Hughes Airwest
| Hughes Airwest | |
|---|---|
| IATA code : | RW |
| ICAO code : | |
| Call sign : | |
| Founding: | 1968 |
| Operation stopped: | 1980 |
| Seat: |
San Francisco , California United States
|
| Home airport : | San Francisco International Airport |
| Fleet size: | |
| Aims: | |
| Hughes Airwest ceased operations in 1980. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation. | |
Hughes Airwest was an American airline based in San Francisco and based at San Francisco International Airport
history
Hughes Airwest was formed on April 17, 1968 from the merger of West Coast Airlines , Bonanza Air Lines and Pacific Air Lines . At that time it was still called Air West. The fleet consisted of Boeing 727-100 , DC-9 , Fairchild F-27 and Piper Navajo .
Howard Hughes , who was looking for a new challenge in aviation , became interested in Air West. Hughes became the owner of the airline on April 3, 1970. Air West then renamed itself Hughes Airwest in 1971. She began flying to several cities in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Like all other local airlines in the 1970s, Hughes Airwest no longer flew with stopovers, but rather longer routes. In 1977 Hughes Airwest set up a connection to Denver from both Burbank Airport and John Wayne Airport with an onward flight agreement with Frontier Airlines .
In 1978 the Airline Deregulation Act was passed. For Hughes Airwest, this meant the beginning of the end, as the airline could no longer make a profit due to the increased competition, several labor disputes and a lack of government support. In 1979 the remaining Fairchild F-27s were phased out. That same year, Hughes Airwest suffered a loss of $ 20 million.
In September 1979, ticket sellers, reservations workers and clerks left Hughes Airwest because their contracts had not been renewed for more than a year. During 1979, several airlines were interested in buying Hughes Airwest, including Alaska Airlines and Allegheny Airlines . The strike ended in October 1979 and the airline was able to resume flights in November of the same year. Four months later, it became the target of an acquisition by Republic Airlines .
On October 1, 1980, Hughes Airwest was finally acquired by Republic Airlines for $ 38.5 million.
fleet
During its existence, Hughes Airwest operated the following types of aircraft:
Incidents
From 1971 until the end of operations in 1980, Hughes Airwest suffered two total write-offs of aircraft. One of them killed 49 people. Example:
- On June 6, 1971, a rushed Douglas DC-9-31 of Hughes Airwest ( air vehicle registration number N9345 ) after a collision with a McDonnell F-4 Phantom II of the US Marine Corps (Bu 151,458) in Duarte (California) from. All 49 occupants of the DC-9 and the pilot of the F-4 died (see also Hughes Airwest Flight 706 ) .
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Lewiston Morning Tribune - Google News archive search. Retrieved July 15, 2020 .
- ↑ The Deseret News - Google News archive search. Retrieved July 15, 2020 .
- ^ Ulrich Klee, Frank Bucher et al .: jp airline-fleets international . Zurich Airport 1971–1980.
- ↑ rzjets: Hughes Airwest , accessed July 26, 2020.
- ^ Accident statistics Hughes Airwest , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on July 26, 2020.
- ↑ accident report DC-9-31 N9345 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on 27 July 2020th