Western Airlines
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A new restoration of a Convair 240 sports a Western Airlines paint scheme. |
Western Airlines was a large
airline based in
California, with operations throughout the
Western United States, and
hubs at
Los Angeles International Airport and
Salt Lake City International Airport. Western Airlines used the
IATA code WA.
Western Air Express
In
1925, the
United States Postal Service began to give airlines contracts to carry air mail all around the country. The company first incorporated in
1925 as
Western Air Express. 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. In April of
1926, Western's first flight took place with a
Douglas M-2 airplane. It began offering passenger services a month later.
Transcontinental & Western Airlines
The company reincorporated in
1928 as Western Air Express Corp. Then, in
1930, it added two
Fokker F.32 aircraft and merged with Transcontinental Air Transport to form
TWA.
General Airlines
Western Air Transport soon broke off from TWA's structure, and in
1934, changed its name to General Airlines.
Western Airlines
In
1941 General changed its name back to Western Airlines after
Howard Hughes renamed his
TWA to Trans World Airlines.
After
World War II, Western expanded into a large
regional airline, introducing service on the
Lockheed Constellation,
Douglas DC-6, and
Lockheed Electra. It merged in
1967 with
Pacific Northern Airlines and in the late 60s pushed for an all-jet fleet, adding
Boeing 707s,
727s and
737s to its fleet of
Boeing 720s. In
1973 it added
McDonnell Douglas DC-10s.
On
October 31,
1979,
Western Flight 2605 crashed while landing at
Benito Juarez International Airport in
Mexico City. The crew of the DC-10 had landed on the wrong runway and impacted with construction vehicles.
At its peak in the
1970s and
1980s, Western Airlines flew to many cities across the American Southwest and to various spots in
Mexico and
Canada, while keeping a large intra-state route structure in its home state of
California. It began flights from
Anchorage and
Denver to
London Gatwick Airport in
1981. As it extended its eastern network to such airports as
Washington-Dulles and
Boston-Logan, it became a prominent sponsor of the
Bob Barker television show
The Price is Right, to try to make customers from the
East more aware of their presence.
Delta Airlines
In the early
1980s,
Air Florida tried several times to buy Western Airlines, but it was able to purchase only 16 percent of the airline's stock. Finally, on
September 9,
1986 Western Airlines was bought by
Delta Air Lines, and it merged fully into that airline on
April 1,
1987.
In
2005, a new start-up airline began business out of
Bellingham International Airport in
Bellingham, Washington, using the Western Airlines name. The airline is currently working through the process of gaining
FAA approval as a commercial airline. At the end of 2005, the airline had yet to acquire any aircraft or establish any routes. The new Western Airlines expects to begin commercial flight service sometime in 2006. The similarity stops at the name and should in no way be considered a successor.
Western can also be noted for contributing to popular culture with its
1960s advertising slogan, "It's the oooooonly way to fly!" Spoken by the Wally Bird, an animated bird hitching a ride aboard the fuselage of a Western airliner, the phrase soon found its way into animated cartoons by
Warner Bros. and
Hanna-Barbera. Another famous advertising campaign by the airline centered on
Star Trek icons
William Shatner and
Leonard Nimoy.
During the 1970's, they promoted themselves as "the champagne airline" because champagne was offered to every adult passenger.
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Historical timetables and route maps*
Historical timetable covers*
History of Western Airlines and the planes it operated
