iAero Airways to shut down

[MikeD]

Yeah they had their ups and downs for sure back then. I don’t know if they were out from under the ALPA trusteeship by the time UAL bought them or if that would have made any difference. My old man was long gone by the time that happened. But some of his friends that stayed went with the Fokkers to India before being recalled later.

The funniest was UAL giving the ATPs to Hulas for UFS, or at least thinking that cheapskate could run those jalopies.

I’m surprised they are still around today after how hard the 50seat market has been hammered.

I rode in a Feeder Service ATP back in the day. Back when there was a variety of airplanes in the airlines, mainline and regional.

 

[averettpilot]

That explains why 737 pilots from there are showing up interviews.

Swift has certainly been falling apart. I know they don’t have their longtime FBO at KPHX anymore, and I don’t know if they have the corporate jet charter anymore.

Somewhat coincidental in terms of shutting down, Set Jet ceased ops there at KSDL too just a few weeks back.

I worked for Swift Aircraft Management from 2015-2019 flying the owner around. Last I heard they were down to one Legacy, but Jackson Jet bought them when they bought the FBO.

 

[///AMG]

After Midway he became a salesman for a Ford dealer, then got on at MarkAir and was in the sim when they went bankrupt the first time in '92 and furloughed. He went out and bought his 737 type rating and then got on at a startup based in SLC called Morris Air, it was a refugee camp of furloughed airline pilots with guys from Midway, Eastern, PanAm, and America West. It was purchased by Southwest in late 1993 all of the pilots were stapled, treated as new hires, placed on probation, stripped of their Morris longevity and given dates of hire on 1/1/94. The only thing they did get was pay protection for the captains of which my dad was one, they kept their Morris captain rates even as FOs. He would upgrade there in four years and punch out early at 61 years old in 2012.

All that being said he still says it was the best thing that ever happened in his career. A career that spanned eight airlines*, two mergers, and three bankruptcy/furloughs.

In my opinion the early 90s was the absolute worst time to be an airline pilot. From the Eastern strike which started in March of '89 there was BN II that went under in September that year. Then after Iraq invaded Kuwait in August of 1990 the wheels really came off. Midway, and PanAm would be bankrupt the next year and liquidate along with what was left of Eastern. Plus TWA, America West, and Continental were all operating in chapter 11 and shedding pilots as well. @Richman did I miss any?

*you can make it 9 if you count a few weeks of training at UPS between BN and Midway in the fall of 1989 but UPS back then was a whole different animal and his friend there told him he would leave for Midway as well given the chance.

That's pretty wild. Like, holy crap. I do remember Morris, they operated from EUG for a little while prior to the merger when I was a kid. I guess it is a little bit of a "things will be ok" lesson.......worst timing, still walked away a longtime CA for a major. However I wonder how many other folks were not as "lucky"

 

[derg]

What people don’t want to accept in this business sometimes is what goes around comes around. Air Willie itself got hammered by UAL sometime after that. Bought out by UAL for their jet slots at ORD (back when it was slot limited) and immediately sold off all the turboprop operations and left them only with a handful of BAe jets.

I remember riding in the hotel van with a Willie crew around 94 or so. Captain was 59 and change and the FO was 58. That’s how hard their list got hammered.

Willie reconstituted itself after purchasing the remnants of WestPac Max after Western Pacific folded up, but you’d be hard pressed to call it the same outfit.

I jumpsat one of their BAe-146's from MKE to ORD once and they were welcoming but you could tell these two guys were walking through Mordor.

Those were the days of "What the hell is THAT taxiing down Lima?!"

"Well, lets talk about Air Wisconsin, son..."

 

[///AMG]

I jumpsat one of their BAe-146's from MKE to ORD once and they were welcoming but you could tell these two guys were walking through Mordor.

Those were the days of "What the hell is THAT taxiing down Lima?!"

"Well, lets talk about Air Wisconsin, son..."

View attachment 77265

That trash hauler does not look airworthy derg......you agreed to fly on this contraption? What if one of those spinny things got loose?

 

[derg]

That trash hauler does not look airworthy derg......you agreed to fly on this contraption? What if one of those spinny things got loose?

I flew scary 1900's.

"Hey, thanks for letting us know about the banging on the fuselage, when that noise STOPS, please let us know so we can declare an emergency because our heated props have failed!"

 

[ChasenSFO]

The old Midway died slowly and then instantly all at once, I guess that is how most of them go. My dad flew there and was furloughed in late summer '91, I remember he had the ALPA code a phone set on the speed dial that fall as updates were coming in on the proposed merger with Northwest. They were to be the white knight that would save them but they ended up backing out of the deal at the last minute claiming that Midway's management had falsified their books.

Prior to Midway he had been at Braniff II, they went out of business in an instant and due to all the litigation with the bankruptcy he didn't get his last paycheck until 2001. It was just pennies on the dollar of what he was owed, and that wasn't much as he was still a first year flight engineer when the plug got pulled on that place.

Yikes, sorry to hear all that. Frontier almost ceased to exist in 1998 when they were due to merge with Western Pacific (who relocated their entire COS hub to DEN ahead of the merger) then it was revealed Westpac had falsified their records and buried tens of millions in debt. Western Pacific failed almost immediately after Frontier called off the merger in Feb 1998. Frontier was very new at the time with a fleet under 20 aircraft I think and between their start in 1994 and the devastating 9/11 slump they already had to relocate from Stapleton to DIA, had a failed merger attempt, and then a global aviation crisis. Yet, look at them now.

 

[arkflyr]

That's pretty wild. Like, holy crap. I do remember Morris, they operated from EUG for a little while prior to the merger when I was a kid. I guess it is a little bit of a "things will be ok" lesson.......worst timing, still walked away a longtime CA for a major. However I wonder how many other folks were not as "lucky"

For a while in the early 90s his luck was so bad if it was raining soup he would have been standing outside with a fork. I’m old enough to remember the lean years, we spent several summers in Kansas City with the air conditioning turned off, if you’ve ever been there in July you know how miserable that is.

But it did teach me the value of persistence and to be really careful with money.

 

[arkflyr]

I jumpsat one of their BAe-146's from MKE to ORD once and they were welcoming but you could tell these two guys were walking through Mordor.

Those were the days of "What the hell is THAT taxiing down Lima?!"

"Well, lets talk about Air Wisconsin, son..."

View attachment 77265

That thing was a Rube Goldberg nightmare that was always broken and flew like a Mack truck with no power steering. The Willie guys said ATP actually meant “Another Tylenol Please or Another Technical Problem”.

 

[arkflyr]

Yikes, sorry to hear all that. Frontier almost ceased to exist in 1998 when they were due to merge with Western Pacific (who relocated their entire COS hub to DEN ahead of the merger) then it was revealed Westpac had falsified their records and buried tens of millions in debt. Western Pacific failed almost immediately after Frontier called off the merger in Feb 1998. Frontier was very new at the time with a fleet under 20 aircraft I think and between their start in 1994 and the devastating 9/11 slump they already had to relocate from Stapleton to DIA, had a failed merger attempt, and then a global aviation crisis. Yet, look at them now.

I heard a rumor that Herb called up WestPac when they started their flying billboard paint jobs and tried to get them to paint an airplane is SWA colors. I have no idea how true that is but sounds on brand for him.

 

[derg]

That thing was a Rube Goldberg nightmare that was always broken and flew like a Mack truck with no power steering. The Willie guys said ATP actually meant “Another Tylenol Please or Another Technical Problem”.

Did the Brits build anything worthy after WW2 other than the CANBERRA!?

We used to watch these shows about the Canberra with some weird 1970s disco music as a sound track and the host talked about how it was the best jet on earth (lol).

 

[SurferLucas]

Did the Brits build anything worthy after WW2 other than the CANBERRA!?

We used to watch these shows about the Canberra with some weird 1970s disco music as a sound track and the host talked about how it was the best jet on earth (lol).

THE VULCAN! The best sounding jet aircraft ever made…that roar is something you have to hear to appreciate.

The TSR2 was also a pretty badass plane, sadly we strong armed them into dropping it to get FB-111’s that never happened.

I’m pretty partial to the HP Victor myself, it still looks futuristic today.

The VC-10 was also pretty cool looking/good performance…sadly they kept changing the specs for it.

 

[MikeD]

THE VULCAN! The best sounding jet aircraft ever made…that roar is something you have to hear to appreciate.

The TSR2 was also a pretty badass plane, sadly we strong armed them into dropping it to get FB-111’s that never happened.

I’m pretty partial to the HP Victor myself, it still looks futuristic today.

The VC-10 was also pretty cool looking/good performance…sadly they kept changing the specs for it.

Can go into a Victor at the museum at MER

 

[CFI A&P]

That's pretty wild. Like, holy crap. I do remember Morris, they operated from EUG for a little while prior to the merger when I was a kid. I guess it is a little bit of a "things will be ok" lesson.......worst timing, still walked away a longtime CA for a major. However I wonder how many other folks were not as "lucky"

I know a former Morris pilot that ended up retiring from SW. Somewhere in their work history there was a furlough and moved to the Florida Keys, bought a couple jet skis and ran a jet ski rental business for a few years while simultaneously accelerating the chances of melanoma. The guy is an interesting character, he usually has a vintage Harley in the living room instead of a coffee table or ottoman.

 

[Falcon262]

I worked for Swift Aircraft Management from 2015-2019 flying the owner around. Last I heard they were down to one Legacy, but Jackson Jet bought them when they bought the FBO.

The chief pilot used to come by the Starbucks I worked at in Greensboro and get almost 200 bags of Starbucks Coffee for Christmas gifts.

 

[rjmore]

I was a gate agent at Western Pacific in MCO in 1997. Moving to DEN was a fatal mistake. We parked next to Vanguard and across from TWA...kind of a bad omen I guess.

 

[Avalon781ML]

A good friend of mine that I’ve known since 2007 lost his job in this debacle… he was the #7 pilot on the seniority list… just over a decade with the company. I can’t imagine the frustration he must be feeling.