Western Airlines

Western Airlines began as Western Air Express, carrying mail between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City from April 1926, and was long billed as the oldest continuously operating US airline. It built a network across the western states, Alaska, Hawaii, Canada and Mexico. Deregulation and money troubles left it open to a takeover, and Delta bought it for $860 million, merging operations on 1 April 1987.

For six decades Western Airlines was one of the great names of the American West. When it merged with Delta in 1987, the Delta Flight Museum records, it was the oldest continuously operating airline in the United States.

How it started

Western Air Express was incorporated on 13 July 1925 with Harris "Pop" Hanshue as president. According to the Delta Flight Museum, it owned six open-cockpit Douglas M-2 biplanes, employed 24 people and worked from an old hangar that had once been a film studio. Wikipedia notes that it won airmail Contract Air Mail Route 4 between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles.

The first flight, carrying mail only, left on 17 April 1926. Passenger service began on 23 May 1926, when two passengers sat on mail sacks for an eight-hour flight that cost $90 one way, according to the Delta museum.

The heyday

Western collected a long list of firsts. The Delta museum credits it with the first US airline cash dividend (1927), the first US tri-motor airliner (the Fokker F-10, 1928), early air-to-ground radio and weather reporting, and the first airline conveyor belt for loading aircraft (1950). It was also the first to fly the Lockheed Electra turboprop (1959).

The network grew through mergers with National Parks Airways (1937), Inland Air Lines (1952) and Pacific Northern Airlines (1967), which brought Alaska routes. Flights to Hawaii began in 1969. Wikipedia says Western went on to serve Mexico, western Canada and cities in the east, and flew a DC-10-30 to London Gatwick between 1980 and 1981. The Delta museum dates the end of the London service to 1982.

Service was part of the brand. "Champagne Service" began on DC-6Bs in 1954, and the 1956 slogan "The O-O-Only Way to Fly" came with the animated Wally Bird. In 1966 the "Flub-Stub" programme offered passengers a dollar if Western failed to deliver the service it had promised. Wikipedia lists a 1986 fleet of 78 jets: 46 Boeing 727-200s, 22 Boeing 737s and ten DC-10-10s.

Why it merged

Western's growth was often held back. Wikipedia reports that a clash between president Terrell Drinkwater and President Eisenhower over buying American-made aircraft left the Civil Aeronautics Board reluctant to award Western new routes for years. A 1969 merger plan with American Airlines was rejected by the board in 1972. A 1978 agreement with Continental fell through after a dispute over the combined name, which Wikipedia says was settled by a coin toss.

The Delta museum says Western ran into financial difficulties in 1980, after weak profits in the late 1970s and the 1978 deregulation of US airlines. The company avoided bankruptcy in 1984 by reworking its schedule around a Salt Lake City hub and winning concessions from its unions. Wikipedia adds that Air Florida tried to buy Western in the early 1980s but obtained only 16 per cent of the stock.

Delta and Western announced a merger agreement on 9 September 1986, with Delta paying $860 million, according to the Delta museum.

The last flight

The sources do not document a final Western-branded flight. They do give the dates of the merger. Wikipedia says the Department of Transportation approved it on 11 December 1986, and that shareholder approval on 16 December made Western a wholly owned Delta subsidiary. The Delta museum instead gives 19 December for the subsidiary step. Both agree that operations officially merged on 1 April 1987, when the Western brand was discontinued.

What happened next

• Aircraft: Wikipedia says Western's aircraft were repainted in Delta colours, including twelve DC-10s. Delta later dropped the DC-10 because it already flew the similar Lockheed L-1011 TriStar. Note that this twelve-strong DC-10 figure is higher than the ten DC-10-10s in the 1986 directory listing, and the sources do not explain the difference.
• Hubs: Delta kept Western's Salt Lake City and Los Angeles hubs. Salt Lake City remains a major hub, while Los Angeles lost and later regained hub status.
• Feeder partner: SkyWest, which had flown as Western Express, became a Delta Connection carrier.
• Archives: Western's corporate archives passed to Delta, which preserves them at the Delta Flight Museum.

The staff of the two airlines were fully merged on the same date. The sources do not say how many Western employees moved across.

Sources: Wikipedia: Western Airlines, Delta Flight Museum: Western Airlines