ALTAIR AIRLINES 1967-1982

ALTAIR AIRLINES  1967-1982

The company was established in Philadelphia in 1966 and started operations as a commuter airline on December 1966  with a Beech Queen Air flying from Philadelphia to Albany.
The company derives its name from the first magnitude star "Altairius",  the brightest in the constellation "Aquila" (Eagle) from which the airline's Blue Eagle symbol was inspired .  Altairius comes from the Arabic phrase al-nasr al-tair, meaning "the flying eagle"

The timetable dated July 1 , 1969 shows the following route structure . In color return flights when return flights do not equal onward flights

From the collection of Bjorn Larsson www.timetableimages.com

ROUTE	FREQUENCY
ALB-ABE	10
ALB-AVP	6
ABE-BWI	10
ABE-PHL	26/27
ABE-DCA	10/5
ABE-AVP	12
BWI-RDG	6
BWI-DCA	16
MDT-PHL	21 /16
MDT-AVP	5
MDT-IPT	5
PHL-RIC	6 /11
PHL-HPN	10
PHL-ILG	15/10
RDG-DCA	5/0
RIC- ILG	10/15

ALTAIR began an expansion program in QRT 2 of 1970 with a flurry of new routes , the most popular being ABE-DCA  and ABE-BDL. It carried by year end 72518 passengers and  239520 pounds of freight

1971

Passengers carried increased by a solid  21.9 % to 88004 .and DCA-ILG is  a new  successful route route added in  the third quarter of the year.

The most popular segments were Allentown-Philadelphia , Philadelphia -Richmond and AVP-Philadelphia, which accounted for 48.8% of total traffic 

1973

128435 Passengers were carried aboard Altair's BE99 ., The following destinations were added to the company's network (operated on a full year basis) : Islip and Bedford . The most popular route out of Islip was  Islip-Philadelphia with 9564 passengers and  out of Bedford to Philadelphia.with 3708 passengers . Philadelphia becomes an important hub for the company where 103799 passengers flew to or from 

1974

ALTAIR carries 138041 passengers a 7.5% increase over the last period . 

Albany gets axed from the network . Bedford - Richmond is the only route that survives 1974 and carries no passengers . The other routes launched and terminated in 1974  such as : DCA-HPN, ALB-HPN,ALB-BDR ,ALB-PHL and BDL-HON carried only 11 passengers  during their time of operations.On December 30 2014 its first N262 acquired from CIMBER AIR is introduced

1975

The company experiences a serious drop in traffic -13.7% to 119105 . The table below the most affected lines. The drop was mitigated by the excellent traffic results of the following routes : DCA-ILG +53.1%, , PHL-IPT +38.8%, ABE-DCA +6.7%. 

1976

From the collection of Arthur Na

The  traffic plummets at  96290 passengers a fall of 19.2%  as many routes are cancelled such as BDL-MDT and ABE-BDL ,while others  operated for a limited period of time : ABE-DCA, DCA-ILG,HPN-PHL......

1977

After two years of free fall, the traffic rebounds dramatically with an unprecedented growth of  73.6%.

Two major destinations are introduced Baltimore and New York (JFK) in the last quarter of 1977

Bedford leaves the network 

The table below shows the evolution of the traffic of the major routes. 

ALTAIR's NORD 262

1978

From the collection of Arthur Na

The growth continues with an increase of 16.7% however IPT disappeared from the map but RDU and PIT join the system with new routes PIT-RIC, BWI-RDU,ISP-RDU,RDU-RIC and JFK-RDU.

The table below shows the  traffic for the routes in 1978

1979

From the collection of Arthur Na

The deregulation aviation act was signed by President Carter in 1978 and all established airlines were freed from the asphyxiating rules imposed by the CAB . The 1979 network of Altair Airlines differs greatly from 1978 where additional routes and Destinations were added : BGM-ELM, BGM-PHL, BWI-EWR, CLT-RDU, EWR-RIC, ELM-PHL, PIT-IAD,RDU-RIC,RIC-IAD/DCA,MYR-RDU,MYR-RIC and others were dropped :ABE-BWI,ABE-AVP,JFK-MDT/PHL/RIC, HPN-ISP, AVP-DCA/RIC

1980

From the collection of Arthur Na

If Myrtle Beach , Pittsburgh, Dulles, are dropped, New Haven is introduced and linked to RDU,RIC and DCA , CLT is linked to Richmond where Richmond looses its connections to EWR.

To fuel its growth, the company acquires fresh from the factory 6 F28-4000 , they will be delivered from August 1980 to June 1981

ALTAIR's F28 still carrying its dutch registration

1981

From the collection of Arthur Na

The network is streamlined despite the introduction of GSO and its links to DCA, BWI, OHL and RDU and the introduction of EWR-DCA and ABE-BWI, CLT, HPN, ILH,ISP , AVP AND MDT were simply wiped off the network

1982

From the collection of Arthur Na

June 1982 network map 10092 km

Nothing ressembles the network of March 1981 with the company's network of June 1982  only 2 routes survive RDU-PHL/GSO the others were swallowed by the new strategy of the company to link Northern cities with the south  and Florida especially competing ferociously with mores established companies such as Eastern 

From the collection of Arthur Na

The company continues its expansion  tapping new markets such as BHM and MEM  westward  and BUF, ROC,PVD, BOS . To these effect the company acquired in July 1982 3 Air Canada DC9-32 .The expansion , the lack of capital to fund this expansion as well as the cutthroat competition on most of its routes will force the company to fill for bankrutcy in November 1982 when $1,000,000 of fuel dues  could not be honored by  ALTAIR

August 1982 network  14904 km

MISSHAPS

During its 15 years of existence , the company suffered a single fatal accident on April 9, 1977 when a Nord262 (N7886A)  on a positioning from PHL to Reading collided in mid-air with a Cessna 195. There was one fatality among the crew of the N262 and the aircraft was written-off.

FLEET