Ozark Air Lines

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Ozark Air Lines was a local service carrier, a scheduled airline in the United States that operated from 1950 until it was purchased by Trans World Airlines (TWA) in 1986. Ozark got a second chance to be an airline when the carrier that won the routes for which Ozark applied, Parks Air Lines, failed to start them in a timely manner. Parks had its rights revoked, Ozark won not only the routes it previously applied for, but others as well. Parks merged into Ozark and Ozark (then without any airline operations) took over the Parks operation and the single route over which Parks had recently started service, thereby launching Ozark. Ozark over time became a jet carrier with a hub in St. Louis.

In 2001, TWA was merged into American Airlines. A smaller regional airline that used the Ozark name (and whose operating certificate was purchased by Great Plains Airlines) operated in 2000–2001. From 1950 until 1986, Ozark's headquarters was located at St. Louis Lambert International Airport.Template:Refn

History

Pre-certification

Ozark Air Lines was incorporated on 1 September 1943 in Missouri by Laddie Hamilton, Barak Mattingly and Floyd Jones with $100,000 in paid-up capital.[1] Ozark flew from Springfield, Missouri,Template:Refn and, in January 1945, it began flights between Springfield and St. Louis on Beechcraft Model 17 Staggerwings, replaced by Cessna AT-17 Bobcats in the late 1940s.

Ozark applied for certification as a feeder or local service airline in the Mississippi Valley Case of Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB). The CAB was the now-defunct federal agency that, at the time, tightly regulated almost all air transport in the United States. Without certification from the CAB (or, in some cases, flying solely within a single state as an intrastate airline), no airline could operate. When the CAB ruled in that case in December 1947, Ozark was shut out.[2]

Parks Air Lines

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File:Parks Air Lines 1950 Certificated Routes.png
Ozark inherited the Great Lakes and Mississippi Valley routes from Parks Air Lines
File:OzarkLogoDarkGreen.jpg
The dark green Ozark Air Lines logo
File:Ozark1.JPG
Another Ozark Air Lines logo

One of the winning airlines in the Mississippi Valley Case was Parks Air Transport, controlled by aviation entrepreneur Oliver Parks, best known for his prominent role in developing pilot training. This was the third case in which PAT won routes, leaving it with the largest portfolio of feeder routes in the country, one that was regarded as potentially the "richest" such in the industry. But Parks failed to start service on his network and in June 1949, the CAB started proceedings to potentially revoke the certification of his airline, now called Parks Air Lines (PAL). As part of those proceedings, the CAB accepted applications for airlines to take over PAL's routes and Ozark renewed its application. The CAB came to a final decision in July 1950, revoking PAL's certification and awarded Ozark not only PAL's Mississippi Valley Case routes, but also those PAL routes from the Great Lakes Area case. In June 1950, PAL finally started flying a route from East St. Louis to Chicago via St. Louis and three central Illinois cities. An appeals court said PAL could keep operating this one route until the effective date of the CAB order (September 26, 1950) but would not prevent the CAB from enforcing the order while PAL pursued a full court case. PAL agreed to sell its airline operation (including five DC-3s) to Ozark in exchange for 37.5% of the business. Ozark had no airline operations at the time, so PAL's operations became those of Ozark and in this way, Ozark Air Lines started service on that one Chicago route on September 26, 1950. Ozark retained operations at PAL's Cahokia, Illinois home airport, then known as Parks Metropolitan Airport, today as St. Louis Downtown Airport, for a period. For instance, Ozark's maintenance base moved from there to St. Louis in 1952.

After Parks

Services were started on Template:Date2, using Douglas DC-3s initially from St. Louis to Chicago later to Tulsa and Memphis.Template:R In 1955, the airline had 13 DC-3s flying to 35 cities between Sioux City, Indianapolis, Wichita, and Nashville. Ozark's main hub was St. Louis Lambert International Airport. Like other Local Service airlines, it was subsidized; in 1962, its operating revenues of Template:Currency million (equivalent to Template:Currency million in Template:Inflation/year) included Template:Currency million (equivalent to Template:Currency million in Template:Inflation/year) of federal subsidy.Template:Refn

In 1960, turboprop Fairchild F-27s were introduced; piston-engine Martin 4-0-4s were added to the fleet in 1964 and removed in 1967.

One of three co-founders, Arthur G. Heyne was an attorney in St. Louis, Missouri, and served as Secretary-Treasurer starting in 1950.

The three swallows on Ozark fins represented on-time flights, referring to the legend of the swallows that return to the Mission San Juan Capistrano, in California, each year on 19 March.

Jets

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File:Fairchild FH227B Ozark ORD 28.07.75 edited-3.jpg
Fairchild-Hiller FH-227B at Chicago O'Hare Airport in 1975

In 1961, Ozark's network reached from Minneapolis to Nashville and from Kansas City to Indianapolis and Louisville. Denver was added in 1966 and, in 1969, the network sprouted eastward: Ozark was awarded nonstops from Champaign and Peoria to Washington Dulles, continuing to New York LaGuardia. Atlanta was added in 1978 and four Florida cities in winter 1978–1979.

File:Douglas DC-9-31 N976Z Ozark ORD 28.07.75 edited-2.jpg
Ozark Douglas DC-9-31 at O'Hare in 1975

In September 1966, Ozark and Central Airlines announced plans to merge, subject to CAB approval; the new airline was to retain the Ozark name and would be one of the largest local service carriers in the U.S.Template:Refn However, in November 1966, the two airlines announced that merger talks had ended by mutual consent due to financing difficulties.Template:Refn

By 1967, the Martins and F-27s were replaced with Fairchild Hiller FH-227s, a stretched F-27; Ozark was all-turbine after the last DC-3 flight in October 1968. Ozark's introduced its first jets in July, 1966 with the Douglas DC-9-10s. The DC-9-10s were later augmented with McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30s (DC-9-31/32) and McDonnell Douglas DC-9-40s. The airline also ordered two Boeing 727-200s but never took delivery. In late 1980, Ozark retired its last FH-227 prop aircraft and went all jet with an all DC-9 fleet. Several very small cities including Burlington, Fort Dodge, and Mason City in Iowa, Decatur, Marion, and Quincy in Illinois, and Cape Girardeau, Missouri, briefly saw DC-9 jet service before Ozark discontinued serving those cities in 1982. In 1984, larger McDonnell Douglas MD-80s were added.

Ozark Midwest

In 1985 Ozark began a code-share agreement with Air Midwest, a commuter airline operating 17-seat Fairchild Swearingen Metroliners. The operation was called Ozark Midwest and the Air Midwest aircraft were painted with green stripes, similar to Ozark but without the swallows. Ozark Midwest provided feeder service to Ozark from many smaller cities in the midwest that were not able to support large DC-9 jets including several cities that Ozark had previously discontinued.[3]

Merger with TWA

In the mid-1980s Ozark and TWA had a de facto duopoly at St. Louis Lambert International Airport, a hub for both. Ozark accounted for 26.3 percent of boardings at STL in 1985, while TWA accounted for 56.6 percent.Template:Refn On Template:Date2, the two airlines announced plans to merge: TWA would buy Ozark for Template:Currency million in cash (equivalent to Template:Currency million in Template:Inflation/year).Template:Refn Shareholders of both airlines approved the merger by late summer, and the United States Department of Transportation gave its approval on Template:Date2.Template:Refn

Ozark ceased to exist as an independent company on Template:Date2. The Ozark DC-9s were gradually painted with a modified paint scheme with "TWA" in the tail. Over the next couple of years, the fifty Ozark airplanes were repainted in the TWA livery. On Template:Date2, TWA was merged into American Airlines.

Second Ozark Air Lines (2000–2001)

In 1998, rights to the airline's name were purchased by William E. Stricker of Columbia, Missouri. The reformed Ozark Air Lines received its operating certificate on Template:Date2, and began service 10 days later,Template:Refn from Columbia Regional Airport to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Chicago Midway Airport, using two Fairchild Dornier 328JET aircraft. Later in 2000, service was added to Joplin Regional Airport in Joplin, Missouri, as a stop between Columbia and Dallas/Fort Worth. In early 2001, Ozark operated seasonally to the Taos Regional Airport serving Taos, New Mexico, from Dallas/Fort Worth twice a week during the winter ski season.

A year later, the company ceased operations and sold its assets to Great Plains Airlines, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.Template:Refn

Sales and marketing

Reservations

From the 1960s through the late 1980s, Ozark Air Lines' reservations department used a special toll-free WX telephone prefix in New Jersey which could be reached only in certain areas of the state by dialing 0 and asking the New Jersey Bell operator to connect to Ozark's WX number: WX-8300. The number could not be dialed directly by the customer and was only available to certain telephone exchanges where WX was available. (Direct-dial toll-free service made WX numbers obsolete, and they have been largely phased out.)

Advertising

In the late 1960s, comedian George Carlin appeared in Ozark advertising.Template:Refn

Destinations in 1986

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Note: Regional destinations were served by Ozark Midwest

Fleet

World Airline Fleets 1979 (copyright 1979) lists Ozark as having the following fleet:[4]

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Ozark Air Lines operated the following aircraft:[5]

Aircraft Total Introduced Retired Notes
Boeing 727-200 2 1979 1979 Never entered service and sold to Pan Am[6]
Convair CV-240 7 1962 1965
de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 3 1972 1974 Used to serve Chicago Meigs Field
Douglas C-47 Skytrain 29 1950 1971
Fairchild F-27 7 1959 1967
Fairchild FH-227B 21 1966 1981
Martin 4-0-4 15 1964 1968
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-10 10 1968 1986
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 37
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-40 3 1982
McDonnell Douglas MD-82 4 1984

Accidents and incidents

See also

References

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  1. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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  3. ↑ Ozark timetables from 1985 and 1986
  4. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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External links

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