Commenced operations | 1980 |
---|---|
Ceased operations | 1981 |
Destinations | San Diego, California, South Lake Tahoe, California |
Headquarters | San Diego, California, United States |
Key people | E. D. Perry, Alan Goddard [1] |
Cal Sierra Airlines was a start-up commuter airline based in San Diego, California. The airline was founded by retired Pan Am Captain E. D. Perry and his business partner Alan Goddard. [1]
The airline started in December 1980 with a route between San Diego and South Lake Tahoe, California, operating Convair 440 aircraft, [2] [3] which were chosen partly to meet noise restrictions standards at Lake Tahoe Airport. [1] The flights were stopped on Jan 21 1981, and resumed later in June when the FAA certified its only remaining operating aircraft. [4]
A planned expansion was halted with the PATCO strike in the United States. Because of the shortage of air traffic controllers in the United States, airlines were not given the authority to add new routes. [2] The new airline was short-lived without the chance to expand. It ceased operations after less than nine months of service in 1981.
Western Airlines was a major airline in the United States based in California, operating in the Western United States including Alaska and Hawaii, and western Canada, as well as to New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Miami and to Mexico City, London and Nassau. Western had hubs at Los Angeles International Airport, Salt Lake City International Airport, and the former Stapleton International Airport in Denver. Before it merged with Delta Air Lines in 1987 it was headquartered at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Throughout the company's history, its slogan was "Western Airlines...The Only Way to Fly!"
Hollywood Burbank Airport — formerly called Bob Hope Airport after entertainer Bob Hope — is a public airport three miles (4.8 km) northwest of downtown Burbank, in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The airport serves Burbank, Hollywood, and the northern Greater Los Angeles area, which includes Glendale, Pasadena, the San Fernando Valley and the Santa Clarita Valley. It is closer to many popular attractions, including Griffith Park, Universal Studios Hollywood, and Downtown Los Angeles, than Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), and it is the only airport in the area with a direct rail connection to Downtown Los Angeles, with service from two stations: Burbank Airport–North and Burbank Airport–South. Nonstop flights mostly serve cities in the western United States, though Delta Air Lines has regular routes to Atlanta.
Oxnard Airport is a county-owned, public airport a mile west of downtown Oxnard, in Ventura County, California. The airport has not had scheduled passenger service since June 8, 2010, when United Express ended flights to Los Angeles International Airport. America West Express also served the airport with nonstop flights to Phoenix in the early-2000s via a code sharing agreement with America West Airlines.
Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) was a low-cost US airline headquartered in San Diego, California, that operated from 1949 to 1988. It was the first substantial scheduled discount airline. PSA called itself "The World's Friendliest Airline" and painted a smile on the nose of its airplanes, the PSA Grinningbirds. The Los Angeles Times called PSA "practically the unofficial flag carrier airline of California for almost forty years."
Santa Barbara Municipal Airport is 7 miles west of downtown Santa Barbara, California, United States. The airfield covers 948 acres (384 ha) of land and has three runways.
Air California, later renamed AirCal, was a U.S. airline company headquartered in Newport Beach, California that started in the 1960s as a California intrastate airline. The airline's home airport was Orange County Airport, now known as John Wayne Airport.
Monterey Regional Airport is three miles (5 km) southeast of Monterey, in Monterey County, California, United States. It was created in 1936 and was known as the Monterey Peninsula Airport until the board of directors renamed it on September 14, 2011.
McClellan–Palomar Airport is a public airport three miles southeast of Carlsbad in San Diego County, California. It is owned by the County of San Diego. The airport is used for both general and commercial aviation. As of March 2013, the airport was the fourth-busiest single runway airport in the United States.
Reno Air was a scheduled passenger airline headquartered in Reno, Nevada, United States. Reno Air provided service from its hubs at Reno/Tahoe International Airport in Reno, Nevada, San Jose International Airport in San Jose, California and Las Vegas International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada to destinations throughout the western United States, including Alaska. International service to Vancouver, British Columbia in western Canada was also served at one point and limited service was operated to the midwestern U.S. as well. A small stand alone operation was also undertaken at one point in the southeastern U.S. with the service being based in Gulfport, Mississippi. American Airlines acquired Reno Air in 1999.
Pacific Air Lines was a local service carrier on the West Coast of the United States that began scheduled passenger flights in the mid-1940s under the name Southwest Airways. The company linked small cities in California with larger cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco. Flights later operated to Portland, Oregon, and eventually reached Las Vegas and Reno in Nevada.
Aspen Airways was an airline carrier and regional affiliate of United Express and based in Hangar 5 in Stapleton International Airport in Denver, Colorado. Aspen ceased operations on April 1, 1990, when separate portions of the airline were acquired by Mesa Airlines and Air Wisconsin Services, Inc.
Eastern Sierra Regional Airport is two miles east of Bishop, in Inyo County, California, United States. The land is leased from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The airport is owned and operated by Inyo County.
Mammoth Yosemite Airport is a town-owned public airport seven miles east of Mammoth Lakes, in Mono County, California, United States. Also known as Mammoth Lakes Airport or Mammoth–June Lake Airport, it is mainly used for general aviation, but has scheduled passenger flights operated by one airline which primarily serves the airport on a seasonal basis during the winter ski season. Additional scheduled passenger service for the Mammoth area is seasonally available at the nearby Eastern Sierra Regional Airport located in Bishop, CA.
Lake Tahoe Airport is a public airport three miles southwest of South Lake Tahoe, in El Dorado County, California. It covers 348 acres (141 ha) and has one runway; it is sometimes called Tahoe Valley Airport. Although the airport had almost forty years of airline service, since 2000, it has served only general aviation.
StatesWest Airlines was a commuter airline headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona that operated to destinations in the Southwestern United States.
Cochise Airlines was a commuter airline which was founded in 1971 in Tucson, Arizona. It operated until the early 1980s. Cochise linked small cities in Arizona with Phoenix, Arizona and Tucson, Arizona and also served southern California and New Mexico at one point.
Golden Gate Airlines was a United States regional airline founded in 1980 in Monterey, California after the merger of Gem State Airlines and Air Pacific (USA) in 1979. It merged again in 1981, this time with Swift Aire Lines, but discontinued service shortly thereafter and then went out of business.
Wings West Airlines was an American regional airline headquartered at McChesney Field (SBP), unincorporated San Luis Obispo County, California. The airline initially began scheduled passenger service as an independent commuter air carrier and then subsequently became an American Eagle affiliate of American Airlines operating turboprop aircraft on code sharing flights on behalf of American.
Paradise Airlines Flight 901A was a scheduled passenger flight from San Jose Municipal Airport to Tahoe Valley Airport, both within California, USA. On March 1, 1964, the Lockheed L-049 Constellation serving the flight crashed near Genoa Peak, on the eastern side of Lake Tahoe during a heavy snowstorm, killing all 85 aboard. After the crash site was located, the recovery of the wreckage and the bodies of the victims took most of a month. Crash investigators concluded that the primary cause of the accident was the pilot's decision to attempt to land at Tahoe Valley Airport when the visibility was too low due to clouds and snowstorms in the area. After aborting the landing attempt, the flight crew lost awareness of the plane's location as it flew below the minimum safe altitude in mountainous terrain. The pilot likely tried to fly through a low mountain pass in an attempt to divert to the airport in Reno, Nevada, and crashed into the left shoulder of the pass. At the time, it was the second-deadliest single-plane crash in United States history, and remains the worst accident involving the Lockheed L-049 Constellation.
Holiday Airlines was a California intrastate airline. Holiday operated scheduled passenger service with Lockheed Electra turboprops in California almost exclusively serving Lake Tahoe from Southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area during period 1965–1975. Holiday started roughly contemporaneously with Air California but the two airlines had different trajectories.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: date and year (link)