181 Archer, and a Partenavia P-68B in addition to the original Cessna 206.
Operations continue quietly apace for the next 23 years. In 1993, General Manager Keith Hasleby’s fleet is the same as at start-up, minus the Cessna 172. Operations cease in 1994.
TROPICAL AIRLINES, LTD.: 2 Eastwood Avenue, Kingston 10, Jamaica; Phone (809) 968-2477; Fax (809) 926-4379; Http://www. tropicairs. com; Code VF; Year Founded 1996. Donovan and Suzanne Grant set up Tropical Airlines at Tinson Pen, Kingston, Jamaica, in late 1996 to offer domestic and regional scheduled passenger services. Employing 3 Beech 99s, the company launches daily shuttle flights between Kingston and Montego Bay.
Flights continue without incident or headline during the remainder of the decade. During these years, the company also operates charter flights on behalf of Gemini Tours to Santiago de Cuba. These services are flown twice weekly from both Kingston and Montego Bay. By the beginning of the new millennium, Tropical Airlines has also established a homepage on the World Wide Web.
TROPICALAIRWAYS (1): United States (1933-1934). In December 1933, newly formed Tropical Airways is able to outbid Johnson Airways for the New Orleans-Pilottown airmail route previously operated by the latter. Operations commence in January 1934 with a Keystone K-84 amphibian. The mail route is permanently terminated on July 1, causing Tropical to shut its doors.
TROPICAL AIRWAYS (2): United States (1986-1989). The second U. S. Tropical Airways is established at New York (JFK) in 1986 to offer service to Georgetown, Guyana. A Boeing 707 Stratoliner is leased and bookings are taken before the DOT, having learned of the operation, forces the carrier to stand down due to its lack of certification.
When its application is approved in the early spring of 1988, TA-2 in May charters a Douglas DC-8-62 previously flown by SAS (Scandinavian Airlines System) for six months. Scheduled roundtrips are inaugurated on June 1 from New York to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, via Miami. In November, the aircraft is returned and the airline goes dormant for the winter season.
The DC-8-62 is reacquired in March 1989, by which time the company has concluded an arrangement to operate inclusive-tour flights on behalf of Egyptair, S. A.E. Flights commence in April, but in August, FAA inspectors ground the company for maintenance and safety irregularities. Unable to finance a resumption of services, TA-2 folds.
TROPICAL SEAAIRLINES COMPANY, LTD. (“THE YELLOW-BIRDS”): Bangkok International Airport, Building 302, Service Road 8, North of Old Terminal, Bangkok, 10210, Thailand; Phone 66 (2) 535-3461; Fax 66 (2) 535-3470; Code BN; Year Founded 1992.
Tropical Sea is formed at Bangkok in 1992 to offer seaplane flights to various destinations along the Gulf of Siam. Operations Director Capt. Sarisport’s initial fleet comprises 1 each Grumman G-21 Goose and G-73 Turbo Mallard.
Flights continue during the remainder of the decade as 1 each additional Goose and Mallard are placed into service.
World History
