Air 1
| Air 1 | |
|---|---|
|
|
|
|
| IATA code : | CB |
| ICAO code : | AEON |
| Call sign : | GATEWAY |
| Founding: | 1981 |
| Operation stopped: | 1985 |
| Seat: |
St. Louis , United States
|
| Home airport : | St. Louis Airport |
| Fleet size: | 2 |
| Aims: | national |
| Air 1 ceased operations in 1985. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation. | |
Air 1 (officially Air One Inc. ) was a St. Louis- based US airline that operated its aircraft in an all-business-class configuration.
history
The airline Air 1 was founded in 1981 by former NASA - Astronaut Eugene Cernan founded. The company primarily wanted to attract business travelers as customers with a luxurious on-board service at affordable prices. The original plan was for operations to start in December 1981 with five used Douglas DC-9 machines . This goal could not be achieved.
The company first used two leased Boeing 727-100s on charter flights in March 1983 . From April 1, 1983, Air 1 ran five leased Boeing 727-100 flights from St. Louis Airport to Newark (New York) , Washington , Dallas / Fort Worth and Kansas City . The aircraft were furnished with generously dimensioned leather armchairs and with this equipment only offered 76 instead of the usual 119 passengers. At the beginning of 1984 Los Angeles and Houston were added to the flight plan and the fleet was expanded with two Boeing 727-200s , which were designed for 98 passengers in the chosen configuration.
Despite the luxurious facilities and the quality of its on-board service, Air 1 was only able to win a few customers. A major reason was the insufficient number of daily flight connections and the unfavorable timing of the slots . In addition, Trans World Airlines ( TWA ), also based in St. Louis, lowered its flight prices on routes that were served in parallel by Air 1 . In its first fiscal year, the company posted a loss of $ 14.3 million. Due to the high losses, the company applied for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of US bankruptcy law in the fall of 1984 . In January 1985 Air 1 ceded its five Boeing 727-100s to other airlines, including the German Jetair . She then continued a limited line operation with the two remaining Boeing 727-200s. In the following month talks were held with the Orlando- based company Zenith International Airlines about a stake in the company. Negotiations were unsuccessful, so that Air 1 completely ceased its activities in March 1985. A planned resumption of flight operations in the summer of 1985 could not be realized.
The company concept of Air 1 was taken up in a comparable form by the German airline German Wings at the end of the 1980s . The Lufthansa offered a similar all-business-class service on long-haul routes, on their behalf by the Privatair were flown.
fleet
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ boeing | hong kong | 1983 | 0574 | Flight Archive . Flightglobal.com. Retrieved September 11, 2010.
- ↑ st louis | demonstration flights | civil aviation | 1983 | 0464 | Flight Archive . Flightglobal.com. Retrieved September 11, 2010.
- ↑ Troublemakers in the sky . In: Die Zeit , No. 28/1983
- ↑ jp airline-fleets international, Edition 84
- ^ A b Alexander L. Taylor: Small Birds in a Big Sky . TIME. December 12, 1983. Retrieved September 11, 2010.
- ↑ Agis Salpukas: Wooing The Business Flier . Nytimes.Com. June 4, 1983. Retrieved September 11, 2010.
- ^ Reuters: Air 1-Zenith Plan . NYTimes.com. February 26, 1985. Retrieved September 11, 2010.
- ↑ LETTERS . NYTimes.com. June 28, 1985. Retrieved September 11, 2010.
- ↑ jp airline-fleets international, Edition 86