Five Airlines That Flew Aircraft You Probably Don’t Remember
A recent trend on social media is to ask the question, “Tell me a favorite baseball player who played for an unexpected team.” The answers are pretty entertaining if you are a baseball fan. For instance, did you remember that Ken Griffey Jr. played for the White Sox? Or that Pete Rose was once a Montreal Expo? The posts highlight stints from well known stars like Sammy Sosa, Jose Canseco, and Frank Thomas.
As avgeeks, it got us thinking. What if we asked a similar question about airlines? What airlines flew planes that most of us won’t remember? Here are five we came up with. Let us know how many you remembered and post more of your ‘rare air’ memories in the comments below.
Southwest and the 727
Southwest is known as a 737 airline through and through. Yet they flew they had 727s in their fleet twice during their half century of operation. The first time was part of a settlement between Braniff and Southwest. Braniff settled the lawsuit by providing a single 727 on lease as payment. (We wrote about it here a few years ago). Southwest also leased 727s in the early 1980s to cover their California expansion before enough 737-300s could be delivered.
American Flew the 737-200
American Airlines is now a large 737 operator, flying both the 737-800 and 737-MAX8. Back in the 80s though, they primarily flew the 727 and MD-80 for their short and medium stage routes. When American acquired AirCal in 1987, they inherited a fleet of 737-200s and 737-300s. For a time, the 737-200 made its way into the silver bird livery. American sold the 737-300s to Southwest and 737-200s to other various carriers. All American Airlines 737s were disposed of by 1991.
America West and the 747
One of the original low cost carriers was America West Airlines. With deregulation in full swing, they planned an ambitious expansion to Hawaii and Japan with 747-200s. Unfortunately, the first Gulf War and subsequent down turn of the economy resulted in America West scuttling plans for long-haul expansion. They returned to their roots flying just 737s and A320s, eventually merging with US Airways, then eventually merging into American Airlines today.
Ryanair and the ATR-42
Ryanair is another prolific Boeing 737 operator that flew some lesser known aircraft. Today hundreds of Ryanair 737s ply the skies. They even operate a Boeing 737 MAX in a 200 seat configuration (ouch!). While Ryanair is one of the best known low-fare carriers in Europe today, most don’t realize that the airline started in the early 1980s as a very small carrier on select regional routes. During that time they flew Embraer 110s, BAC 1-11s and even ATR-42s for a year. The ATRs only flew with Ryanair for a year before being dumped in favor of other aircraft.
Delta operated the DC-10 twice
While Delta was known for its L-1011 and MD-11 operations, Delta also flew the DC-10 for two stints, one from 1975 to 1978 and another time in the late ’80s when they inherited a small DC-10 fleet after their merger with Western Airlines. The Delta Museum did a great writeup on their fleet. You can read more about it here.
