Piedmont Airlines

Piedmont was founded in Winston-Salem, NC in 1948, with the first flight occurring on February 20, 1948. The flight was operated by a DC-3 and flew from Wilmington, NC to Cincinnati, OH with intermediary stops.

By the late 80s, Piedmont had grown into a powerhouse along the east coast with service to the west coast as well as to London with the 767-200ER. In 1989, Piedmont was absorbed into USAir and ceased to exist. The airline’s name lives on as what was once Henson, part of the Piedmont Commuter System, and is now a subsidiary of American Airlines flying ERJ-145s.

We include their operations from September 1988.

Trans World Airlines

One of the most iconic American airlines, TWA operated from 1930 to 2001. Famously owned by Howard Hughes during the 40s, 50s, and 60s, TWA had a reputation for being a glamorous airline favored by celebrities. During the 80s, the airline was taken over by corporate raider Carl Icahn who saddled the airline with debt which set the airline on a downward path that led to it being acquired and dissolved by American Airlines in 2001.

We include their operations from September 1988.

Pan Am

Pan American World Airways — colloquially Pan Am — was the United States’ primary flag carrying international airline for most of its life. Pan Am operated from 1927 until 1991, falling from global domination to becoming another victim of deregulation. Faced with competition from domestic airlines with strong networks who were previously not allowed to fly internationally, Pan Am hemorrhaged traffic as those airlines added international routes for themselves and stopped feeding their passengers onto Pan Am.

We include their 747 operations from 1984.

Braniff

Braniff Airways, founded by brothers Paul Revere Braniff and Thomas Braniff, flew the first airline to fly from Chicago to the US border with Mexico and operated the airmail route between Chicago and Dallas. It grew from a small regional airline rooted in Texas to a sprawling international airline by the 1970s. The economic fallout from the Airline Deregulation Act in 1978 combined with a large debt load from extreme growth caused the airline to collapse in 1982.

We include their DC-6 operations from 1956.

AirCal

AirCal, originally Air California, began in 1967 flying entirely within California as an intrastate carrier. With the passage of the Airline Deregulation Act in 1978, AirCal was initially a winner of the new industry environment and began expanding outside of California to destinations as far east as Chicago and as far north as Anchorage.

Air California became AirCal in 1981 and was purchased and absorbed by American Airlines in 1987.

We include their operations as a combination of 1982 and 1986.

CP AIR

Canadian Pacific Air Lines was a Canadian airline that operated from 1942 to 1987. It operated under the name CP Air from 1968 to 1986. Headquartered at Vancouver International Airport in Richmond, British Columbia, it served domestic Canadian as well as international routes until it was purchased by Pacific Western Airlines and absorbed into Canadian Airlines which branded itself as Canadian Airlines International.

Source.

We include their mainline operations from 1983.

Ansett Australia

Founded in 1983 as Ansett Airways, Ansett Australia flew domestically within Australia along with limited international service to Asia starting in the 1990s. By the 2000s, Ansett was suffering from competition with Quantas along with low cost inroads by the newly founded Virgin Blue. Air New Zealand bought Ansett in 2000 and in 2001 the airline was dissolved.

We include their mainline operations from 1995.

Interflug

Interflug was the national airline of the German Democratic Republic, colloquially called East Germany, from 1963 to 1990. The airline primarily operated using Soviet airline types and operated out of Berlin Schönefeld Airport. In 1988, the airline purchased three Airbus A310s. As a result of the reunification of Germany, the airline was liquidated and operated its last flight on April 30th, 1991 between Vienna and Berlin using a Tu-134.

We include their operations from 1990 using the A310 and Tu-154. We’re open to including more Soviet aircraft that Interflug operated as they become available.