local service carrier

{{main|Trunk carrier}}

{{main|Civil Aeronautics Board}}

The passage of the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938 put almost all US commercial air transport under the tight control of a newly formed Federal agency, the Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA). In 1940, those regulatory functions passed to another Federal agency, the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB). With the exception of intrastate airlines, only airlines certificated by the CAA/CAB could engage in scheduled air transport. Airlines that could show they were flying scheduled service before the passage of the 1938 Act were entitled to certification by grandfathering. 19 domestic passenger airlines were certificated in this way. The 16 of these that continued to operate after World War II were called the trunk carriers or trunk airlines. In many respects, the CAB regulated the industry in the interests of the trunk carriers.

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File:Douglas C-47-DL NC47968 Pioneer Als 1948 edited-2.jpg in 1948]]

{{main|Pioneer Air Lines}}

In November 1943, the CAB certificated Houston-based Essair (later called Pioneer Air Lines) to fly feeder routes in Texas, the first airline to be certificated to fly domestic passengers since the grandfathering of the trunk carriers. Essair started feeder service on 1 August 1945 on a route from Houston to Amarillo, Texas via many intermediate points. The CAB regarded this as an experiment so Essair's certification was temporary. The airline would need to renew its certificate in three years.{{cite journal|journal=Civil Aeronautics Board Reports|publisher=Civil Aeronautics Board|title=Essair, Inc., Temporary Mail Rate|volume=6|pages=687–694|date=July 1944 – May 1946|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/osu.32437011657786?urlappend=%3Bseq=701%3Bownerid=107472192-705|hdl=2027/osu.32437011657786|hdl-access=free}}

In the meantime, prompted by the Essair certification, the CAB initiated a case, published July 1944, to consider local air service nationally. Politicians, business groups, would-be airlines and others pushed for such airlines, although the CAB and the post office (which at the time subsidized air transport through airmail contracts) were "not enthusiastic."{{cite book|last=Eads|first=George C.|title=The Local Service Airline Experiment|year=1972|page=75|publisher=Brookings Institution|isbn=9780815720225|url=https://archive.org/details/localserviceairl0000eads}} By January 1944, the CAB had received 435 applications by would-be feeder airlines. The Board saw itself obligated by the 1938 Act to expand air service to smaller markets.{{cite journal|journal=Civil Aeronautics Board Reports|publisher=Civil Aeronautics Board|title=Investigation of Local, Feeder and Pick-Up Air Service |volume=6|pages=1–57|date=July 1944 – May 1946|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/osu.32437011657786?urlappend=%3Bseq=15%3Bownerid=107472192-19|hdl=2027/osu.32437011657786|hdl-access=free}} The Board was not confident feeder service could be provided on a cost-efficient basis by the trunks, therefore the CAB decided to certificate new carriers, with the idea they would become specialists in serving small routes efficiently. By giving them temporary certificates, the increased subsidies for providing local service was also theoretically temporary. The CAB may also not have wanted to risk the progress trunk carriers made in evolving towards subsidy-free operation.{{sfn|Eads|1972|p=75–78}}

Even before it published its local service findings, the CAB launched a series of cases to certificate new feeder carriers across the contiguous United States.{{cite journal|journal=Aviation Week|date=5 June 1944 |title=Examiners Assigned Four Feeder Cases |url=https://archive.aviationweek.com/issue/19440605|page=41|volume=45|number=1|issn=0005-2175}} The CAB separately certificated "territorial" airlines for Hawaii and Alaska which, at the time, were territories not states. 14 feeder cases completed during the timeframe 1946–1949, awarding an additional 22 new entities (beyond Pioneer) feeder service certificates covering most of the contiguous United States. These certificates were temporary and conditional. Successful local service applicants had to demonstrate access to the funding they claimed to have, and that a sufficient number of airports had necessary infrastructure (e.g. sufficiently long runways, radios, etc) to handle commercial service.

Cases could take well over a year, sometimes longer, to decide (note the gap between when the CAB launched the cases in 1944 and the publishing of the first case in spring 1946) typically had over a dozen applicants and other participants, public hearings, an initial finding by an examiner, followed by the decision of the full five-member Board. Each case usually certificated one or more new local service carriers and might also allocate longer routes in the same region to trunks. For instance, the March 1946 decision in the Service in the Rocky Mountain States Area case (which launched in the summer of 1944) certificated two new feeder lines (soon to adopt the names Monarch Air Lines and Challenger Airlines) splitting local routes across Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico, while awarding additional routes in the same region to Western Air Lines and Inland Air Lines, two trunk carriers. Some airlines won routes in multiple cases. Parks Air Lines, for instance, won routes in three.{{cite journal|journal=Civil Aeronautics Board Reports |publisher=Civil Aeronautics Board|volume=8|pages=726–804|title=Mississippi Valley Case|date=April–December 1947|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/osu.32437011657687?urlappend=%3Bseq=744%3Bownerid=107469291-748| hdl=2027/osu.32437011657687|hdl-access=free }} One later case allocated routes only to feeders previously certificated in earlier cases. A cleanup case re-awarded routes to Southern Airways that the CAB was not confident had been properly awarded previously.{{cite journal|journal=Civil Aeronautics Board Reports|publisher=Civil Aeronautics Board|title=Reopened Mississippi Valley and Southeastern States Cases|pages=979–998 |volume=11|date=December 1949 – August 1950|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/osu.32437011657539?urlappend=%3Bseq=997%3Bownerid=107189394-1001|hdl=2027/osu.32437011657539|hdl-access=free}} CAB decisions could be challenged in Federal courts and some feeder certifications were (such as the original case certificating Essair).{{cite court|litigants=Braniff Airways v. Civil Aeronautics Board|vol=147|reporter=F.2d|opinion=152|court=D.C. Cir.|year=1945|url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/147/152/1472318/}} The CAB did not distribute route authorities to feeders equally. The size of the Parks Air Lines network was over eight times the size of the Florida Airways network, for instance.{{cite journal|journal=Aviation Week|date=5 April 1948 |title=Feeder Mileage|url=https://archive.aviationweek.com/issue/19480405|page=36|volume=48|number=14|issn=0005-2175}}

Among successful applicants, All-American Aviation (later Allegheny Airlines, the predecessor to US Airways) was unique because it already had CAB-certification. The CAB certificated All American for “pick-up” service in 1940 – All American picked up mail without landing through use of a device to hook mailbags in flight. This certification was de-novo, rather than grandfathered, but valid only for mail and freight.{{cite journal|journal=Civil Aeronautics Board Reports|volume=2|title=All American Aviation, Inc.—Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity |date=July 1940 – August 1941 |publisher=Civil Aeronautics Board|pages=133–158|hdl-access =free |hdl=2027/osu.32435022360663|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/osu.32435022360663?urlappend=%3Bseq=149%3Bownerid=113100059-153}}

Some applicants failed to launch service at all. In the case of three applicants with unusual business plans, certification eventually expired or was revoked due to failure to operate:

• Air Commuting won a certificate for seaplane service from New York City but never launched, with its certification lapsing. Later it unsuccessfully applied for New York City helicopter service certification in the case that was won by New York Airways.{{cite journal|journal=Civil Aeronautics Board Reports|volume=15|title=New York City Area Helicopter Service Case|date=January–June 1952|publisher=Civil Aeronautics Board|pages=259–278|hdl-access =free |hdl=2027/osu.32435022360598|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/osu.32435022360598?urlappend=%3Bseq=5%3Bownerid=112924793-9}}
• Island Air Ferries won a certificate to provide low-frills service across Long Island Sound from Long Island to Connecticut, as a substitute for ferry service. The CAB declined to extend certification past its original term.{{cite journal|journal=Civil Aeronautics Board Reports|volume=16|title=Island Air Ferries Renewal Case|date=July 1952 – February 1953|publisher=Civil Aeronautics Board|pages=546–554|hdl-access =free |hdl=2027/osu.32435022360580|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/osu.32435022360580?urlappend=%3Bseq=570%3Bownerid=102792408-594}}
• Yellow Cab Company of Cleveland won a certificate to provide helicopter service in Cleveland. This never launched and the certificate expired.{{cite report|title=Civil Aeronautics Board Reports to Congress 1968|date=9 December 1968|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|location=Washington, DC|page=160|hdl-access =free |hdl=2027/pst.000067708055|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/pst.000067708055?urlappend=%3Bseq=802%3Bownerid=13510798900153966-780|ref={{sfnref|Annual|1968}}}}

Arizona Airways failed to launch as a feeder carrier but avoided certificate revocation.

{{main|Arizona Airways}}

The airline flew (1946–1948) as an Arizona intrastate airline before winning a feeder certificate for routes in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. But intrastate service exhausted its capital. The airline ceased operating while preparing for feeder service, was unable to raise funding, and the CAB threatened to revoke its certificate. At the last minute, the carrier, still grounded, agreed to a takeover by Monarch Air Lines. This turned into a three-way merger with the addition of Challenger Airlines, resulting in the creation of the original Frontier Airlines in 1950 as one of the largest local service carriers, flying small routes from the Mexican to Canadian borders in the mountain states.

File:Parks Air Lines 1950 Certificated Routes.png routes certificated by the Civil Aeronautics Board]]

{{main|Parks Air Lines}}

Parks Air Lines received routes in three CAB cases, leaving it with a feeder network deemed one of the richest. But it was unable to raise funds. The airline proposed a series of launch alternatives the CAB found unacceptable, leading to the CAB revoking the company’s certification in 1950. The CAB awarded most of Parks's routes to a new feeder carrier, Ozark Air Lines, making Ozark the last feeder to be certificated. The CAB awarded the remaining Parks routes to Mid-Continent Airlines, a trunk carrier, a controversial decision since feeder and trunk airlines were supposed to be separate.

Shortly before the CAB's revocation, Parks started service on a single route. After litigation failed to stop the CAB from moving forward, Parks sold itself to Ozark. Since Ozark had no airline operation at the time, Parks essentially became Ozark.

{{main|Purdue Aeronautics Corporation}}

In 1949, Purdue Aeronautics Corporation (PAC), a Purdue University subsidiary, was awarded stopgap certification for a single route, Chicago-Lafayette, Indiana. The route authority was held by feeder airline Turner Airlines, shortly to become Lake Central Airlines, which was slow starting service. PAC flew the route for just over two months in late 1949 and early 1950 until Turner was ready to go. That was the end of Purdue University's brief time operating a Federally-certificated scheduled airline, but two years later, Purdue played a role in the fate of Mid-West Airlines, as detailed below.

{{main|Florida Airways (1947–1949)}}

{{main|Mid-West Airlines}}

{{main|E.W. Wiggins Airways}}

Feeder certificates were initially temporary, subject to renewal every three years. This was not just for show; the CAB declined to renew the certificates of three feeders, Florida Airways in 1949, Mid-West in 1952 and E.W. Wiggins Airways in 1953. The issue was economics; the CAB deemed unacceptable the amount of government subsidy required to keep the airlines operating.

In the case of Mid-West, another subsidiary of Purdue University bought the carrier in 1951, with a plan to substantially upgrade the airline (e.g. moving from single-engined aircraft to Douglas DC-3s). The CAB allowed Purdue to buy the airline, but then refused to renew its certificate the next year.

Florida Airways and Mid-West went out of business as a result of losing their certificates. The scheduled passenger operations of E.W. Wiggins were part of a larger business and the company is still a going concern as of 2024, operating as a feeder cargo carrier for UPS Airlines and Fedex Express since the 1980s.

Image:Douglas DC-3A N18141 Air New Engl MIA 17.04.72 edited-3.jpg DC-3 at Miami in 1974]]

In 1952, early in the development of feeder airlines, the CAB chose to deregulate airlines flying "small aircraft". This was formalized in Part 298 of the Board's economic regulations, which gave blanket authorization for airlines operating an aircraft with a maximum gross takeoff weight of 12,500 lbs or less. Such airlines were originally known as scheduled air taxis, later as commuter airlines or Part 298 carriers. This effectively created a new category of airline underneath the local service carriers. In 1972 the CAB expanded the aircraft size limit to include those of 30 passengers or fewer, with a payload of less than 7,500 lbs.{{cite journal|journal=Civil Aeronautics Board Reports|volume=60|title=Part 298 Weight Limit Investigation|pages=142–194|date=August–December 1972|url= https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015007658480?urlappend=%3Bseq=170%3Bownerid=944337-208|hdl=2027/mdp.39015007658480|hdl-access=free}} Such carriers did have to obtain Federal Aviation Administration operational/safety certification but were otherwise able to fly wherever they pleased. The CAB would, on occasion, also exempt commuter operators to operate aircraft larger than the limits. For instance, in 1971, it exempted Executive Airlines and Air New England (at that time a commuter carrier) to fly propeller aircraft up to 44 seats to expand service in New England.[https://www.newspapers.com/image/45367116 CAB Authorizes Prop Aircraft for N.E. Line, Fitchburg Sentinel, April 23, 1971]

File:Southern Airways McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31 N89S.jpg DC-9 Birmingham 1973]]

In 1955, the US Congress forced the CAB to make the certificates of these carriers permanent (Public Law 38, enacted May 19, 1955 amending the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938).{{cite web|url=https://www.congress.gov/84/statute/STATUTE-69/STATUTE-69-Pg49-2.pdf|title=Public Law 38, Chapter 41, May 19, 1955|website=www.congress.gov|publisher=United States Congress|language=en|access-date=16 July 2024}} This was done against the wishes of the CAB; it had made "elaborate promises" to the trunks that local service carriers would never be able to "come into full competitive status".{{cite book|last=Caves|author-link=Richard E. Caves|first=Richard E.|title=Air Transport and its Regulators|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|publisher=Harvard University Press|page=294|lccn=62017216|date=1962|url=https://archive.org/details/airtransportitsr0120unse}} (see "Trunks, the protected class" below). Prior to permanent certificates, the uncertainty of their regulatory status made it impossible for local service carriers to borrow on a long-term basis. Consequently, the carriers were largely equity funded prior to permanent certificates.{{sfn|Eads|1972|p=42}}

CAB-regulated airlines interlined with every other carrier (which was done with CAB approval through a subsidiary of the Air Transport Association, at the time the club for all the CAB air carriers). It was normal for passenger itineraries to involve a ticket on more than one airline. No airline offered comprehensive service because the CAB intentionally limited competition. This can be seen in statistics for the local service carrier connections. In 1964, over 40% of passengers on local service carriers were on a ticket connecting to another airline.{{sfn|Eads|1972|p=162}}

The CAB saw the trunks as a special category of airline to be particularly protected:

• Until shortly before deregulation, the CAB did not authorize a single airline to compete with trunklines on an equal basis.{{cite report|ref={{sfnref|Report|1975}}|title=Civil Aeronautics Board Practices and Procedures: Report of the Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure of the Committee of the Judiciary of the United States Senate, 94th Congress, 1st Session|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|date=1975|location=Washington, DC|page=217|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/pur1.32754076881451|hdl=2027/pur1.32754076881451|hdl-access=free}}
• Once the trunk airlines were certificated, the CAB's view was their number comprised a sufficient number of airlines, no others were needed.{{sfn|Report|1975|p=218}}
• The CAB took particular care to ensure local service carriers did not compete with the trunk carriers, seeing itself as having an obligation to the trunks to protect them from competition.{{sfn|Report|1975|p=220}}

Over time, local service carriers did come to compete with trunk carriers to a degree. In permitting local service carriers to enter some trunk routes, the CAB was motivated in significant part by a desire reduce government subsidy paid to local service carriers, a process known as “route strengthening.”{{sfn|Eads|1972|p=105–176}} The first time a local service carrier went head-to-head with a trunk was in 1957, when the CAB allowed Mohawk to compete with American Airlines on the Syracuse-New York City route.{{sfn|Eads|1972|p=156}}

Further, some local service carrier routes were assigned to trunks. As previously noted, in 1950, some of the routes originally awarded to Parks Air Lines, a local service carrier, were handed to Mid-Continent Airlines, a trunk, after Parks failed to start operation in a timely manner.{{cite journal|journal=Civil Aeronautics Board Reports|title=Parks Investigation Case|pages=779–851 |volume=11|date=December 1949 – August 1950|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/osu.32437011657539|hdl=2027/osu.32437011657539|hdl-access=free}} And in 1955, the CAB permitted a trunk airline to buy a local service carrier, when Continental Air Lines bought Pioneer.{{cite journal|journal=Civil Aeronautics Board Reports|volume=20|title=Continental-Pioneer Acquisition Case|pages=323–401 |date=February–May 1955|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/osu.32437011658321?urlappend=%3Bseq=339%3Bownerid=107202065-343|hdl=2027/osu.32437011658321|hdl-access=free}} So the division between local service carriers and trunks was far from absolute.

{{main|Air New England (1970–1981)}}

In 1974, the CAB certificated a new domestic carrier, Air New England (ANE), to placate New England politicians, business groups and citizens who felt they deserved to have a certificated carrier fly small routes in New England (as opposed to relying on unregulated commuter operators). These routes were previously flown by Northeast Airlines, a small trunk carrier that Delta Air Lines bought in 1972. ANE was initially nationally reported as the first new local service carrier since Ozark in 1950.{{cite journal|journal=Aviation Week & Space Technology|date=22 July 1974 |title=Air New England Named Local |url=https://archive.aviationweek.com/issue/19740722|page=19|volume=101|number=3|issn=0005-2175}}[https://www.nytimes.com/1974/07/18/archives/air-new-england-service-upgraded-a-regular-carrier-unanimous.html Air New England Service Upgraded, New York Times, July 18, 1974] Initially the CAB regulated ANE as such, but in 1976 ANE was relabeled as something new in the CAB taxonomy, a "regional carrier". The clear intent of the CAB when it certificated ANE was to keep it focused on small New England routes. Oddly, when the CAB came to create a specific regional certificate for ANE, it found the existing form of ANE's certificate was that of a trunk, not a local service carrier.{{cite journal|journal=Federal Register|volume=42|number=88|date=6 May 1977|pages=23184–23185|title=Civil Aeronautics Board [Docket 29648; Order 77-5-12] Air New England, Inc. Order to Show Cause|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.31158002894953?urlappend=%3Bseq=74%3Bownerid=13510798902483401-106|hdl=2027/uc1.31158002894953|hdl-access=free|issn=0097-6326}}

File:Allegheny Airlines BAC 1-11 N1549.jpg BAC 1-11 in 1975, part of one of the "largest jet fleets in the world"]]

Local service carriers aspired to be seen as “big” airlines. For instance, in the mid-1970s, Allegheny, the largest of the local service carriers, ran an advertising campaign “It takes a big airline”, comparing itself to the trunks, and it adopted a tag-line “did you know Allegheny is that big?” Ads noted Allegheny:

• Flew more annual flights than TWA
• Flew more annual passengers than Pan Am
• Flew to more cities than American Airlines
• Had one of the largest jet fleets in the world[https://www.newspapers.com/image/255611673 Big Airlines Better, Binghamton (NY) Press and Sun-Bulletin, 18 May 1976]{{cite journal|journal=Black Enterprise|title=Allegheny Airlines advertisement|volume=7|number=6|page=16|date=January 1977|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ekJrFziM4CcC|issn=0006-4165}}

However, as Table 2 shows, the distinction between trunk airline and local service airline remained obvious all the way to 1978, the last year of the regulated era. Relative to local service carriers, even the smallest trunk airlines flew substantially greater seat-miles and distances and with substantially larger aircraft.

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• 1943–1949: CAB certificates 23 feeder/local service airlines
• Air Commuter, Island Air Ferries and Yellow Cab of Cleveland certificates never used and either expire or are revoked.
• The CAB withdraws certifications of Florida Airways (1949), Mid-West (1952) and E.W. Wiggins (1953).
• 1950: Monarch, Challenger and Arizona Airways merge to create Frontier.
• 1950: Parks Air Lines merges into Ozark Air Lines.
• 1952: Empire merges into West Coast.{{sfn|Annual|1968|p=159}}
• 1952: Robinson Airlines changes its name to Mohawk Airlines[https://www.newspapers.com/image/257278836 Mohawk: Robinson Airlines' Name To Change Friday, Ithaca (NY) Journal, 14 August 1952]
• 1952: Wisconsin Central changes name to North Central Airlines.[https://www.newspapers.com/image/271734159 Wisconsin Central Now North Central, Wausau (WI) Daily Herald, 16 December 1952]
• 1953: All American Airways changes name to Allegheny Airlines.{{cite journal|journal=Civil Aeronautics Board Reports|title=Docket No. 5880, Allegheny Airlines, Inc. (formerly All American Airways, Inc.), Certificate Reissued—order No. E-7144, adopted February 6, 1953|pages=1005–1006 |volume=16|date=July 1952 – February 1953 |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b2938507?urlappend=%3Bseq=1029%3Bownerid=9007199273685214-1075|hdl=2027/uc1.b2938507|hdl-access=free}}
• 1955: Pioneer merges into trunk airline Continental Air Lines{{sfn|Annual|1968|p=159}}
• 1958: Southwest Airways changes name to Pacific Air Lines[https://www.newspapers.com/image/458224634 Debut of Pacific Air Lines, San Francisco Examiner, 19 March 1958]
• 1967: Central merges into Frontier{{sfn|Annual|1968|p=159}}
• 1968: Three-way merger of Bonanza, Pacific and West Coast creates Air West{{sfn|Annual|1968|p=159}}
• 1968: Lake Central merges into Allegheny{{sfn|Annual|1968|p=159}}
• 1969: Trans-Texas Airways changes name to Texas International Airlines{{cite journal|journal=Civil Aeronautics Board Reports|title=Docket No. 20875, Texas International Airlines, Use of Initials "TIA"—order 69-10-162 adopted October 31, 1969|pages=971–972 |volume=52|date=August–November 1969|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/osu.32437011657869?urlappend=%3Bseq=987%3Bownerid=107308813-991|hdl=2027/osu.32437011657869|hdl-access=free}}
• 1970: Air West becomes Hughes Air Corporation dba Hughes Airwest[https://www.nytimes.com/1970/12/08/archives/hughess-properties-are-reported-worth-2billion-holdings-make-him.html Hughes's Properties Are Reported Worth $2-Billion, New York Times, 8 December 1970]
• 1972: Mohawk merges into Allegheny[https://www.newspapers.com/image/435223735 Allegheny and Mohawk - - - now they are one, Boston Globe, 13 April 1972]

{{col div end}}

These events left eight local service carriers in 1978 as shown in Table 2.

{{col div}}

• 1979: Allegheny changes its name to USAir[https://www.newspapers.com/image/168177902 Allegheny is dead; long live USAir, Philadelphia Inquirer, 28 October 1979]
• 1979: North Central buys Southern, creating Republic Airlines[https://www.nytimes.com/1979/08/30/archives/corporate-sales-and-earnings-reports.html Corporate Sales and Earnings Reports, New York Times, 30 August 1979]
• 1980: Texas Air formed as Texas International holding company.[https://www.newspapers.com/image/246060140 Week in review: Corporate Name Changes, Tallahassee Democrat, 15 June 1980] Texas Air came to control about 20% of the US airline industry during the 1980s[https://www.newspapers.com/image/191504260/ Changes win Texas Air approval to buy Eastern]
• 1980: Republic Airlines buys Hughes Airwest[https://www.newspapers.com/image/399381117 Republic Airlines Takes Over Hughes Line Today, Atlanta Constitution, 1 October 1980]
• 1982: Texas Air merges Texas International into former trunk carrier Continental Airlines.[https://www.newspapers.com/image/192510215 Airlines' merger takes effect, Green Bay (WI) Press-Gazette, 31 October 1982]
• 1985: New entrant People Express buys Frontier, operates it as a separate subsidiary[https://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/09/business/people-express-acquiring-frontier.html People Express Acquiring Frontier, New York Times, 9 October 1985]
• 1985: Piedmont agrees to buy new entrant Empire Airlines{{Cite web |date=1985-10-03 |title=Piedmont Buying Empire Airlines - The Buffalo News at Newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/875688757 |url-access=subscription |access-date=2024-05-02 |website=Newspapers.com |publisher=The Buffalo News |page=8 |language=en}}
• 1986: Frontier shuts down.[https://www.nytimes.com/1986/08/25/business/frontier-airlines-pressed-for-cash-halts-all-service.html Frontier Airlines, Pressed For Cash, Halts All Service, New York Times, 25 August 1986] It merged into Continental in 1987.{{cite book |last=Petzinger|first=Thomas|title=Hard Landing: The Epic Contest For Power and Profits That Plunged the Airlines into Chaos|publisher=Random House|year= 1996|isbn=9780307774491|pages=321–322}}
• 1986: USAir agrees to buy former intrastate airline Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA)[https://www.newspapers.com/image/404660452/ USAir Plans to Buy PSA, Become 6th Largest Line, Los Angeles Times, December 8, 1986]
• 1986: Northwest Airlines agrees to buy Republic{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=TJ8oAAAAIBAJ&pg=7034,3475617|newspaper=Deseret News|agency=UPI|title=Northwest Orient will buy Republic to become third largest airline|date=January 24, 1986|page=4A}}
• 1986: Trans World Airlines agrees to buy Ozark.[https://www.newspapers.com/image/461230853 Ozark Air and TWA merge, San Francisco Examiner, 2 March 1986]
• 1987: USAir agrees to buy Piedmont. On completion of this merger in 1989, USAir becomes the sole remaining former local service carrier. Piedmont and USAir were considered two of the most successful airlines in the decade following deregulation, but USAir subsequently lost $3bn in six years of losses from 1989 to 1994.{{Cite news |last=Salpukas |first=Agis |date=1987-03-10 |title=PIEDMONT ACCEPTS USAIR BID |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/10/business/piedmont-accepts-usair-bid.html |url-access=subscription |access-date= |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news |last=Bryant |first=Adam |date=1995-09-07 |title=USAir Chief, In a Surprise, Plans to Retire |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/07/business/usair-chief-in-a-surprise-plans-to-retire.html |url-access=subscription |work=New York Times}}
• 1997: USAir changes its name to US Airways[https://www.newspapers.com/image/998581636 Congress passes bill which restores 10% ticket tax, Taylorville (IL) Daily Breeze Courier, 28 February 1997]
• 2005: America West Airlines buys bankrupt US Airways, assuming the name of the larger carrier.[https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/20/business/us-airways-and-america-west-plan-to-merge.html US Airways and America West Plan to Merge, New York Times, 20 May 2005]
• 2013: US Airways agrees to buy bankrupt American Airlines, assuming the name of the larger carrier.[https://archive.nytimes.com/dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/american-and-us-airways-said-to-vote-for-merger/ American and US Airways Announce Deal for $11 Billion Merger, New York Times, 13 February 2013]

{{col div end}}

{{sticky header}}{{table alignment}}

As of 2024, American Airlines is the corporate successor to the following original local service certificates:

{{col div}}

• Allegheny
• Lake Central
• Mohawk
• Ozark
• Parks
• Piedmont

{{col div end}}

As of 2024, Delta Air Lines is the corporate successor to the following original local service certificates:

{{col div}}

• Bonanza
• Empire
• Southern
• Southwest Airways
• West Coast
• Wisconsin Central

{{col div end}}

As of 2024, United Airlines is the corporate successor to the following original local service certificates:

{{col div}}

• Arizona Airways
• Central
• Challenger
• Monarch
• Pioneer
• Trans-Texas

{{col div end}}

{{reflist}}

Category:Airlines of the United States

Category:Airline types