Western Air Lines, Inc.

Product Details

Historical Context

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In 1925, the United States Postal Service began to give airline contracts to carry airmail throughout the country. Western Airlines first incorporated in 1925 as Western Air Express by Harris Hanshue. It applied for, and was awarded, the 650-mile long Contract Air Mail Route #4 (CAM-4) from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Los Angeles. On 17 April 1926, Western's first flight took place with a Douglas M-2 airplane. It began offering passenger services a month later, when the first commercial passenger flight took place at Woodward Field. Ben F. Redman (then president of the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce) and J.A. Tomlinson perched atop U.S. mail sacks and flew with pilot C.N. "Jimmy" James on his regular eight-hour mail delivery flight to Los Angeles. By the mid-1930s, Western Air Express had introduced new Boeing 247 aircraft. Western Air Express built and owned Vail Airport, Montebello from 1926 to 1930 and the Alhambra Airport from 1930 to 1931. Western Air Express operated a seaplane route out of Hamilton Cove Seaplane Base on Catalina Island, California from 1928 to 1930.

Transcontinental & Western Air

The company reincorporated in 1928 as Western Air Express Corp. In 1930 it purchased Standard Air Lines, a subsidiary of Aero Corp. of Ca., founded in 1926 by Paul E. Richter, Jack Frye and Walter Hamilton. WAE with Fokker aircraft merged with Transcontinental Air Transport to form Transcontinental & Western Air (TWA, later known as Trans World Airlines).

General Air Lines

In 1934 Western Air Express was severed from TWA and changed its name to General Air Lines, returning to the name Western Air Express after several months. In a 1934 press release by the company, it called itself the Western Air Division of General Air Lines. Its route map ran San Diego to Los Angeles to Salt Lake City.

Western Airlines

In 1937 Western merged National Parks Airways, which extended its route north from Salt Lake to Great Falls, and, in 1941, across the border to Lethbridge, Alberta. In 1941 Western Air Express changed its name to Western Air Lines and later to Western Airlines. (In 1967-69 Western called itself Western Airlines International.)

In 1944 Western acquired a controlling interest in Inland Air Lines, which became a subsidiary with Inland's schedules in Western timetables until Inland was merged into Western in 1952. Western started flying Los Angeles to San Francisco in 1943, so the Western/Inland route map was a W: San Francisco south to San Diego, north from San Diego to Lethbridge, south to Denver, and northeast to Huron. (It extended to Minneapolis in 1947.)

In 1946, Western was awarded a route from Los Angeles to Denver via Las Vegas, but in 1947 financial problems forced Western to sell the route, and Douglas DC-6 delivery positions, to United Air Lines. In 1947 Western extended the left arm of the W north to Seattle, and added San Diego to Yuma for a few years; in 1950 it extended the middle of the W north to Edmonton. It finally cut across the W in 1953 when DC-6Bs started a one-stop flight MSP-SLC-LAX; in 1956 it resumed flights west out of Denver, to San Francisco via Salt Lake. In 1957 it began Los Angeles to Mexico City nonstop DC-6Bs, and in December 1957 it began Denver-Phoenix-San Diego.

The airline's president was Terrell "Terry" Drinkwater. Drinkwater got into a dispute with the administration in Washington D.C. that hampered WAL's growth. Pressured in a famous phone call by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to "buy American made aircraft", Drinkwater reportedly responded: "Mr. President, you run your country and let me run my airline!" For years after this exchange, the federal Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) would not award Western new routes while their competitors including United and American grew enormous even though all Western airliners were of U.S. manufacture while their competitor's fleets included aircraft built in Europe.

In June 1960, Western Airlines introduced Boeing 707s (707-139s) between Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. 720B nonstops MSP-SFO and MSP-LAX began in 1966, along with LAX-Acapulco. In 1967 WAL acquired Pacific Northern Airlines (PNA) based in Anchorage, Alaska, its main route being Anchorage-Seattle, which PNA served nonstop with Boeing 720s. Western added Vancouver in 1967, and in 1969 it started flights from several California airports to Hawaii.

In the late 1960s, Western aimed for an all-jet fleet, adding Boeing 707-320s, 727-200s and 737-200s to their 720Bs. The two leased B707-139s had been sold in favor of the turbofan-powered Boeing 720B. Lockheed L-188 Electras were replaced with new 737-200s. In 1973 Western added nine McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10s, marketing their wide-body cabins as "DC-10 Spaceships". They had 46 first-class seats, 193 coach, and a lower level galley. From 1976 to 1981 the DC-10s flew Los Angeles to Miami nonstop.

In 1969, Western Airlines opened negotiations to merge with American Airlines. However, the merger was opposed by rival airlines such as Continental Airlines and the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division under Richard Wellington McLaren. President Richard Nixon's attorney Herbert W. Kalmbach suggested that the antitrust suit would be dropped in exchange for a $75,000 campaign contribution to the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, which American Airlines CEO George A. Spater agreed to. However, the merger was nonetheless rejected in a 4–1 decision by the Civil Aeronautics Board in July 1972.

Western was headquartered in Los Angeles, California. After the Airline Deregulation Act in 1978, the airline's hubs were reduced to two airports: Los Angeles International Airport and Salt Lake City International Airport. Before deregulation, Western had small hubs in Anchorage, Alaska, Denver, Las Vegas, Minneapolis/St. Paul and San Francisco. In spring 1987, shortly before Western was acquired by Delta Air Lines, the airline had two hubs, a major operation in Salt Lake City and a small hub in Los Angeles.

At its peak in the 1970s and 1980s, Western flew to cities across the western United States, and to Mexico (Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco, Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo and Mazatlán), Alaska (Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, Ketchikan, Kodiak and other Alaskan destinations), Hawaii (Honolulu, Kahului, Kona, and Hilo), and Canada (Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton). New York City, Washington, D.C., Boston, and Miami were added on the east coast as well as Chicago and St. Louis, and cities in Texas (Austin, Dallas/Ft. Worth, El Paso, Houston and San Antonio), and New Orleans in the south. Western had many intrastate flights in California, competing with Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA), Air California/AirCal, Air West/Hughes Airwest and United Airlines. In addition, Western operated "Islander" service with Boeing 707-320s, Boeing 720Bs and McDonnell Douglas DC-10s to Hawaii from a number of cities that previously did not have direct flights to the 50th state. In 1973, Western flew nonstop between Honolulu and Anchorage, Los Angeles, Oakland, California, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose, California and one-stop between Honolulu and Las Vegas, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Phoenix, Sacramento and Salt Lake City. In 1981, the airline also flew nonstop DC-10s between Vancouver, British Columbia and Honolulu.

One of the smallest jet destinations was West Yellowstone, Montana, near Yellowstone National Park. Western flew Boeing 737-200s to West Yellowstone Airport in the summer, replacing Lockheed L-188 Electras. In the 1970s and 1980s, Western served a number of small cities with 737-200s including Butte, Montana, Casper, Wyoming, Cheyenne, Wyoming, Helena, Montana, Idaho Falls, Idaho, Pierre, South Dakota, Pocatello, Idaho, Rapid City, South Dakota and Sheridan, Wyoming. The 737 replaced Electras to all of these cities. In 1968 the airline was operating nonstop Boeing 720Bs between the Annette Island Airport (serving Ketchikan, Alaska) and Seattle in addition to 720Bs between Juneau and Seattle, and in 1973 was flying 720B nonstops between Kodiak, Alaska and Seattle.

In 1978, Western Airlines and Continental Airlines agreed to merge. A dispute broke out over what to call the combined airline: Western-Continental or Continental-Western. An infamous coin toss occurred. Bob Six, the colorful founder of CAL, demanded that Continental be "tails" in deference to their marketing slogan "We Really Move Our Tail for You! Continental Airlines: the Proud Bird with the Golden Tail". The coin flip turned up "heads". Six was so disappointed he called the merger off.

From October 1980 to October 1981 Western flew Honolulu to Anchorage to London Gatwick Airport with a single McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30; for less than a year starting in April 1981 it flew LGW to Denver, continuing to Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Another international route was Los Angeles to Miami to Nassau, in the Bahamas for a year in 1980–81. Western extended its network to New York City, Washington, D.C. and Boston, as well as to Chicago and St. Louis in the midwest, Albuquerque and El Paso in the west, and Houston, New Orleans, Miami and Fort Lauderdale. In 1987 Western had four Boeing 737-300 round trips between Boston and New York LaGuardia Airport, and a major hub at Salt Lake City International Airport and a small hub at Los Angeles International Airport.

Western Express

In 1986, Western entered into a code sharing agreement with SkyWest Airlines, a commuter airline. SkyWest (Western Express) Embraer EMB-120 Brasilias and Fairchild Swearingen Metroliners connected to Western mainline flights at Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Diego, and other Western mainline destinations. In spring 1987 SkyWest/Western Express served 36 cities in Arizona, California, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. Western entered a similar code-sharing agreement with Alaska-based South Central Air, a small commuter airline that operated as Western Express as well, connecting to Western flights at Anchorage. Several cities in southern Alaska including Homer, Kenai, Soldotna were served by South Central Air operating as Western Express. After the acquisition of Western by Delta Air Lines, SkyWest became a Delta Connection code sharing airline.

Delta Air Lines merger

In the early 1980s, Air Florida tried to buy Western Airlines, but they were able to purchase only 16 percent of the airline's stock. On September 9, 1986, Western Airlines and Delta Air Lines entered into an agreement and plan of merger. The merger agreement was approved by the United States Department of Transportation on December 11, 1986. On December 16, 1986, shareholder approval was conferred and Western Airlines became a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta. The Western brand was discontinued and the employee workforces were fully merged on April 1, 1987. All of Western's aircraft were repainted in Delta's livery, including ten McDonnell Douglas DC-10s. Delta eventually decided to eliminate the DC-10s from the fleet as they already operated Lockheed L-1011 TriStars, a similar type. Western's Salt Lake City hub became a major Delta hub, and Delta now uses Los Angeles as a major gateway and hub as well.

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