 | |||||||
| |||||||
| Founded | 1973 (1973) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ceased operations | 1982 (1982) | ||||||
| Operating bases | Seattle Boeing Field, Berlin-Tegel AirportPortland, Oregon, Boston Logan | ||||||
| Fleet size | 18 aircraft (9Boeing 707, 8Boeing 720, 1Rockwell Aero Commander (as of April 1979)) | ||||||
| Headquarters | Seattle Boeing Field | ||||||
| Key people | Alex Harris, Richard C. Neese, Richard Heaton, Capt Rondo[2](Pete) Pietscher | ||||||
| Founder | A. Joël Eisenberg | ||||||
| Notes | |||||||
(1)IATA, ICAO codes were the same until the 1980s | |||||||
Aeroamerica, Inc. was founded as anuncertificated carrier. It was headquartered atSeattle Boeing Field,Washington.[3][4] In 1975 the airline established an overseas base atTegel Airport in what used to beWest Berlin prior toGerman reunification. Berlin Tegel was the main operating base from 1975 until 1979.[3] Aeroamerica ceased operations in 1982.[5]
Joel Eisenberg, owner of a travel agency, International Travel, founded Club International as a nonprofit corporation under Oregon law in February 1971 as anair travel club. TheFederal Aviation Administration certificated the club under Part 123 of theFederal Aviation Regulations in May 1971 and Eisenberg acquired the first aircraft, aBoeing 707, fromTWA in March 1971, which he leased to the club. By the end of 1972, the club had purchased the 707 from Eisenberg and also acquired aDC-7 andBoeing 720. The club operated effectively a weekly shuttle between Seattle and Honolulu and Seattle and Anchorage. It advertised as having 40,000 members.TheCivil Aeronautics Board (CAB) ordered Club International shut in September 1974.[6] The CAB was the now defunct federal agency that, at the time, tightly regulated almost all US commercial air transportation. However, the CAB allowed Club International to operate into the beginning of 1975 to allow its last tours to complete.[7]
As can be seen from the nearby picture, the aircraft livery of Club International and that of Aeroamerica was essentially identical.
Seattle businessman Arthur Joël Eisenberg was the founder and owner of Aeroamerica, Inc.[8][9]
Aeroamerica wasincorporated in August 1973.[10]
Aeroamerica commenced commercial operations in 1974 with six-second-handBoeing 720jetliners.[3][10] One of these was sourced fromAer Lingus while the remaining five were all ex-Braniff examples.[3][10] (Aeroamerica's first aircraft had actually been delivered the year before, the same month the company had been incorporated.[10])
Aeroamerica's Boeing 720s were configured in a 149-seat, single-class seating arrangement.[11][12] Although Aeroamerica applied similarcolour schemes featuring the same basic shapes to most of its aircraft, the actual colour combination differed on each individual plane.[13]
Aeroamerica's femaleflight attendants wore"hot pants".[12][13][14]
Following the decision of US supplemental carrierModern Air'sparent company GAC Corp to exit the West Berlincharter market in October 1974, Aeroamerica acquired that airline's West Berlin traffic rights.[15][16]
On October 23, 1974, the day of the newterminal pre-inauguration at West Berlin's Tegel Airport, Aeroamerica stationed its first Boeing 720 atTegel for crew familiarisation flights.[11][17] This aircraft was painted in a basic Braniff colour scheme modified with a whiteAir Club International stylecheatline and a blackBerliner Flug Ring inscription by the main door.[14] By March 1975, a further two Boeing 720s arrived at the airline's new Berlin Tegel base to fulfill a five-yearcharter contract the company had concluded withBerliner Flugring, at the time West Berlin's leadingpackage tour operator, to undertake a series of short- and medium-haulinclusive tour (IT)charter flights to theMediterranean and theCanary Islands from the start of the 1975 summer season.[16][18] Aeroamerica had taken over this contract fromModern Air.[11][16] The decision to supply whole-planecharter airline seats to West Berlin's foremost packagetour operator enabled the airline to take advantage of the fact that all airlines other than those headquartered in the US, the UK and France – the airlines of the three Western victorious powers ofWorld War II – were banned from West Berlin.
By 1975, all commercial operations were brandedAeroamerica.[nb 1][19]
By 1976, the size of the airline's Berlin-based fleet had doubled to six aircraft. These included four Boeing 720s as well as aBoeing 707-120B and aBAC One-Eleven 400.[12][16][20] The latter had originally belonged toAmerican Airlines.[16] During the summer of 1976, the bulk of Aeroamerica's activities increasingly centred on Berlin Tegel, making it West Berlin's leading charter airline at the time.[16][21][22]
From 1977, the airline's business, which by that time focused on Berlin[nb 2] as well as worldwidead hoccharters and temporaryaircraft leases, gradually declined.[12][23]
On July 1, 1977, 96% of Aeroamerica'sunionised German flight attendants voted in favour of strike action in aballot held by theGerman Salaried Employees' Union.[nb 3] They demanded pay parity with their colleagues working forPan Am's Internal German Services (IGS) division and employment contracts governed by locallabour law to bring them in line with their unionised counterparts at otherAllied airlines that employed their flight attendants locally.[nb 4] The company countered these demands by arguing that the nature of its business required flight attendants to be stationed anywhere, involving frequent postings to overseas stations at short notice to cover globalad hoc andlease commitments. It furthermore argued that adopting other Allied airlines' local employment conditions and pay for its own flight attendants would restrict operational flexibility and increase costs, that this would undermine its ability to compete globally and that the worldwide nature of its operations made all flight attendants' employment conditions subject to American labour law as well as CAB and FAA regulations to comply with US legal requirements. Initially, the airline was able to maintain its full flying programme at the beginning of the busy summer holiday period despite staff not showing up for work, following the first week of unsuccessful negotiations between Aeroamerica's local management and theDAG union. However, the conflict escalated during the second week when the local management dismissed without notice two flight attendants who hadpicketed a Tegel-bound flight in Brussels. As the conflict was still unresolved by the end of July and threatened to disrupt the holiday plans of thousands of West Berliners during the peak month of August, management attempted to break the flight attendants' strike by temporarily reducing the number of flight attendants from four to three per aircraft as well as by hiringcontract labour from an unnamed UK airline.[nb 5] As these developments further aggravated the already tense standoff between the airline and its flight attendants' union, the latter sought to increase pressure on the company to settle the dispute by airing its members' grievances in public. It alleged that Aeroamerica's policy of only complying with minimum FAA requirements resulted in overworking flight attendants, putting lives of crew and passengers at risk in case of an emergency. Despite the negative publicity, management refused to return to the negotiating table and the strike eventually collapsed as the peak summer season drew to a close by the end of August. Following the end of thelabour unrest at the company, the FAA subjected Aeroamerica to an unannounced safety audit later the same year. The airline's management alleged that the FAA's move had been prompted by a dismissed flight attendant's act of revenge.[12][23][24]
The short-termwet- andsubleases Aeroamerica had concluded with other airlines partially compensated for the loss of business at its Berlin base.[25] Aeroamerica's wet-/sublease customers includedEgyptair,Kıbrıs Türk Hava Yolları (KTHY) – theNorthern Cyprusflag carrier,Laker Airways,Libyan Arab Airlines,Pakistan International Airlines andSaudia.[25] For instance, the 1977 Kıbrıs wet lease, which ran for several years, entailed the stationing of a fully crewed Boeing 720 atErcan to operate the Turkish carrier's scheduled route to Istanbul.[25][26]
Aeroamerica acquired additional second-hand Boeing 720s and707s during 1978 to enable it to exploit new business opportunities created by U.S.airline deregulation.[27] In August of that year, Aeroamerica commenced its first-ever fully fledged scheduled air service betweenSeattle-Tacoma (SEA) andSpokane (GEG).[27] Aeroamerica also operated nonstop jet service between SeattleBoeing Field (BFI) and Spokane in the fall of 1978 with two roundtrip nonstop flights every weekday.[28] The company's new scheduled passenger flights were an immediate success.[27] The following year, the firm prepared to launch additional scheduled services linking Seattle-Tacoma andPortland, Oregon, with Honolulu.[27] According to theOfficial Airline Guide (OAG), in late 1979 Aeroamerica was operating nonstopBoeing 707 jet service four days a week between Seattle-Tacoma (SEA) and Honolulu (HNL) and was previously operating nonstopBoeing 720 jet service on the weekends between SEA and HNL.[29]
The increasingly far-flung nature of the airline's operations overstretched its small fleet. This was compounded by the fleet's advanced age. The combination of these two factors resulted in growing reliability problems.[27]
In January 1979, Berliner Flugring, Aeroamerica's main overseasbusiness partner, announced that it would not be renewing the five-year contract it had signed with the airline in late 1974, citing reliability issues as the main reason for its decision.[27]
Aeroamerica closed its Berlin base in November 1979, at the end of the summer season.[4][30]
Following its decision to exit the West Berlin charter market, Aeroamerica adopted a newstrategy that sought to refocus the airline as a low-faretransatlantic scheduled operator, beginning with a weekly service linking Miami with Berlin via Brussels or Amsterdam from the start of the following year's summer season.[27]
As a result of growing financial difficulties, Aeroamerica voluntarily surrendered its operating permit during an informal meeting with the FAA at the end of 1979.[31][32] This action on the airline's part in turn resulted inlegal action brought against it by anaircraft lessor andBritish Airways over unpaid bills concerning the former Berlin operation, as well as the seizure of one of the company's aircraft at Tegel Airport.[32]
The CAB's subsequent decision to revoke the firm's exempt permit effectively grounded Aeroamerica, resulting in a filing underChapter 11 of the USbankruptcy code on November 19, 1979, seeking protection fromcreditors while reorganising the business under thebankruptcy court's supervision.[33]
On June 30, 1980, the FAA suspended Aeroamerica's AOC.[34]
On August 19, 1980, the FAA agreed to restore Aeroamerica's AOC following a joint representation by the airline and its official creditors' committee.[31][34] However, Aeroamerica's operations continued to be plagued by financial and maintenance issues.[34]
In July 1982, Aeroamerica commenced scheduled services between Seattle andReno withBoeing 707s.[31][35]
The airline finally ceased operations during the latter half of 1982, when the FAA grounded it for a maintenance violation regarding the operation of a non-airworthy aircraft.[5][8][34]
Aeroamerica operated the following aircraft types:[12][36]
Aeroamerica and its sister companyAir Club International, which was formed in 1970 asClub International and had operated its first commercial flight across theAtlantic to Amsterdam with an ex-TWA Boeing 707 in 1971, claimed to be the world's largest operators ofBoeing"executive aircraft".[8][9][12][39]
