Holiday Airlines (US airline)#Non-economic

Henry P. Kengla started flying a pair of de Havilland Dove aircraft from San Jose and Oakland on June 15, 1965 under the name "Holiday Airlines" as a sole proprietor for a fare of $11.95. Kengla was an original partner and former vice-president and director of operations for Paradise Airlines but resigned prior to the notorious accident that shut Paradise in March 1964. His wife, also involved with Holiday, was the former head flight attendant for Paradise. Kengla started flying before the September 17, 1965 effective date of the California legislation that required approval by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to start an airline and thus, as a sole proprietor, was grandfathered. But he incorporated as Holiday Airlines, Inc. after the legislation and thus ran afoul of the CPUC, which said he had no right to transfer his grandfathered operating rights to another entity. After rapping Kengla on the knuckles, the CPUC granted the new corporation the requisite authority on December 6, 1966.[https://www.newspapers.com/image/618579202 Oakland to Tahoe Air Taxi Starts, Sacramento Bee, June 17, 1965][https://www.newspapers.com/image/354615003 Oakland-Lake Tahoe Air Taxi Busy, Oakland Tribune, August 6, 1965]{{cite journal|title=Decision No. 71648, Application No. 47901, Case No. 8405|journal=Decisions of the Public Utilities Commission of the State of California|volume=66|pages=537–545|year=1966|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b3274574?urlappend=%3Bseq=553%3Bownerid=9007199274348278-557|hdl=2027/uc1.b3274574|hdl-access=free}} Air California was certified three months earlier, but would first fly in January 1967.{{cite journal|journal=Decisions of the Public Utilities Commission of the State of California|title=Decision No. 71310, Application No. 47843, Application No. 47913, Application No. 48406|volume=66|pages=230–236|year=1966|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b3274574?urlappend=%3Bseq=246%3Bownerid=9007199274348278-250|hdl=2027/uc1.b3274574|hdl-access=free}}

On August 18, 1967, Holiday upgraded to a DC-3, retiring the Doves.[https://www.newspapers.com/image/477609993 Air Taxi Service Flies Higher, Oakland Tribune, August 19, 1967] In April 1968 it added a DC-6.[https://www.newspapers.com/image/477874840 Holiday Air Gets New Boss, Plane, Oakland Tribune, April 14, 1968] After an extension to the Tahoe runway, Holiday added two Electras acquired from Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA), including flights to Burbank. The first Electra went into service November 8, 1968, the second on March 7, 1969.[https://www.newspapers.com/image/619237938 Tahoe Runway Reopens, Sacramento Bee, October 26, 1968][https://www.newspapers.com/image/383070396 Holiday Airlines advertisement in Los Angeles Times, November 14, 1968]{{cite journal|journal=Decisions of the Public Utilities Commission of the State of California|title=Decision No. 76814, Application No. 51403|volume=70|pages=713, 717|year=1970|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b3274578?urlappend=%3Bseq=729%3Bownerid=9007199274348812-801|hdl=2027/uc1.b3274578|hdl-access=free}}

File:Lockheed L-188A N971HA Holiday BUR 18.10.70 edited-2.jpg

On October 28, 1969, Holiday completed an initial public offering (IPO) (400,000 shares at $7.50), making it a public company.[https://www.newspapers.com/image/386262546 Tombstone in Los Angeles Times, October 29, 1969] A 1970 article by the Los Angeles Times based in part on the IPO prospectus, showed that the main shareholder was [https://anadarkobasinproducer.com/crude-oil-projects-oklahoma/harry-a-trueblood-jr/ Harry A. Trueblood, Jr.], a Denver oilman, and that another Denver figure, John McCandish King, had a significant influence, including leasing an aircraft to the airline through one of his companies.[https://www.newspapers.com/image/165931319/ Holiday Airlines Has a Connection: It Goes to Tahoe With Help From Denver, Los Angeles Times, June 22, 1970] In 1973, Holiday Airlines, Inc. changed its name to Holiday Resources, Inc, with a new operating subsidiary created as Holiday Airlines Corporation.{{cite journal|journal=Decisions of the Public Utilities Commission of the State of California|title=D 81169, A 53569|volume=75|page=100|year=1973|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b3274583?urlappend=%3Bseq=114%3Bownerid=9007199274350590-128|hdl=2027/uc1.b3274583|hdl-access=free}}

Holiday ultimately also expanded to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) (1971) and San Diego (1972). At LAX, Holiday used the so-called West Imperial Terminal, on the south side of the airport.[https://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/hd/hd7411/hd7411-1.jpg Holiday Airlines timetable from November 1974, Accessed March 23, 2024]

Holiday was non-economic. From its first fiscal year (ending October 31, 1966) through September 30, 1972, the airline lost a cumulative $4.16mm on cumulative revenues of $6.93mm. After 1970, financial institutions would not permit it to borrow. Holiday made a small profit in the summers, and then gave it back and more in the winters.{{cite journal|journal=Decisions of the Public Utilities Commission of the State of California|title=Decision No. 81893, Application No. 53266|volume=75|pages=554–569|year=1973|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b3274583?urlappend=%3Bseq=568%3Bownerid=9007199274350590-592|hdl=2027/uc1.b3274583|hdl-access=free}}

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Holiday put itself in a box. It had Electras as early as 1968 and the proceeds of an IPO in 1970, yet until close to the end, Holiday applied only for routes that involved Tahoe. In stark contrast is Air California, which only started flying in 1967, also with two Electras; every single one of its routes was granted by the CPUC (PSA came into the CPUC era with grandfathered routes). From 1966 onward Air California and PSA competed at the CPUC for routes. Holiday never asked for anything outside of Tahoe. Particularly notable is that at the end of 1969, Air California won routes between Palm Springs and the Bay Area.{{cite journal|title=D 76397, A 51194|journal=Decisions of the Public Utilities Commission of the State of California|volume=70|page=369|year=1969|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b3221776?urlappend=%3Bseq=383%3Bownerid=9007199274431887-427|hdl=2027/uc1.b3221776|hdl-access=free}} Those would have been seasonally complementary to Holiday's Tahoe business, but Holiday was silent. Moreover, the CPUC explicitly saw itself as obligated to ensure the survival of carriers it regulated,{{cite journal |last=La Mond|first=Annette M.|date=Autumn 1976|title=An Evaluation of Intrastate Airline Regulation in California|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3003277|journal=The Bell Journal of Economics|volume=7|issue=2|pages=644|doi=10.2307/3003277 |jstor=3003277 |access-date=March 2, 2024}} so there was good reason to believe that it would have made some non-Tahoe awards to Holiday. But Holiday never asked and remained a subscale niche player.

Towards the end, Holiday made ineffectual attempts to escape the trap, substantially hindered by bureaucracy. Holiday had multi-stop flights to/from Tahoe, but until 1973 the CPUC required all tickets on Holiday to either originate or terminate in Tahoe, so as not to disturb the intrastate carrier (generally PSA or Air California) that had the intermediate stages. Holiday wanted to sell intermediate stages so long as a flight started or ended in Tahoe. For example, on a flight from Tahoe to San Diego via LAX, Holiday wanted to sell the LAX to San Diego leg, even though that competed with PSA. In late 1973, the CPUC said that would be OK. Returning to that example, in April 1974, there were over 30 jet flights (ten of them PSA's) from LAX to San Diego, with equipment ranging in size from DC-9s to DC-10s. Holiday had two turboprop flights.[https://www.departedflights.com/LAX74p4.html LAX to San Diego schedule effective April 1, 1974] In other words, this decision did little to improve Holiday's situation.

At the end of 1974, PSA and Air California applied to the CPUC for Tahoe, noting that they could do a much better job than Holiday, then the sole Tahoe provider.[https://www.newspapers.com/image/61256090 PSA Seeking Tahoe Routes, Santa Cruz Sentinel, September 24, 1974] In response, Holiday finally asked for routes outside of Tahoe, but then withdrew, saying the CPUC process had become an overwhelming financial burden for a small airline.[https://www.newspapers.com/image/798130463 Los Angeles airline seeks stopover in Redding, Redding Record-Searchlight, September 30, 1974][https://www.newspapers.com/image/798090069 Airline Drops Redding Plan, Redding Record-Searchlight, January 8, 1975] Holiday wasn't wrong. The 1973 CPUC decision referenced above was the result of a process that started over 10 months earlier with three days of public hearings in Tahoe, four days of public hearings in San Francisco, and briefs and supporting evidence submitted almost six months before the decision, and ended with the CPUC producing 15 pages of closely-written quasi-juridical reasoning, with findings of fact, findings of law, references to past cases and a formal order. Each of Holiday and five opposing airlines had consultants and/or lawyers, all listed in the decision (one of Holiday's consultants was Ed Beauvais, later the founder of America West Airlines). But that was just the start. In 1974, an appeal was granted (the CPUC produced a page of reasoning to justify an appeal of its own decision).{{cite journal|journal=Decisions of the Public Utilities Commission of the State of California|title=Decision No. 82631, Application No. 53266|volume=76|pages=477–478|year=1974|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/umn.31951d026397224?urlappend=%3Bseq=491%3Bownerid=13510798903811044-507|hdl=2027/umn.31951d026397224|hdl-access=free}} This resulted in another process, lasting over six months, no hearings this time but more briefs and submissions, with the CPUC affirming (in January 1975) its prior decision with another 21 pages of reasoning.{{cite journal|journal=Decisions of the Public Utilities Commission of the State of California|volume=78|title=Decision NO. 83962, Application No. 53266|pages=4–25|year=1975|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b3274586?urlappend=%3Bseq=18%3Bownerid=9007199274342721-22|hdl=2027/uc1.b3274586|hdl-access=free}} This was somewhat futile, because Holiday stopped flying a month later on February 6, 1975.

With no intrastate Tahoe service, the CPUC had to act quickly, giving emergency authorization to PSA and Air California to serve Tahoe, with the stipulation they use Electras.[https://www.newspapers.com/image/251927125 Airlines To Serve Tahoe Area, Petaluma Argus-Courier, February 20, 1975]

From 1969 onward Holiday Airlines generally had two Lockheed Electras, registrations N971HA and N974HA. The US Civil Aircraft registry for January 1975 (shortly before Holiday shut down) reflects a third Electra, N972HA.

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The airline served the following destinations in California during its existence:{{Cite web|title=Holiday Airlines April 15, 1974 Route Map|url=http://www.departedflights.com/HD041574.html|access-date=2021-03-10|website=www.departedflights.com}}{{Cite web|title=Holiday Airlines (1)|url=http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/hd.htm|access-date=2021-03-10|website=www.timetableimages.com}}

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• Burbank (BUR)
• Lake Tahoe (TVL) - focus destination
• Los Angeles (LAX)
• Oakland (OAK)
• San Diego (SAN)
• San Jose (SJC)

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• Paradise Airlines
• List of defunct airlines of the United States

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