jlemon

Well, that thought occurred to me as well.....however, I cannot find any evidence that Horizon Air operated the Fokker F28 Fellowship into Idaho Falls, Lewiston, Pendleton, Pocatello or Walla Walla....and I looked extensively for proof they did. ALW, IDA, LWS, PDT and PIH appear to have received only QX turboprop service with the Dash 8, Dornier 328 and Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner. If anyone has any F28 schedule info for QX into these destinations, I'd love to see it.

And as for Pasco (PSC), you are correct. Horizon Air operated the F28 on service to SEA in competition with Cascade which was operating the BAC One-Eleven. Both carriers also operated turboprop service on the PSC-SEA route in tandem with their jet service.

jlemon

Hey-hey Seat 2A! Living it up in the suite life once again, we see.....with yet another excellent trip report to follow, we hope!

Let's take a look at your answers....

Idaho Falls (IDA) - Hughes Airwest (and their predecessor Air West) (RW) and Delta are both correct! RW flew both the DC9-10 and DC9-30 into Idaho Falls over the years while at one point DL was operating all of their IDA-SLC mainline flights with B737-300 equipment. I'm not sure if US Airways ever served Idaho Falls (I don't think they did but I shall research this).....but I do know that American did with MD-80 service. And as for Allegiant, they continue to currently serve Idaho Falls with low frequency flights to Las Vegas (LAS), Los Angeles (LAX), Oakland (OAK) and Phoenix/Mesa (AZA)....and we, of course, are looking for former jet operators. So we have at least one more airline and their jet equipment to identify for IDA.

Lewiston (LWS) - Yep, the Top Banana in the West (RW) served LWS for a number of years with DC9-10 and DC9-30 equipment.

Pasco (PSC) - Also known (and listed) as Tri Cities by some airlines. And Horizon Air, first with the DC9-10 followed by Fokker F28 Fellowship service is correct. Now as for Allegiant, they continue to currently serve PSC with low frequency flights to AZA, LAS and LAX.....and once again we are looking for former jet operators. Casino Express with B737-200 flights to Elko (EKO)? Sure they count as I now remember their flights did indeed show up in the OAG. Hmmmmm.....America West and US Airways....I'll have to research this. However, I do know of at least two other airlines that did serve Pasco with jets....and one of them operated Boeing equipment.

Pendleton (PDT) - Yep, it was the airline of the Friendly Skies....and I see United has resurrected that slogan these days. UA was the only airline ever to operate jet equipment into Pendleton and had previously served PDT for many years with prop equipment such as the DC6 and DC7. Back in the late winter of 1976, United operated three flights a day into PDT: one with a B727-100, the second flight with a B727-200 and the third flight with a B737-200. For a small city (a town, really) of around 16,000 souls it must have seemed like the Big Time. In fact, back in early 1976, one could board a UA jet mainliner in Pendleton in first class departing at 11:28am and fly direct with no change of plane to Washington National Airport (DCA) arriving at 10:00pm. The one way front cabin fare? $230. Here's the sched:

UA 278: PDX-PDT-BOI-SLC-ORD-DCA
Op: Daily
Equip: B727-100

And here are the scheds for the other two flights that United was operating into and out of Pendleton at this time:

UA 375: PVD-ORD-SLC-BOI-PDT-PDX
Op: Daily
Equip: B727-200

UA 871: PDT-PDX-EUG-MFR-SFO
Op: Daily except Sunday from PDT, then daily from PDX
Equip: B737-200

Pocatello (PIH) - Hughes Airwest again, of course, with DC9-10 and DC9-30 service. Here are a couple of classic RW "milk run" routings from the late winter of 1976:

RW 720: SEA-GEG-LWS-BOI-IDA-PIH-TWF-SCK-SFO
Op: Daily
Equip: DC9

RW 874: LAX-SBA-SFO-SCK-TWF-PIH-IDA-BOI-PDX-SEA
Op: Daily
Equip: D9S

As for Allegiant, I cannot find any evidence that they served Pocatello in the past....but I do know of one other airline that did operate jet service into PIH.

jrl767

did Delta continue the WA 737 service into PIH ... perhaps (as with IDA) promoting it to a 733?

WHBM

United had served Pendleton since the earliest days, back in the 1930s they routed Salt Lake-Boise-Pendleton-Portland with a Boeing 247. When the sleeper DC3-DST came along in the late 1930s you could even get an overnight sleeper flight all the way to New York. It left Pendleton at 7.22 pm (such precision !), getting into Newark at 2 pm the following lunchtime.

Did I ever manage to get the pioneer Boeing 247 into one of these posts before ? !

jlemon

I did look at this and it appears the answer is "no". By 1980, Western mainline jet service into Pocatello with the 73S had been discontinued. And, of course, the acquisition of Western by Delta took place in 1987. I believe Western's PIH service was then turned over to SkyWest operating Metroliners as Western Express code share flights.

However, as noted above, at one point Delta was operating all of its mainline flights into nearby Idaho Falls with the B737-300.

jlemon

Excellent information as always from WHBM....and very much appreciated!

I knew that Pendleton was a legacy destination for United from way back in the day but was unaware just how far back their service history went.....

These days, it appears the only scheduled air service into Pendleton is operated by SeaPort Airlines with single engine turboprop commuter aircraft.....

jrl767

post merger, RC continued the prior RW jet service into both IDA and PIH (and, I believe, TWF as well) ... I'd certainly not be surprised if they were at PSC and LWS either

JoeDTW

I think American served IDA in the late 1980s, as a fuel stop on their winter seasonal Jackson Hole-Dallas flights, with 727-23s. The aircraft routed DFW-JAC-IDA-DFW.

jlemon

Good catch! Following its acquisition of Hughes Airwest in the fall of 1980, Republic continued to fly former RW routes in the region with service to Boise, Idaho Falls, Lewiston, Pasco, Pocatello, Spokane and Twin Falls, all operated with DC9-10 and DC9-30 equipment. However, this Republic service was not to last: by December of 1982, all RC flights into IDA, LWS and PIH had been eliminated. And by July of 1983, Republic had ceased all service into BOI, GEG, PSC and TWF. At this point, RC was down to just three former RW destinations in the Pacific Northwest: Eugene, Portland and Seattle.

So we've now added Republic to our list of airlines that operated jet service to a number of the destinations in question.

jlemon

Very interesting! I was not aware that American had operated the venerable 727 on the routing you have described.....but I have seen an OAG schedule for AA in late 1989 listing daily nonstop service between Jackson Hole (JAC) and Salt Lake City (SLC) operated with an MD-80.

And also in late 1989, American was operating these originating flights from Idaho Falls:

AA 420: IDA-SLC-DFW
Op: Daily
Equip: MD-80

AA 436: IDA-SLC-ORD
Op: Daily
Equip: MD-80

BTW, at this same time, Delta was operating daily service on an SLC-IDA-JAC round trip routing with a B737-300.....

jlemon

And here's what will hopefully be a fun little "current events" quiz item:

Identify four (4) western European air carriers that are operating temporary scheduled passenger service into the Sochi International Airport (AER) during the XXII Olympic Winter Games. All four airlines are planning to discontinue service to Sochi after the winter games have concluded.

jrl767

did the original Frontier (FL) run their 737-200s into PSC?

and it seems we have inexplicably overlooked WA as serving PSC ... and I would actually guess that they ran a 72S up from SLC

I discovered where America West actually operated a 733 between LAX and Sun Valley in late 1989 (Saturday-only service), but can't find that they served any of the smaller communities we are discussing

WHBM

Can I just add a little to this one, which I'll join in with later.

Which fine old Soviet aircraft designs are also being operated on flights into Sochi this month ? There aren't many, but there are some, making what may well be their last stand (despite which they are apparently immaculate inside and out).

Seat 2A

Hmm... fine old Soviet design - but not too old...

If I recall the last production TU-154 rolled off the line just a couple of years ago, so how about the TU-134? It wouldn't surprise me if a -154 or two showed up on the ramp as well.
Now a -104 would really be pushing it.

jrl767

if there are still any IL-62s in operation it would not surprise me to know that one or two have appeared at Sochi