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15 Defunct Airlines You Might Not Remember

15 Defunct Airlines You Might Not Remember

Old Jan 23, 2019, 1:35 pm
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15 Defunct Airlines You Might Not Remember

Please forgive me if this has already been posted on flyertalk.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/fli...unct-airlines/
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Old Jan 23, 2019, 1:43 pm
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Most Flyertalkers will remember 12+ of them. Continental? US Airways? Yes, I remember them.

The ones I didn't recall at all: the first Frontier (not the one still flying), Mohawk, and Air California.
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Old Jan 23, 2019, 2:02 pm
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Originally Posted by pinniped
Most Flyertalkers will remember 12+ of them. Continental? US Airways? Yes, I remember them.

The ones I didn't recall at all: the first Frontier (not the one still flying), Mohawk, and Air California.
15/15 for me, but then I've actually flown on 12 of 'em (voluntarily missed Hooters and ValuJet; too young to have managed Central) ... and of course I spend waaaaaaaay too much time on the Old Timers' Airline and Airliner Quiz and Discussion thread
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Last edited by jrl767; Jan 23, 2019 at 8:21 pm Reason: didn't go back to review the list before posting :/
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Old Jan 23, 2019, 3:24 pm
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Quite a few, or even many more, that could have been added.

United could be said to be the current embodiment of Continental.
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Old Jan 23, 2019, 3:35 pm
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Some of these went bust (Braniff, Pan Am, Eastern) and some were merged up (TWA, PeopleExpress, Frontier, Continental). ValuJet did neither, just changed its name to AirTran.

I knew of all 15 and flew with 8.
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Old Jan 23, 2019, 8:24 pm
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Originally Posted by YVR Cockroach
Quite a few, or even many more, that could have been added. ...
Bonanza, Pacific, Air West (and Hughes AirWest), Southern, Lake Central, North Central, Allegheny, Wien Air Alaska, Aloha, Trans-Texas (and successor Texas International), National, Western ... and that doesn't even begin to touch the second-tier startups following deregulation in the U.S.
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Old Jan 23, 2019, 8:28 pm
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I don't remember Central or Air California (unless it became PSA)....and of course I do remember Allegheny, Aloha, Texas International, National, Western, Hughes Air-West, and Piedmont too. Does TransWorld Express count? How about Mesaba? Up north there was Canadian Pacific once upon a time.
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Old Jan 23, 2019, 8:35 pm
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
I don't remember Central or Air California (unless it became PSA)....and of course I do remember Allegheny, Aloha, Texas International, National, Western, Hughes Air-West, and Piedmont too. Does TransWorld Express count? How about Mesaba? Up north there was Canadian Pacific once upon a time.
AirCal was acquired by AA; Central was acquired (by Southern?) shortly before SO and NC became Republic ... bad on me for leaving Piedmont off my list ... TWE and Mesaba are in that gaggle that I generalized as "second-tier"
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Old Jan 23, 2019, 9:46 pm
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Didn't Allegheny acquire Piedmont to become USAir (which also acquired Pacific Southwest)?

If Continental can possibly be forgotten, so can Northwest and the author forgot National too.
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Old Jan 23, 2019, 11:26 pm
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Originally Posted by YVR Cockroach
Didn't Allegheny acquire Piedmont to become USAir (which also acquired Pacific Southwest)?

If Continental can possibly be forgotten, so can Northwest and the author forgot National too.
if I recall the history correctly, Allegheny acquired both Mohawk and Lake Central, then changed their name to US Air, then snapped up both PSA and Piedmont
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Old Jan 24, 2019, 4:08 am
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And when AirNorth changed their name to Brockway Air, the gasps at BOS were audible!
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Old Jan 24, 2019, 6:50 am
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
I don't remember Central or Air California (unless it became PSA)....and of course I do remember Allegheny, Aloha, Texas International, National, Western, Hughes Air-West, and Piedmont too. Does TransWorld Express count? How about Mesaba? Up north there was Canadian Pacific once upon a time.
I recall Wardair - Canadian, I'm not sure if Republic were mentioned, or Western ( I flew them DFW - YYC), Air Forida, the short lived Southern, I believe that Northwest Orient came about as a merger between two carriers. Island Air (I think that collapsed last year in Hawaii.

This side of the pond I could quote at least 15 without stopping to think including my own British Caledonian.
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Old Jan 24, 2019, 9:18 am
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Originally Posted by pinniped
Most Flyertalkers will remember 12+ of them. Continental? US Airways? Yes, I remember them.

The ones I didn't recall at all: the first Frontier (not the one still flying), Mohawk, and Air California.
I only know of Mohawk from the TV show Mad Men
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Old Jan 24, 2019, 9:22 am
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Originally Posted by BearX220
Some of these went bust (Braniff, Pan Am, Eastern) and some were merged up (TWA, PeopleExpress, Frontier, Continental). ValuJet did neither, just changed its name to AirTran.

I knew of all 15 and flew with 8.
One of my uncles worked for the original Frontier.

Originally Posted by jrl767
Wien Air Alaska
Ah, Wienie Bird! My mom was on one of Wien's last flights. She recalls the flight attendants giving her handfuls of liquor minis. They didn't care - they knew they were out of a job once the plane got back to Anchorage.
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Old Jan 24, 2019, 12:00 pm
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Originally Posted by jrl767

if I recall the history correctly, Allegheny acquired both Mohawk and Lake Central, then changed their name to US Air, then snapped up both PSA and Piedmont
You recollection about this is much better and accurate than mine, I am sure. My first USAir (Unfortunately Still Allegheny In Reality) flights was back in late 1988 when, IIRC, the IATA code was AL because some other outfit (military?) still had US. Flew my 1 and only Piedmont flight- also late 1988 - between SYR and ITH (that's a short flight) before the two were operationally merged. I guess PSA had already been operationally merged by that time as US was flying into BLI from SEA (part of an old PS route mentioned in the old timer's thread).
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