BONANZA AIRLINES 'Route of the Gold Strikes'
IATA CODE BL
ICAO CODE BON
CALL SIGN BONANZA
60 years ago exactly , BONANZA AIRLINES published this timetable, let us go back to the time of regulated travel
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| From the collection of Bjorn Larsson @ timetableimages.com |
Bonanza Airlines was born as as Bonanza Air Services in 1945 in Las Vegas. It initially offered charters to local towns with their 4 passenger Cessna-T50.
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| By Bill Larkins - Cessna T-50 NC67094, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29359024 |
Soon, they shifted to scheduled passenger service between Las Vegas, Reno, Tonopah, and Hawthorne.
In 1949, Bonanza received certification from the CAB as a "local service" airline, allowing them to operate scheduled flights. The company was able was able to receive an airmail certificate and a federal certificate allowing it to fly inter-state and interline with the trunk airlines. The company was able to acquired the Douglas DC-3s to serve more destinations.
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| from the Ed Coates collection |
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| "Photo courtesy Orange County Archives." |
By 1953 5 DC-3s were flying the 'Route of the Gold Strikes' and in 1955 3 more were added followed by another in 1956, in total Bonanza operated 10 DC3. In May 1956 Bonanza placed an order for 3 Fairchild F-27As. By 1963, the company operated an exclusive fleet of Fairchild F27.
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| By Jon Proctor - Gallery page https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/6837551Photo https://cdn.jetphotos.com/full/1/83555_1272391311.jpg, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31460412 |
By 1964 the fleet was at 14 F-27s .However, one the F-27s operating flight 114 from PHX to LAS was written off in a fatal crash late that year on November 15,1964,(the airline's only fatal accident), killing all of its 29 occupants.
Subsidies played an important role in the finance of the company , since they contributed in 1962 to 29% of operating revenues (3.2Mio$ to 11Mio$)
Subs
MAP OF OPERATIONS
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