West Coast Airlines was an airline (then called a "local service" airline as defined by the federal Civil Aeronautics Board) linking small cities in the Pacific Northwest with larger cities in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Montana, California and north to Alberta in Canada.[1] It was headquartered in the Westlake area of Seattle, Washington.[2]
This article's factual accuracy is disputed. (January 2009)
West Coast Airlines
IATA
ICAO
Callsign
WC
WC
WEST COAST
Founded
1941
Ceased operations
1968
Operating bases
Seattle, Washington
Hubs
Seattle, Washington
Focus cities
Boise, Idaho Portland, Oregon Spokane, Washington
Headquarters
Seattle, Washington
History
West Coast was formed in 1941 and acquired Empire Air Lines (formerly Zimmerly Airlines) in 1952.[3][4][5][6] The company was based at Boeing Field in Seattle and began scheduled passenger service in 1946 with a fleet of Douglas DC-3s, marketed as Scenicliners.[7]
A promotional film produced for the company in the 1960s said that in 1946 the federal Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) granted the first regional airline certificate to West Coast Airlines as local service air carrier.
In July 1953, West Coast scheduled flights to 32 airports in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho; in May 1968 it flew to 36 airports including 29 in those states. Like other Local Service airlines West Coast was subsidized; in 1962 its "revenues" included $6.6 million from passengers and $5.4 million for "mail".[8]
West Coast was the first local service airline in the U.S. to use turbine airliners when it began Fairchild F-27 flights in September 1958. The F-27 was the U.S. manufactured version of the Dutch built Fokker F27 Friendship. In June 1968 West Coast was the first airline to order Fairchild 228 twin jets with the acquisition of three planned, but the F-228, a smaller variant of the Dutch manufactured Fokker F28 Fellowship, never made it to production.[9] The only jet operated by West Coast was the Douglas DC-9-14 with 75 seats, all coach.
On July 1, 1968, West Coast merged with Pacific Air Lines and Bonanza Air Lines
to form Air West, which became Hughes Airwest in 1970. In 1968, West Coast operated Douglas DC-9s, Fairchild F-27s, Douglas DC-3s, and Piper Navajos. The DC-3s were not transferred to Air West and were retired; the Navajos continued for a short time. The West Coast route system then included cities in Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and several in Montana. San Francisco, Oakland, and Sacramento in northern California were added in 1959 with Salt Lake City being served later. West Coast's only international destination was Calgary, Alberta, which was served with F-27s from Spokane. Almost all West Coast flights at Seattle used Boeing Field (BFI) instead of Seattle/Tacoma International Airport (SEA); after the merger Air West and successor Hughes Airwest continued to use Boeing Field until DC-9 and F-27 flights moved to SEA in 1971.[10]
Jet service destinations in 1968
The April 28, 1968 West Coast timetable listed the following cities being served with Douglas DC-9-10 jets:[11]
West Coast's lineage runs through a string of mergers: In 1980 Hughes Airwest was acquired by Republic Airlines which had been created by a merger of Southern Airways and North Central Airlines in 1979. In 1986 Republic Airlines was acquired by Northwest Airlines (formerly Northwest Orient Airlines). The Delta-Northwest merger with Delta Air Lines as the surviving air carrier was completed in 2010.
In 2001 an attempt was made to resurrect the West Coast Airlines name, with plans for an airline based in Concord, California, to connect several Northern California cities with Las Vegas, Reno and San Diego. The effort ended in bankruptcy.[12]
A Canadian commuter airline with a similar name, West Coast Air, currently operates floatplanes between Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia.
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