Transamerica Airlines

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Transamerica Airlines
Transamerica Airlines Boeing 747
IATA code : TV
ICAO code : TV (TVA)
Call sign : TRANSAMERICA
Founding: 1948
Operation stopped: 1986
Seat: Oakland , California , United States
United StatesUnited States 
Home airport : Oakland Airport
Number of employees: 1150
Fleet size: 24
Aims: worldwide
Transamerica Airlines ceased operations in 1986. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation.

Transamerica Airlines was an American airline that ceased operations in September 1986. The company emerged in October 1979 from the renaming of Trans International Airlines ( TIA ), which was founded in early 1948 under the name Los Angeles Air Service ( LAAS ). The company operated military and tourist charter flights as well as global air freight transports . In addition, the company was also active in transatlantic scheduled air traffic from May 1979 .

Los Angeles Air Service

Former flyover pilot Kirk Kerkorian acquired a Los Angeles- based air taxi company in 1947 that owned a Douglas DC-3 in addition to two single-engine light aircraft . With this machine ad hoc charter flights from Burbank Airport to Las Vegas were offered under the name Los Angeles Air Service ( LAAS ) from the beginning of 1948 . In the same year, additional Douglas DC-3 flights took place nationwide on an ad hoc basis. In the period that followed, the company could only expand slowly. Due to its classification as a supplemental airline (meaning “additional airline”), LAAS was subject to a number of state regulations that prohibited the establishment of fixed flight connections and thus made long-term deployment planning impossible. In the 1950s, the company acquired used Curtiss C-46 , Douglas DC-4 and Lockheed Constellation aircraft , but these were leased to other airlines or sold on after a short period of use. The used aircraft trade became an important business for LAAS while its flight operations stagnated. In early 1960, the company's fleet consisted of just three aircraft.

In 1958, the company won a tender from the US Department of Defense for the first time and carried out transatlantic charter flights with Douglas DC-6 aircraft on behalf of the Military Air Transport Service ( MATS ) between Charleston Air Base in South Carolina and from December 1958 to September 1959 the Nouasseur Air Base in Morocco . In the period that followed, MATS became LAAS ' most important customer . In 1960, the company became the world's first charter airline to order Douglas DC-8 jet aircraft, with the prospect of further military orders that would enable the aircraft to remain at full capacity . The first aircraft was delivered on June 20, 1962. The increasing number of international flights for the US military led Los Angeles Air Service to change its name to Trans International Airlines ( TIA ) on July 18, 1960 .

Trans International Airlines

A Douglas DC-8 -55CF of the TIA at Berlin-Tegel Airport in 1966

In 1960, Trans International Airlines took up flight connections to Japan on behalf of MATS . After winning a US $ 6.4 million tender in 1962, the company flew regular charter services from California to US bases in Hawaii , Guam and the Philippines , which were later continued to Diego Garcia . On April 26, 1963, TIA was the first company in the world to receive a DC-8 Jet Trader , which allowed the optional transport of cargo and / or people and thus better met the requirements of the MATS . During the Vietnam War , the company also carried out numerous troop transports as well as supply and evacuation flights for the US armed forces. In between orders, TIA leased aircraft that were not needed to other airlines, including Lufthansa and Canadian Pacific Airlines .

On October 5, 1962, the automotive company Studebaker Corporation acquired the airline for $ 10 million. The headquarters were then moved from Los Angeles to Oakland . Kirk Kerkorian continued as managing director after the sale. After the automaker Studebaker ran into economic difficulties in late 1963, he bought the company back in 1964 and went public in 1965 . In 1968, Kerkorian sold his majority stake for $ 104 million to the financial group Transamerica Corporation , which became the new major owner of Trans International Airlines .

From 1965 onwards, the company also carried out transatlantic charter flights for tour groups and associations ( Affinity Group Charter ), but their approval was limited in time and initially had to be renewed annually. Because the regulations of the US aviation authority did not allow the individual sale of tickets, the company founded its own travel clubs, through which it marketed inexpensive vacation trips to Asia and Europe for its club members. The company's own travel clubs rented TIA machines for their flights, which made it legally permissible to transport holidaymakers. After the company was sold to the Transamerica Corporation , these charter services became increasingly important. In order to improve the utilization of long-haul flights, TIA set up a nationwide feeder service with Boeing 727 aircraft in 1968 . The end of the 1960s the company the market leader in transatlantic charter routes and ordered three was wide-body aircraft of the type McDonnell Douglas DC-10 , which were used from 5 May 1973rd In addition to tourist charter flights, civilian freight transport has become an important business area. In 1976 the company acquired the US cargo airline Saturn Airways . Through the merger of the two companies on November 30, 1976, Trans International Airlines briefly became the world's largest operator of cargo aircraft. As a result of the deregulation in US air traffic introduced in 1978 , the company was also able to take up transatlantic scheduled flight connections from May 1, 1979 .

Transamerica Airlines

A cargo aircraft of the type Lockheed L-100 Hercules , the of Saturn Airways taken was

After the start of scheduled flights from Los Angeles and New York to Shannon and Amsterdam , Trans International Airlines was renamed Transamerica Airlines on October 1, 1979, based on the parent company . Brand new Boeing 747s replaced the Douglas DC-8 and McDonnell Douglas DC-10 on the transatlantic routes from mid-1979. Even after the start of scheduled flight operations, the company continued to provide tourist and military charter services as well as global cargo flights. Among other things, the company used its aircraft to transport heavy loads in Guatemala , New Guinea and in Sudan to develop oil fields . For these charter orders, Lockheed L-100 Hercules cargo planes were relocated to the areas of operation on a long-term basis.

In the early 1980s, the financial services provider Transamerica Corporation concentrated more on its core business and began to sell uneconomical subsidiaries. After Transamerica Airlines had flown in a loss of six million US dollars in the 1985 financial year, the parent company looked for a buyer for the airline. In the absence of an investor and due to increasing losses, flight operations ceased on September 30, 1986. The aircraft were then sold, including to Southern Air Transport , which acquired twelve Lockheed L-100s.

fleet

A McDonnell Douglas DC-10 of the TIA in 1978

Incidents

  • On November 18, 1979, the pilot reported an in-flight to Nellis Air Force Base located Lockheed L-188 CF (N859U) of Trans International Airlines an electronics failure on board, of which the cockpit instruments were affected. The machine got into an uncontrolled attitude and went into a steep descent. When attempting to intercept the aircraft, it broke in midair due to structural overload. The three crew members were killed in the accident.
  • On August 27, 1983, a Lockheed L-100-30 (N17ST) operated by Transamerica Airlines flew 50 kilometers south of the destination airport Dundo in Angola against a mountain in poor visibility. All 7 occupants, 4 crew members and 3 passengers, were killed.
  • On December 29, 1984, a Lockheed L-100-30 (N24ST) operated by Transamerica Airlines was damaged in a gun battle at Cafunfo Airport in Angola. The machine had to be written off as a total loss. People were not injured.

See also

Web links

Commons : Transamerica Airlines  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The company ceased operations before three-digit codes became the official standard system of the ICAO in November 1987.
  2. ↑ Los Angeles Times, June 9, 2005 [1]
  3. ^ Flight International, April 15, 1965, p. 604.
  4. ↑ Non-Sked Airlines - A selection of photographs [2]
  5. ↑ a b Gambling in America, William N. Thompson, 2001 [3]
  6. ↑ Flight International, April 8, 1960, p. 504 [4]
  7. ↑ 351 F.2d 1001, No. 271-60, United States Court of Claims, October 15 1965 Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 14, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / bulk.resource.org
  8. ↑ Rzjets, Douglas DC-8-51 N8008D , accessed February 1, 2019
  9. ↑ Flight International, June 28, 1962 p. 1002.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.flightglobal.com  
  10. ↑ a b DC-8 Jet Collection, Fleet Information Trans America International ( Memento from May 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ Going Home Jun66 [5]
  12. ^ Flight International, May 30, 1963, p. 774.
  13. ↑ Article In: Time Magazine October 19, 1962.
  14. ↑ Article In: The New York Times. December 22, 1990.
  15. ^ Die Zeit, January 5, 1968 [6]
  16. ↑ Flight International, June 17, 1971, p. 886 [7]
  17. ↑ Der Spiegel, issue 48, November 25, 1968 [8]
  18. ↑ a b c McDonnell Douglas DC-10, Günter Endres, Osceola 1998, p. 105
  19. ↑ Flight plans of Transamerica Airlines, various editions [9]
  20. ↑ Flight International, January 15, 1983, p. 886 [10]
  21. ↑ Los Angeles Times, August 23, 1986 [11]
  22. ↑ jp airline-fleets international, Edition 87/88
  23. ↑ jp aircraft-markings, jp airline-fleets international, various years
  24. ↑ Flight International, various years
  25. ↑ accident report DC-8-63 N4863T , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on 11 November 2017th
  26. ^ Accident report L-188CF N859U , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on February 7, 2020.
  27. ^ Accident report L-100 Hercules N17ST , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on February 7, 2020.
  28. ^ Accident report L-100 Hercules N24ST , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on February 7, 2020.