TRUMP AIR: United States (1988-1990). Donald Trump, the famous New York real estate mogul who is also chairman of Resorts International, establishes Trump Air in the March 1988 as successor to Resorts International Airlines (RIA). A rotary-wing operation equipped with 3 Sikorsky S-61s, the airline inaugurates scheduled flights from Manhattan’s West 30th St. heliport to Atlantic City’s Steeplechase Pier with the original RIA personnel. Plans are made to initiate services to the New Jersey holiday location later in the year from Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. Late in the year, the three Sikorskys begin cabin refurbishment one after another, with the first completed in December.
In 1989, the fleet is upgraded by the addition of the Aerospatiale AS-332L Super Puma previously operated as the VIP shuttle Trump’s Resort Air. Boeing Vertol’s Model 234 Civil Chinook demonstrator is purchased in April. Like the aircraft in the Trump’s Resort Air fleet, it is painted in jet-black livery with red trim and is based at Linden Airport, New Jersey. A month later, a used Civil Chinook is purchased from Norway’s Helikopter Service, A. S. for introduction in December.
When the former Boeing Chinook demonstrator begins flying from New York City to Atlantic City on behalf of its owner’s casino operations in August, the Civil Chinook becomes the first of its type to be employed in a U. S. passenger shuttle service.
Following the purchase and renaming of the Eastern Air Lines shuttle, the Sikorsky choppers are tasked to provide Trump Shuttle Connection flights between New York (LGA) and destinations in the Midtown and Financial District of Manhattan, including the Wall Street Heliport. The six-min. flights are operated eight times a day weekdays.
En route from Manhattan to Atlantic City on October 10, the rotor of an Agusta 109 with two crew and three top Trump officials aboard and flown by Paramount Aviation Corporation on behalf of Trump Air, separates in midair, causing the helicopter to crash; there are no survivors.
Following introductory fanfare, eight-times-per-day S-61N round-trips commence on December 4 linking La Guardia Airport with downtown Manhattan.
The Trump Shuttle Connection flights from La Guardia and the Wall Street Heliport are discontinued on July 1, 1990, due to low load factors.
When the service is discontinued, a number of pilots are fired and the chief operating officer and director of flight operations resign. Longtime Trump employee Michael J. Burke is named chief operating officer on July 9.
As Chairman Trump begins to suffer financial reversals, the carrier is forced to find ways to cut costs. Over the next six months, the carrier negotiates with Columbia Helicopters of Aurora, Oregon, and in December sells that pioneer rotary-wing operator its pair of Civil Chinooks.
Citing high fuel costs and low demands, winter flights from Manhattan to Atlantic City are now suspended. The New York Times reports on January 15, 1991, that they will resume during summer. They do not.
TRUMP AIR SHUTTLE: United States (1988-1992). In October 1988, Texas Air Corporation (TAC), parent of Eastern Air Lines, prepares to strip off that carrier’s most successful operation, the northeast shuttle, and sell it as a way of earning desperately needed capital.
Following the strike-induced grounding of Eastern on March 4, 1989, an arrangement is made to sell the shuttle, along with 21 Boeing 727s (8 Dash-25s and 13 nonadvanced Dash-225s) and $15 million worth of spare parts, to New York real estate tycoon Donald Trump for $365 million. U. S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Burton R. Lifland approves the sale on May 25. A new management team, led by President Bruce R. Nobles, Vice President-Operations Richard F. Cozzi, and Chief Pilot Terry V. Hallcom is put into place. Six hundred, mostly Eastern, employees are hired and the aircraft are repainted in new livery. The tails of each B-727 receive a big red “T,” while other markings in gold, black, red and white resemble the owner’s private jet.
The Trump Shuttle inaugurates service on June 8 on Eastern’s old routes from Boston to New York (LGA) and from New York to Washington, D. C. (DCA). Hub Express Airlines contracts with Trump to provide scheduled helicopter services linking Boston with Foxboro, Burlington, Norwood, Cambridge, Hanscom Air Field, the Boston financial district, and Waltham suburbs.
In August, a B-727 shuttle flight is forced to land at Boston with its nosewheel retracted; Trump and Nobles personally fly to Logan to comfort the 49 passengers and at a news conference, praise the skill of their flight crew.
A variety of marketing strategies and gimmicks are employed in the competition with the shuttle operated by Pan American World Airways (1), including the distribution of free computer programs and video tapes. In October, fleet structural and cabin refurbishment modifications begin; lavatory vanities are provided with a pink marble pattern modeled on the Taj Mahal Casino Resort at Atlantic City. Late in the year, to take advantage of two newly won New York (LGA) slots and to transport jets to Florida-based Page Avjet without ferry costs, Trump inaugurates weekday roundtrip service between New York and Orlando. Passengers flying at Christmas are given their choice of free copies of the videos of either It's a Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street.
Enplanements for the year total 768,389.
From March 14-31, 1990, Chairman Trump offers an on-time guarantee, redeemable for tickets or certificates if flights are more than 15 minutes late. Fog in Boston during the last week requires that 15,000 passengers be compensated. Late in the first quarter, the company begins to operate its B-727s with hush-kits for noise suppression and on March 31 the fleet includes 7 B-727-25s, 5 B-727-254s, and 4 each B-727-214s and B-727-224s.
The on-time guarantee is extended on April 1 to June 30, although compensation awards are lessened in value. Meanwhile, and also during April, a new contract is signed with ALPA that eliminates the existing two-tier wage structure inherited from Eastern Air Lines. Late in the month, free copies of the Lotus Magellan personal computer software program are given away to passengers.
With more aircraft than necessary on weekends, Trump begins Saturday and Sunday charter flights to Florida, the Bahamas, and Mexico. It also undertakes contract flights for musical groups such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra and such major sports teams as the
Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins. A code-sharing arrangement is also entered into on the New York to Boston route with El Al Israel Airlines, Ltd.
While splitting the market with Pan Am’s shuttle and earning a small operating profit, the Trump enterprise suffers financially from the high interest rates involved in its highly leveraged acquisition. After expressing displeasure over this state, owner Trump, in July, fires Presi-dent/Chief Operating Officer Nobles and replaces him with Vice President-Operations Richard Cozzi.
With a tiny net profit reported at the end of the third quarter, Chairman Trump announces on October 1 that the shuttle is no longer for sale. The fleet renovation project is completed in November. The recession hurts the Trump empire and the financier’s problems are such that he now begins to seek a buyer for the Shuttle. It is proposed that Northwest Airlines acquire an equity stake and take over operations.
Passenger boardings for the year skyrocket 114.2% to 1,915,000. Still, the operation is a losing proposition; its losses total $40.12 million (operating) and $68.76 million (net).
Loss of the shuttle not only contributes to the failure of Eastern Air Lines in January 1991 but it now cannot be effectively maintained by its new owner either.
Enplanements during the company’s final year under the tycoon’s banner total 1,756,000, a decline of 8.4%. In addition, 413,000 FTKs are operated. Revenues decline 1.7% to $169.09 million, expenses drop 8.66% to $193.76 million, and the operating loss improves to minus $24.67 million. The net loss is cut by $10 million to $58.55 million.
Boeing trijet service is inaugurated on February 14, 1992 from Boston and New York (JFK) to Barbados via Miami. Also in the first quarter, Donald Trump enters into a management agreement with USAir. In exchange for $16.2 million, the carrier, renamed Shuttle, Inc., is turned over to a consortium of bankers and the major is allowed to takeover the operation, relabeled USAir Shuttle, on April 12. The arrangement also provides the Pittsburgh-based airline with the option to purchase the carrier outright in 1995. The offer will be extended until the end of 1997.
TRURO FLYING CLUB, INC.: P. O. Box 242, Spitfire Rd., Debert, Nova Scotia, B0M 1G0, Canada; Phone (902) 662-2228; Fax (902) 662-2669; Year Founded 1972. Truro is established at Debert, Nova Scotia, in 1972 to provide passenger charters and flight training. Operations continue without fanfare for the next quarter century.
S. Fairchild is general manager in 1997 and oversees a workforce of 6 and a fleet of 2 each Cessna 152s and C-172s. Revenues total C$100,000. Flights continue in 1998-1999.
TRYGG-FLYG, A. B.: Stockholm-Skavsta Airport, Nykoping, S-61192, Sweden; Phone 46 (155) 267725; Fax 46 (155) 267772; Http://www. trygg-flyg. se; Year Founded 1997. Erik Trygg forms this nonscheduled carrier at Nykoping in the spring of 1997 to provide nightly airmail service on behalf of the Swedish Post Office. Revenue flights commence in July with a fleet of 1 CASA 212-100 Aviocar and 2 212-200s. Flights continue during the remainder of the decade. During these years, ad hoc cargo charter and passenger air taxi flights are also provided, along with skydiving flights.
TSA (TRANSCONTINENTAL, S. A.): Argentina (1956-1962). Encouraged by California Eastern Airlines President Jorge Carnicero, a group of Argentine investors form Transcontinental at Buenos Aires on September 5, 1956. Ownership is 75% Argentine and 25% American, with Carnicero receiving his quarter interest in exchange for a promise to lease the carrier aircraft and maintain them at reasonable rates. During the remainder of the year, Carnicero busily provides a fleet of 4 Curtiss C-46s and 3 Lockheed L-1049H Super Constellations.
Scheduled services are inaugurated in early 1957 over domestic routes from the capital city. Destinations include Mendoza, Cordoba, Tucuman, Salta, Mar del Plata. International flights are also undertaken across the Rio de la Plata to Montevideo, Uruguay.
All three Super H Constellations are subleased on a staggered schedule to the Hughes Tool Company at the beginning of 1958 for the use of Trans World Airlines (TWA) . Two Bristol Britannia 305 s are ordered from Great Britain in August and in September the “Connies” inaugurate flights to New York via Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Caracas.
The resort city of Bariloche joins the route network in February 1959. Two L-1049Hs are sold to Slick Airways in the U. S. during the year. The Britannias are received in early 1960 and in March are placed on the New York route. Frequencies on all services are now increased. Flights are started to Asuncion, Paraguay, and Miami in October.
Although greatly overexpanded, TSA initiates a regional service to Asuncion in early 1961. In January, the L-1049Hs chartered to Trans World Airlines (TWA) are returned, allowing two to pass to Slick Airways. The financial picture continues to deteriorate; at one point, a Bristol turboprop is impounded at New York until $83,000 in fees and fuel costs can be paid. Sabena Belgian World Airlines, S. A. attempts to bail out the situation in late spring by purchasing a large share, but arrangements fall through.
The fiscal situation is compounded by a major accident. A C-46A with 5 crew and 30 passengers crashes while on final approach to Buenos Aires on June 30 (24 dead).
The company staggers on for several months, but ceases operations on November 8. Late in the year, negotiations are undertaken with Austral Airlines (Austral Lineas Aereas, S. A.) and Aerolineas Argenti-nas, S. A. The former agrees to take over the domestic routes while the latter takes on the international. Before Christmas, Austral takes over the domestic services, employing TSA aircraft.
Transcontinental officially declares bankruptcy in September 1962.
TSELINOGRAD UNITED AIR DETACHMENT: Tselinograd-26 Airport, Akmolinsk Region, 473026, Kazhakstan; Phone 7 (31722) 25 733; Fax 7 (31722) 27 800; Year Founded 1996. TUAD is established in 1996 to provide domestic all-cargo charters. Mikhail R. Peshkov is director general and he begins revenue flights with several Antonov An-24s and An-2s.
TSENTR AVIA: Bykovo Airport, Moscow, Central Region, 140150, Russia; Phone 7 (095) 558-4181; Code BYO; Year Founded 2000. Bykovo Aviation Enterprise (Bykovskoe A. P) is renamed on March 5, 2000. Shareholding remains divided between the Bykovsky Aircraft Repair Plant (29.40%), Bykovo Airport (19.95%), MRIK Investment Company (19.95%), and Resourcetrustbank (10.75%). The fleet includes 25 Yakovlev Yak-42Ds, 3 Yak-40s, and 1 Antonov An-24. Orders are outstanding for 2Tupolev Tu-204s.
Flights continue to be offered from Magnitogorsk, Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport, and from Bykovo Airport, 30 mi. SW of Moscow. From Magnitogorsk, Tsentr offers scheduled return flights to Yerevan, Mineral Waters, Anapa, and Sochi. The airline operates from the Bykovo Airport to Anapa, Gelendzhik, Volgograd, Magnitogorsk, and Stravropol. From Domodedovo Airport, it flies to Hanover and Stuttgart, Germany. The carrier also operates charter services during the summer from Magnitogorsk to Mineral Waters and Sochi.
At the beginning of October, weekly Yak-42D roundtrips are started from Bykovo to Rostov-on-Don. On October 29, new flights are launched from Bykovo to Ufa.
Late in the year, the two Tu-204s arrive and enter service. Enplane-ments for the company’s three quarters of existence total 156,484. Costs surrounding the airline makeover, rising fuel prices, and the necessity of aircraft modification to meet Eurocontrol and ICAO standards cause a 29.3-million ruble ($1-million) loss.
TSITOTRANS AIR CONCERN: 3/227 Oktiabir Square, Yekaterinburg, 620031, Russia; Phone 7 (3432) 511 414; Fax 7 (3432) 511 233; Year Founded 1996. TAC is established in 1996 to offer domestic and international passenger charters. Andrei Kuznetsov is director general and he begins revenue flights with a single Tupolev Tu-154M.
Although it is understood that this carrier continues to operate in the period after the beginning of the August 1998 Russian currency crisis, no definite information has been located to that effect.
World History
