Britt Airways was a regional airline in the United States that operated from 1964 until it merged with ExpressJet in 1996. It was established as Vercoa Air Service in 1964 and renamed to Britt Airlines when it was purchased by William and Marilyn Britt in 1975 later on Britt Airways . It was based in Terre Haute , Indiana until 1996. It began as a commuter airline . It primarily operated turboprop aircraft but also flew British Aircraft Corporation BAC One-Eleven twinjets as an independent air carrier at one point as well. The airline evolved into a regional air carrier operating code share flights primarily for Continental Airlines .
23-409: By 1969 Britt Airways purchased a small fleet of Beechcraft 99 light turboprop airliners that were operated under contract as Allegheny Commuter flights on behalf of Allegheny Airlines . Allegheny had recently begun flights from Chicago O'Hare that were acquired through a merger with Lake Central Airlines . Initially, Britt replaced Allegheny on a route between Chicago and Danville, IL. According to
46-541: A "prime flight" (as opposed to a codeshare marketing flight). Under a code sharing agreement, participating airlines can present a common flight number for several reasons, including: There are several types of code sharing arrangements: Much competition in the airline industry revolves around ticket sales (also known as "seat booking") strategies ( revenue management , variable pricing , and geo-marketing ). Criticism has been leveled against code sharing by consumer organizations and national departments of trade since it
69-409: A flight is operated by one airline (technically called an "administrating carrier" or "operating carrier") while seats are sold for the flight by all cooperating airlines using their own designator and flight number. The term "code" refers to the identifier used in a flight schedule, generally the two-character IATA airline designator code and flight number. Thus, XX224 (flight number 224 operated by
92-553: A hub at Cleveland Hopkins Airport (CLE) and Britt began operating as the Continental Express feeder carrier there flying Swearingen Metroliner (Metro II model) propjets. By 1989, Britt was operating all Continental Express flights from Cleveland with Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia propjets. In 1991, Britt Airways began operating Continental Express service formerly flown by Rocky Mountain Airways from Denver (DEN). According to
115-627: Is a civilian aircraft produced by Beechcraft . It is also known as the Beech 99 Airliner and the Commuter 99 . The 99 is a twin-engine, unpressurized, 15 to 17 passenger seat turboprop aircraft, derived from the earlier Beechcraft King Air and Queen Air . It uses the wings of the Queen Air, the engines and nacelles of the King Air, and sub-systems from both, with a specifically designed nose structure. Designed in
138-478: Is claimed it is confusing and not transparent to passengers. There are also code sharing arrangements between airlines and railway companies , formally known as air-rail alliances , and commonly marketed as "Rail & Fly" due to the popularity of the Deutsche Bahn codeshare with many airlines. They involve some integration of both types of transport, e.g., in finding the fastest connection and allowing
161-452: Is commonly called the operating carrier , often abbreviated OPE CXR, even though the IATA SSIM term "administrating carrier" is more precise. The reason for this is that a third carrier may be involved, typically in the case that the airline originally planning to operate the flight needs to hire a subcontractor to operate the flight on their behalf (typically a wet lease, meaning an aircraft
184-413: Is leased with crew and all facilities to fly, commonly due to capacity limitations, technical problems etc.) In this case, the airline carrying the passenger should be designated the operating carrier, since it is the one carrying the passengers/cargo. When a flight is sold under several designators and flight numbers as described above, the one published by the "administrating carrier" is commonly called
207-624: The Official Airline Guide (OAG), in 1989 Britt was the primary Continental Express carrier at Houston Intercontinental operating ATR-42 and Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia propjet aircraft on feeder services on behalf of Continental. By 1991, the airline was the primary Continental Express carrier at Newark as well operating ATR-42 and Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia aircraft according to the OAG . Beginning in November, 1987, Continental Airlines established
230-729: The 1960s as a replacement for the Beechcraft Model 18 , it first flew in July 1966. It received type certification on May 2, 1968, and 62 aircraft were delivered by the end of the year. In 1984, the Beechcraft 1900 , a pressurized 19-passenger airplane, was introduced as the follow-on aircraft. Production ended in early 1987 with 239 airframes completed. Nearly half the Beech 99s in airline service are now operated as freighters by Ameriflight . In July 2018, 106 Beechcraft B99 were in airline service, all in
253-589: The Americas,: Data from Green. General characteristics Performance Related development Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Related lists Code sharing A codeshare agreement , also known simply as codeshare , is a business arrangement, common in the aviation industry, in which two or more airlines publish and market the same flight under their own airline designator and flight number (the "airline flight code") as part of their published timetable or schedule. Typically,
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#1732868807741276-670: The Continental name in 1982. In 2010 Continental merged into United Airlines . On February 1, 1987 People Express and Continental were merged retaining the Continental Airlines name. All Britt Airways operations began code sharing flights under the Continental Express banner for Continental from its major hubs located at Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH, now George Bush Intercontinental Airport ) in Houston , Texas , and at
299-750: The October 1, 1991 Official Airline Guide (OAG), the airline was operating Continental Express flights from Denver with de Havilland Canada DHC-7 Dash 7 and Beechcraft 1900C turboprops formerly flown by Rocky Mountain Airways as well as with ATR-42 propjets. According to its May 29, 1984 route map, Britt Airways was serving the following destinations as an independent air carrier. Destinations noted in bold were receiving British Aircraft Corporation BAC One-Eleven jet service operated by Britt in early 1985. World Airline Fleets 1979 (copyright 1979) shows Britt Airways with: 1987-88 World Airline Fleets (copyright 1987) shows Britt Airways with: Britt operated
322-476: The October 29, 1978 Britt Airways system timetable, commuter flights for Allegheny were operated by Britt from the airline's small hub located at Chicago O'Hare Airport (ORD) with service to Bloomington, IN , Danville, IL , Indianapolis, IN , Muncie, IN and Terre Haute, IN , all former Lake Central routes that were acquired by Allegheny. In 1979, Britt was continuing to serve these aforementioned destinations as an Allegheny Commuter air carrier from Chicago and
345-710: The RU code for Britt Airways. From late 1985 through late 1986, Britt operated code sharing flight services for Piedmont Airlines (1948-1989) as a Piedmont Commuter System air carrier from the Dayton International Airport (DAY) in Ohio where Piedmont was operating a hub at the time. Frank Lorenzo 's holding company, Texas Air Corporation , acquired People Express later in 1985. Texas Air Corporation had previously acquired Continental Airlines (CO) and merged Texas International Airlines (predecessor to Texas Air) and CO under
368-409: The airline XX), might also be sold by airline YY as YY568 and by ZZ as ZZ9876. Airlines YY and ZZ are in this case called "marketing airlines" (sometimes abbreviated MKT CXR for "marketing carrier"). Most of the major airlines today have code sharing partnerships with other airlines, and code sharing is a key feature of the major airline alliances . Typically, code-sharing agreements are also part of
391-519: The airline had expanded its hub operation at Chicago O'Hare with new service to Decatur, IL , Mattoon, IL / Charleston, IL , and South Bend, IN , and had also expanded its fleet with the addition of larger Fairchild Hiller FH-227 turboprops. In 1981, Britt began operating as an independent air carrier from a major hub located at Chicago O'Hare Airport (ORD) and also from smaller hubs located at St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL) and Indianapolis International Airport (IND). By early 1985,
414-410: The airline industry since then, particularly in the wake of the formation of large airline alliances . These alliances have extensive codesharing and networked frequent flyer programs . Under a code sharing agreement, the airline that administers the flight (the one holding the operational permissions, airport slots and planning/controlling the flight and responsible for the ground handling services)
437-577: The airline was operating jet service as an independent air carrier with British Aircraft Corporation BAC One-Eleven twin jets and was also continuing to fly Beechcraft 99 , Fairchild Hiller FH-227 and Swearingen Metroliner (Metro II model) turboprops. In 1985, the founder and owner of Britt Airways, Bill Britt, sold the airline to People Express . A new hub at St. Louis was established and select flights from St. Louis began operating under code sharing with People Express (PE) while other flights, including all flights at Chicago, remained operating under
460-497: The commercial agreements between airlines in the same airline alliances. In 1967, Richard A. Henson ’s Hagerstown Commuter airline joined with US Airways predecessor, regional Allegheny Airlines , in the nation's first codeshare relationship. The term "code sharing" or "codeshare" was coined in 1989 by Qantas and American Airlines , and in 1990 the two firms provided their first codeshare flights between an array of Australian and U.S. cities. Code sharing has become widespread in
483-545: The following aircraft types at different times over the years. Fleet information is taken from the Britt historical website, www.brittairlines.com Britt also operated Beechcraft 1900C and de Havilland Canada Dash 7 aircraft formerly flown by Rocky Mountain Airways following its commencement of Continental Express service in Denver. Beechcraft 99 The Beechcraft Model 99
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#1732868807741506-583: The former People Express hub at Newark International Airport (EWR, now Newark Liberty International Airport ) in Newark , New Jersey . All flights at Britt's original and long-standing operation at the Chicago O'hare hub were also transitioned to flying as Continental Express however the entire Chicago operation was discontinued in early 1989. Britt also had a single route from the former Chicago Meigs Field airport to Springfield, IL which continued until 1991. According to
529-600: Was also flying independently operated service to Bloomington, IL / Normal, IL , Champaign, IL / Urbana, IL , Evansville, IN , Galesburg, IL , Indianapolis, IN , Moline, IL , Peoria, IL , St. Louis, MO , Springfield, IL and Sterling, IL / Rock Falls, IL with flights primarily operated from Chicago O'Hare as well as an Indianapolis-Evansville-St. Louis route and an Indianapolis-Champaign/Urbana route. All Allegheny Commuter as well as independently operated services were being flown with Beechcraft 99 and Swearingen Metroliner (Metro II model) turboprops at this time. By 1980,
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