Established at Margate, in the eastern part of South Africa, in 1980 to attract vacationers and to provide scheduled passenger services, primarily for businessmen, linking Natal with Transvaal. With a workforce that reaches 10 in number and a fleet comprising 1 Piper PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftain, 1 Cessna 402B, and 2 Piper PA-28 Cherokees, Margate initiates daily and weekday roundtrips to Durban, Ladysmith, Nelspruit, Newcastle, and Vryheid.
In August 1985, the company is reformed and renamed Citi Air (Pty.), Ltd.
MARIANAS AIRLINES: United States (1998). MA is established in early 1998 to offer scheduled and nonscheduled services, largely for tourists, visiting the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Four lightplanes are employed to offer interisland flights between Tinian, Saipan, and Rota, beginning in April.
The Asian economic crisis has a significant impact on the number of inbound vacation visitors to the Marianas and arrivals fall dramatically throughout the summer and fall. The company shuts its doors on October 28, barely six months after entering business.
MARINE AIRWAYS: United States (1936-1939). Veteran bush pilot Alex Holden, backed by Juneau entrepreneur James V. Davis, establishes MA in Juneau, Alaska, in July 1936. Outfitted with a float-equipped Bellanca CH-300 Pacemaker and a Fairchild 71, convertible to both wheels and floats, the company begins unscheduled services to surrounding mining camps and destinations in both Alaska and British Columbia.
In 1937, the little carrier begins regularly scheduled revenue flights to Sitka and Chichagof. As has been the case since start-up, Holden and Davis continue their operations in 1938 in competition with Sheldon B. “Shell” Simmons and his cross-town Alaska Air Transport.
Meanwhile, three other competitors, Herbert Munter, Robert B. Ellis, and Tony Schwamm, who have also started flying services, begin to intensify the territory’s competition. To meet these challengers, Holden and Simmons agree to merge their two companies on May 27, 1939, creating the area’s largest indigenous air transport firm, Alaska Coastal Airlines.
World History
