Capitol Air was a United States supplemental air carrier and, after 1978, a scheduled passenger air carrier based which was operational from 1946 to its bankruptcy filing on November 23, 1984. It was founded as Capitol Airways in 1946, and then renamed Capitol International Airways in 1967. Supplemental air carriers were also known as irregular air carriers or nonscheduled carriers. In 1981, the airline changed its name to Capitol Air and was operating scheduled domestic and international passenger flights that year.
The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) was an agency of the federal government of the United States, formed in 1940 from a split of the Civil Aeronautics Authority and abolished in 1985, that regulated aviation services and, until the establishment of the National Transportation Safety Board in 1967, conducted air accident investigations. The agency was headquartered in Washington, D.C.
Flying Tiger Line, also known as Flying Tigers, was the first scheduled cargo airline in the United States and a major military charter operator during the Cold War era for both cargo and personnel. The airline was bought by Federal Express in 1989.
Overseas National Airways (ONA) was a supplemental air carrier during the period in which the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), a now defunct United States Federal agency, tightly regulated almost all US commercial air transport. From 1964 onward, supplemental carriers were charter carriers, but until 1964 they were charter-scheduled hybrids. Until 1950, ONA was known as Calasia Air Transport, and until 1947, Air Travel.
Mackey Airlines was a small United States scheduled international airline flying from Florida to the Bahamas certificated in 1952 by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), the now defunct Federal agency that, at the time, tightly regulated almost all US commercial air transport. The airline was founded by Joseph C. Mackey. Mackey also flew to Cuba prior to the Cuban Revolution. In 1956, Mackey absorbed Midet Aviation, an even smaller CAB-certificated airline also flying between Florida and the Bahamas. Mackey merged into Eastern Air Lines in 1967.
Northeast Airlines was an American trunk carrier, a scheduled airline based in Boston, Massachusetts, originally founded as Boston-Maine Airways that chiefly operated in the northeastern United States, and later to Canada, Florida, the Bahamas, Bermuda and other cities. It was notably small and unprofitable relative to other trunk carriers, being less than half the size, by revenue, than the next biggest trunk in 1971. Northeast was acquired by and merged into Delta Air Lines in August 1972.
Southern Air Transport (SAT), based in Miami, Florida, was, in its final incarnation, a cargo airline. However, it started life as an irregular air carrier, a type of carrier defined and tightly controlled until 1978 by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), a now defunct Federal agency that, at the time, closely regulated almost all US commercial air transportation. From 1965 onward, such airlines were charter carriers. Up until 1965, they were charter/scheduled hybrids. For much of that time the carrier was owned by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) (1960–1973).
Bonanza Air Lines was a local service carrier, a US scheduled airline focused on smaller routes in the Western United States from 1949 until it merged with two other local service airlines to form Air West in 1968. Its headquarters was initially Las Vegas, Nevada, and moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1966.
Trans Caribbean Airways (TCA) was an irregular air carrier until 1957, when it was certificated by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) as an international air carrier to fly from New York City to San Juan, Puerto Rico. TCA thereafter operated as a small scheduled airline specializing in flying from New York to the Caribbean, adding a small number of additional routes over time until it was purchased by American Airlines in 1971.
Zantop Air Transport was a United States airline incorporated in 7 July 1956 from the earlier Zantop Flying Service. It was a Part 45 carrier until 1962 when the Civil Aeronautics Board approved transfer of the operating certificate of Coastal Air Lines, making Zantop a supplemental air carrier. As a Part 45 carrier, Zantop was not a common carrier, it flew contract work for the Big Three automakers and for the Air Force Logair air freight service and with the US Navy, Quicktrans freight service up and down the Eastern Seaboard. As a supplemental, Zantop was able to hold itself out to the public as a general charter carrier. The original founders of Zantop Flying Services, the Zantop brothers, all sold their stock and resigned from the company in 1966. A name change was filed with the State of Michigan effective 29 December 1966 in the name of Universal Airlines, Inc.
AAXICO Airlines was an airline based in the United States. AAXICO is an acronym for American Air Export and Import Company. Initially founded as a non-scheduled airline or irregular air carrier, AAXICO was awarded certification as a scheduled air cargo airline in 1955 by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), the now-defunct Federal agency that, at the time, tightly regulated almost all US commercial air transportion. However, in 1962 AAXICO reverted to a supplemental air carrier. In 1965, it was nominally bought by Saturn Airways, another supplemental airline, but AAXICO was the surviving management and ownership. In its later years, AAXICO was noted for its consistent profitability, financial strength and its near total focus on flying for the military.
Airlift International was an American cargo airline that operated from 1945 to 1991, initially under the name Riddle Airlines. It was certificated as a scheduled freight airline in 1951 by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), the now-defunct federal agency that, at the time, tightly regulated almost all US commericial air transport. Airlift's headquarters were at Miami International Airport, Florida.
Slick Airways was one of the first scheduled cargo airlines in the United States, awarded a certificate for scheduled cargo service in the same proceeding that awarded a certificate to Flying Tiger Line. The airline was founded by Earl F. Slick, a Texas aviator and multimillionaire who along with his brother, inherited $25 million in oil wealth after their father's death in 1930.
South Pacific Air Lines (SPAL) was a small US international carrier that flew from Hawaii to Tahiti from 1960 to 1963, later adding American Samoa to its small network. The airline was controlled by the Dollar family. SPAL was tiny, unable to compete with jet carriers and not able to secure sufficient route authority from the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) to expand. The airline transferred its routes to Pan Am at the end of 1963 and merged into Pan Am in 1964.
On July 12, 1953, Transocean Air Lines Flight 512, a Douglas DC-6A operated by Transocean Air Lines from Guam to Oakland, California, crashed into the Pacific Ocean roughly 630 km (340 nmi) east of Wake Island while en route to Honolulu for a planned stopover. All 58 passengers and crew on board were killed.
Paradise Airlines was a small California intrastate airline best remembered for a high-mortality 1 March 1964 crash of a Lockheed L-049 Constellation subsequent to a failed approach to South Lake Tahoe Airport in 1964, killing all 85 aboard. The crash helped induce a substantial 1965 change in California's economic regulation of its intrastate airlines. The carrier was shut down by the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) on 4 March of that year.
United States Overseas Airlines (USOA) was a supplemental air carrier founded and controlled by Dr. Ralph Cox Jr, a dentist turned aviator, based at Cape May County Airport in Wildwood, New Jersey, where it had a substantial operation. It was one of the larger and more capable of the supplemental airlines, also known as irregular air carriers, during a period where such airlines were not simply charter carriers but could also provide a limited amount of scheduled service. USOA's operations included scheduled flights that spanned the Pacific. However, in the early 1960s USOA fell into significant financial distress leading to its 1964 shuttering by the Civil Aeronautics Board, the defunct federal agency that, at the time, controlled almost all commercial air transportation in the United States.
Resort Airlines was an unusual United States scheduled international airline certificated in 1949 by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), the now-defunct Federal agency that, at the time, tightly regulated almost all commercial air transport in the United States. Resort's scheduled authority was restricted to offering all-expenses paid escorted tours to nearby foreign destinations, known as sky cruises. Resort could offer conventional charter service but no other scheduled service. The market for sky cruises was limited and quite unprofitable, so the vast majority of Resort's business was charters, and for several years, only charters. At the time, the US did not have pure charter carriers, but rather supplemental air carriers, which at the time had a limited ability to offer scheduled service. Since Resort was functionally a pure charter carrier, it had in some ways the most restrictive certificate in the US airline industry. The airline ceased operations in 1960 at which time it tried selling its certificate to Trans Caribbean Airways. But in 1961 the CAB rejected the deal and revoked the moribund carrier's certificate.
The generically-named U. S. Airlines was one of the first scheduled cargo airlines to operate in the United States, awarded a certificate by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) in July 1949 in the same proceedings that awarded certificates to Flying Tiger Line and Slick Airways. Flying Tiger and Slick were given transcontinental freight routes, U. S. Airlines was given north-south routes east of the Mississippi. The CAB picked U. S. Airlines over competitors in significant part because it was well capitalized. U. S. Airlines started certificated service 1 October 1949. The airline spent the time before its certification flying freight on east coast routes.
Aerovias Sud Americana dba ASA International Airlines (ASA) was one of the first cargo airlines to fly between the United States and Latin America, a US carrier certificated to fly air freight on a scheduled basis between Florida and Latin America in 1952 by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), the now-defunct Federal agency that, at the time, tightly regulated almost all US commercial air transportation. ASA was undersized relative to contemporary freight airlines, but operated successfully in the 1950s nonetheless. Thereafter political instability, changing regulations and regulatory inertia impacted ASA and it failed to make the transition to jets. The CAB denied attempts by Riddle Airlines to merge with ASA before and after ASA collapsed in 1965.
