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49-693: From 1975 onward, Air New England was essentially a reincarnation of many of the New England routes of Northeast Airlines, complete with the aircraft Northeast used to fly those routes and Northeast's IATA code. The airline began as Boston-Maine Airways, founded as a Pan Am contract carrier on July 20, 1931, by the Boston and Maine Railroad and Maine Central Railroad , flying from Boston to Bangor via Portland . It flew only sporadically until August 11, 1933, when National Airways began to operate its flights under contract. National also operated Central Vermont Airways,

98-548: A 1950 design study known as the P275, a 32-seater powered by two Rolls-Royce Dart turboprops. With the aid of Dutch government funding, the P275 evolved into the F27, which first flew on November 24, 1955. The first prototype was powered by Dart 507s and would have seated 28. To correct a slight tail heaviness and to allow for more seats, the second prototype (which first flew in January 1957) had

147-802: A 3-foot-longer (0.91 m) fuselage , which allowed seating for 32. By this stage, Fokker had signed an agreement that would have Fairchild build Friendships in the U.S. as the F-27. The first aircraft of either manufacturer to enter service in the U.S. was, in fact, a Fairchild-built F-27, with West Coast Airlines in September 1958. Other Fairchild F-27 operators in the U.S. included Air South , Air West and successor Hughes Airwest , Allegheny Airlines , Aloha Airlines , Bonanza Air Lines , Horizon Air , Ozark Air Lines , Pacific Air Lines , Piedmont Airlines (1948–1989) , Northern Consolidated Airlines , and successor Wien Air Alaska . Fairchild subsequently manufactured

196-473: A carrier flying “big” airplanes under CAB supervision. (For ANE, "big" aircraft were Fairchild-Hiller FH-227s , a slightly larger US built version of the Fokker F-27 turboprop. These were, in fact, the same aircraft Northeast had flown.) Air New England was the first domestic carrier in the contiguous US to be certificated for multiple routes at one time since the local service carriers had been certificated in

245-515: A decrease in revenue caused by the contemporaneous strike by the air-traffic controllers' union, PATCO . ANE had been carrying close to 600,000 passengers a year in 1980. In 1981, it depended on $ 6.1 million in federal subsidies to cover operating costs. During its 12-year existence, the airline suffered only one serious incident/crash [cited below] and had one of the highest safety/reliability ratings of all American based airlines over that 12-year period." In September 1981, Wright Air Lines signed

294-604: A fleet of Boeing 727-100s for their Florida routes, and McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30s and Fairchild-Hiller FH-227s for shorter routes. These "Yellowbirds" featured a new yellow and white livery. In 1966 Northeast was the launch customer for the Boeing 727-200 , which they began flying in December 1967. Except for Florida their network was all north and east of Washington National Airport until 1969 when they added three 727 nonstops between Miami and Los Angeles, with Fort Lauderdale getting

343-549: A larger, stretched version of the F-27 named the Fairchild Hiller FH-227, which was operated by U.S.-based air carriers Delta Air Lines , Mohawk Airlines , Northeast Airlines , Ozark Air Lines, Piedmont Airlines (1948–1989) , and Wien Air Alaska . Fairchild F-27s differed from the initial Fokker F27 Mk 100s in having basic seating for 40, heavier external skinning, a lengthened nose capable of housing weather radar , and additional fuel capacity. They also incorporated

392-558: A passenger airstair door in the rear of the aircraft, operated by a flight attendant, which eliminated the need for separate stairs on the ground. Developments were the F-27A with more powerful engines and the F-27B Combi aircraft version. The F-27B Combi mixed passenger/freight version was operated in Alaska by Northern Consolidated Airlines and Wien Air Alaska. Fairchild independently developed

441-652: A result of the CAB's New England Service Investigation, the focus of which was the New England routes that caused long-term financial distress to Northeast Airlines . Northeast was a trunk carrier that had merged into Delta in 1972 after many years of losses. Northeast's New England route network was more similar to that of a local service carrier , the carriers the CAB had originally certificated to fly smaller routes. Northeast had been obligated to serve many small New England cities. Like most local service carriers, Northeast required subsidies to operate its network. After 1955, Northeast

490-453: A short-lived LAX nonstop soon after (fuel stops were sometimes required on these transcontinental 727 flights). Northeast obtained rights to fly between Miami and Montreal in 1967, followed by rights to serve the Bahamas in 1968, and rights to serve Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, and Bermuda in 1969, along with a new Miami-Los Angeles route authority. Northeast was the runt of the trunks. In 1971,

539-577: A subsidiary of the Central Vermont Railway , and the two carriers together had a network across New England to New Hampshire, Vermont, and Montreal. Amelia Earhart and Eugene Vidal were among the co-founders of National, and Earhart was a prominent salesperson for the airline in its early years. National initially operated Stinson Airliners , and switched to a fleet of 10-passenger Lockheed Electras in November 1936. On May 31, 1939, Boston-Maine

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588-654: A tentative $ 10 million deal to purchase ANE. In the end, Wright walked away from ANE, with its owners doing the same, shutting Air New England on October 31, 1981. As an industry source noted, “Air New England didn't have anything to sell.” An on-demand charter operator named Air New England based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Portland, Maine, has been operating since 2010. At year-end 1970, Air New England's operating fleet comprised three DHC-6 Twin Otters, one Beech 99, two Beech 18s and one Aero Commander 500 B. In June 1974,

637-405: A “regional carrier”, slotting it in under the local service carriers and above the single route certificated carriers like Aspen and Wright. Air New England was in a category of its own until Air Midwest was certificated as another regional carrier in 1976. Notwithstanding the poor hand it was dealt by the CAB, ANE made things harder on itself. For instance, at New York LaGuardia Airport, it used

686-534: The Civil Aeronautics Board , which in June 1945 awarded the routes to Pan American World Airways , American Export Airlines and TWA . In 1956 Northeast began service to Washington National Airport , and received a temporary certificate to serve Florida, for which the airline purchased a fleet of new DC-6Bs . Northeast ordered ten Vickers Viscounts in the late 1950s and used them until financial problems in

735-470: The Marine Air Terminal , far from the main terminal, making connections to other carriers difficult – it provided a courtesy bus to move people between terminals, but noted it might take 45 minutes to arrive. Considering ANE was designed to be a regional feeder airline, and that in the regulated era interlining among CAB carriers was mandatory, the difficulty of making connections with ANE at LaGuardia

784-539: The airport at Portland, Maine ). Of the ten points, seven of them have, as of 2024, no form of commercial air service, while the other three have Cape Air service which flies aircraft in the 10-seat class, yet Northeast served them with 44-seat FH-227s. Every trunk airline started with small points on their network (some just for the purposes of refueling), but over time, most of them shifted these to local service carriers or otherwise abandoned them. Northeast still had these small points on its network in 1969. That wasn’t

833-449: The CAA would be moved to the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), which would closely regulate Boston-Maine/Northeast as a trunk carrier for the rest of its existence. The name Northeast Airlines was adopted on November 19, 1940, which was duly approved by the CAB, including the required signature of President Franklin D. Roosevelt . During World War II Northeast pioneered transatlantic service for

882-480: The CAB certificated Air New England (ANE), to that point a commuter/air taxi operator, specifically to operate the former problematic New England Northeast destinations with “big” aircraft, which it did from 1975. Delta lent ANE the money to buy the ex-Northeast FH-227s (and another loan to help ANE to transition to certificated status) and N374NE thru N379NE duly appeared in Air New England’s fleet. Air New England

931-590: The CAB to court to try to get that lost money, and lost. More generally, ANE seems to have had no serious plan for how to deal with deregulation. It did expand outside of New England, but such routes in the 1 October 1981 timetable, just before it died, have a random nature to them – Boston-to-Albany-to Rochester-to Cleveland-to Baltimore. There seems little rhyme or reason to these choices. Air New England shut down on October 31, 1981, with 400 employees. The company cited "intolerable financial losses" caused by competition, lack of federal subsidies, cumulative expenses, and

980-884: The Islands and Cape business (Martha's Vinyard, Nantucket, Hyannis), undercutting Executive (which, although larger, had a far worse cost structure), largely driving them out of this area by 1972. Then, fed by profits from the Islands and Cape, ANE moved its attention to the north, again undercutting Executive. Executive declared bankruptcy in December 1971 and went out of business entirely in December 1973, selling some assets to ANE. ANE's summer 1974 network linked LaGuardia and Boston to four destinations in each of Maine and Massachusetts, as well as one in New Hampshire and two in Vermont. See Fleet section below for how its fleet changed during this time. Air New England received certification in 1974 as

1029-583: The New England routes that caused Northeast so many problems; the CAB did not require that Delta them all. For a couple of years, Delta operated ex-Northeast FH-227s, at least the five that had not been leased out, the only passenger turboprop Delta operated directly. The Delta Flight Museum has pictures of FH-227s in Delta livery. Delta’s July 1974 schedule shows Lebanon, Keene, New Bedford, Hyannis, Martha’s Vinyard and Nantucket on-line, and gone in July 1975. However, in 1974,

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1078-623: The US airline business that was unregulated because it flew small aircraft, which at the time were defined as carrying 30 or fewer passengers with a maximum payload of 7,500lbs. In that year, the US Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), a now defunct Federal agency that, at the time, tightly regulated the US airline business, certificated Air New England, allowing it to fly larger aircraft but also making it subject to CAB oversight. As discussed below, such certification of an air taxi or commuter operator

1127-471: The airline was generally unprofitable. ANE collapsed in the early years of US airline deregulation . Air New England, Inc., was incorporated as a Massachusetts company on September 25, 1970, originally located in Barnstable, MA with directors Joseph Whitney (president), Nelson Lee and George Parmenter. Parmenter was head of Cape & Island Airline , a dba of Cape & Islands Flight Service . Whitney

1176-458: The benefits of certificated service with larger aircraft. The Board's solution was to certificate ANE, giving them the routes Northeast and Mohawk had been unable to fly profitably, relieving Delta and Allegheny of the obligation. With this background, ANE's record of financial distress from 1975 onward (see nearby table) is not a surprise. The CAB essentially made ANE the designated certificated operator of routes that were proven losers, at least for

1225-612: The circumstances providing insight into the problems that plagued the airline. Northeast originally had seven FH-227s, delivered in 1966 to replace DC-3s. One (N380NE) crashed in Lebanon, NH as flight 946 in 1968, leaving six (N374NE thru N379NE). But in 1969, as its finances deteriorated, Northeast pulled out of ten New England airports, grounding the FH-227s and taking a write-down on them. The ten airports were for small New England points (the biggest of these, Lewiston, also being only 38 miles from

1274-420: The early 1960s forced the company to return them to the manufacturer. Beginning on December 17, 1959, Northeast became one of the early jet operators, flying a leased TWA Boeing 707-331 round trip between New York and Miami. In 1960 Northeast leased six Convair 880s and flew them to Florida for several years. Howard Hughes acquired control of the airline in 1962. The airline's temporary Miami route authority

1323-517: The end of 1969, following a long period of financial difficulties, Northeast announced its intention to merge with Northwest Airlines . The merger was approved by both the CAB and President Richard Nixon in 1970, but it was conditional upon relinquishing the Miami-Los Angeles route. Northwest terminated the merger negotiations in March 1971, and Northeast announced a new merger plan with Delta Air Lines

1372-504: The end of FH-227s for Northeast. It was able to walk away from some of the New England points by turning them over to Mohawk Airlines , which thought it could do better. Mohawk then had a disastrous strike in 1971 (which ultimately forced it to merge with Allegheny in 1972), after which it could no longer support Keene service. The CAB forced Northeast back into some of these points (like Keene, NH) and it had to pull two FH-227s out of storage, leaving three still stored with one leased out. At

1421-623: The following month. The Delta merger was approved in May 1972, with the same condition that Delta could not operate the Miami-Los Angeles route. The merger was completed in August 1972. Note the delays between each merger announcement and final disposition. The CAB process took a long time, during which the company continued to lose a lot of money. The airline's IATA code was NE . Broadly-speaking, there were two legacies from Northeast: Nominally, Delta took over all of Northeast, including some (but not all) of

1470-419: The largest local service carrier , Allegheny Airlines , had operating revenue over 40% bigger than that of Northeast, while the next smallest trunk, National , had significantly more than twice as much revenue. The largest trunk, United , had revenue over twelve times that of Northeast. As George C. Eads said about Northeast in his definitive book on local service carriers (the next tier of airlines down from

1519-426: The late 1940s/early 1950s, so its certification was a big deal. There had been US carriers certificated for international routes only (like Trans Caribbean Airways in 1957) and domestic carriers originally certificated to fly a single route only ( Aspen Airways in 1967, TAG Airlines in 1969 and Wright Air Lines in 1972) but nothing like Air New England. The CAB categorized its carriers and deemed Air New England

Northeast Airlines - Misplaced Pages Continue

1568-471: The military under contract from the U.S. Army Air Forces . In June 1944, the CAB approved the takeover of moribund Mayflower Airlines , giving Northeast routes to Cape Cod , Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard from Boston. After the war, Northeast began hourly service between Boston and New York using DC-4s . Northeast applied for authorization to operate passenger service across the Atlantic but were stymied by

1617-531: The operating fleet comprised five DC-3s, eight Twin Otters, four Beech 99s and two Aero Commanders. The Aero Commanders were not used in scheduled service. World Airline Fleets 1979 lists Air New England as having eight FH-227s and ten DHC-6 Twin Otters. On 17 June 1979, an Air New England de Havilland Twin Otter aircraft crashed while approaching Barnstable Municipal Airport in Hyannis, Massachusetts . One person,

1666-603: The pilot, was killed. Fairchild-Hiller FH-227 The Fairchild F-27 and Fairchild Hiller FH-227 were versions of the Fokker F27 Friendship twin-engined, turboprop , passenger aircraft manufactured under license by Fairchild Hiller in the United States. The Fairchild F-27 was similar to the standard Fokker F27, while the FH-227 was an independently developed, stretched version. The Fokker F27 began life as

1715-468: The stretched FH-227, which appeared almost two years earlier than Fokker's similar F27 Mk 500. The FH-227 featured a 1.83 m (6 ft) stretch over standard-length F27/F-27s, taking standard seating to 56, with a larger cargo area between the cockpit and the passenger cabin. In addition to the 581 F27s built by Fokker, 128 F-27s and 78 FH-227s were built. As of February 2010 , only one Fairchild FH-227 aircraft, FH-227E serial number 501 belonging to

1764-535: The time of ANE's founding/first flight (which occurred November 16, 1970) speak of Beech 99s and DHC-6 Twin Otters and show a picture of an ANE Beech 99, but the US Civil Registry of January 1971 shows two Beech 18s (and a Twin Otter). A September 1971 schedule shows the fleet included Beech 99s, DC-3s, Beech 18s and Twin Otters. Until 1974, Air New England was categorized as an air-taxi, or commuter, that part of

1813-566: The trunks in the CAB's categorization of airlines ), "Although classified as a trunk, since it was certificated under the grandfather provisions of the Civil Aeronautics Act, it has always resembled a local service carrier with a few trunk routes appended." Like Local Service Carriers, Northeast needed government subsidies. Despite subsidies, it had a long history of incredibly poor financial results (see nearby table). Some of that had to do with its route network, as Eads said. But some of it

1862-518: The workhorses of their fleet in the 1970s and 1980s and at one time was the world's largest operator of the Boeing 727-200. Northeast Airlines served the following destinations during its existence: An asterisk (*) denotes this airport is no longer served by scheduled air service. Prop Aircraft Turboprop Aircraft Jet Aircraft A series of crashes damaged the airline's image: Air New England (1970%E2%80%931981) Air New England (ANE)

1911-513: Was a US regional airline in New England during the 1970s and early 1980s. It was headquartered at Logan International Airport in the East Boston area of Boston, Massachusetts . ANE was noneconomic for most of its existence. From 1975 through its last year, 1981, ANE depended heavily on government subsidies. Depending on the year, these accounted for 17 to 25% of operating revenues, despite which

1960-415: Was a big mistake. ANE was also asleep at the switch when deregulation was signed into law. It was a near-certainty this would make ANE's life harder, yet it failed to immediately apply to the CAB for increased subsidy. Established CAB practice was that subsidy changes dated from the day new rates were requested – no backdating. ANE didn't apply until months later, needlessly foregoing additional monies. It took

2009-529: Was a founder and former president and Nelson a former EVP of Executive Airlines, and at the start the airline was staffed with mostly former Executive staff. Whitney had left Executive after a disagreement with its main shareholder. ANE was billed as a “renaming” of Cape & Islands to better reflect the New England-wide service area of the airline but the two remained separate corporations until both were dissolved after ANE stopped flying. News articles at

Northeast Airlines - Misplaced Pages Continue

2058-790: Was a niece of the childless founder of Hudson's , the one-time Detroit department store that was a forerunner to Target , explaining Robert Kanzler's middle name. Over the first four years of operation, Air New England grew to become the dominant commuter airline in New England, overcoming and ultimately driving out of business the former dominant player, Executive Airlines. ANE's original network linked New York LaGuardia and Boston to three destinations in Massachusetts (New Bedford, Hyannis and Nantucket) and three in Maine (Portland, Augusta and Waterville). ANE's traffic grew from 90,000 passengers in 1971 to 320,000 in 1974. It triumphed by first concentrating on

2107-655: Was certificated to be a United States scheduled airline by the Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA) under the terms of the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938, which granted certificates to airlines that had been providing bona fide scheduled service prior to the Act. The CAA noted that Boston-Maine was 25% owned each by the Boston and Maine Railroad and Maine Central Railroads. The next year, the airline regulatory functions of

2156-503: Was in some ways a partially reconstituted Northeast Airlines, at least insofar as New England routes were concerned. From 1975, when Air New England took over the routes, until the 1981 when it ceased operations, ANE was in significant financial distress notwithstanding CAB subsidies that reached up to 25% of ANE’s annual revenues. In this respect, at least, the Northeast Airlines tradition lived on. Northeast’s lasting impact on Delta

2205-412: Was self-inflicted. In 1968 Northeast, for some reason, ordered eight Lockheed L-1011s which were to be delivered in a 268 seat configuration. The total order was to cost $ 128mm including spares. In early 1970, following another abysmal set of financial results in 1969, Northeast cancelled the order, taking a $ 3.6mm charge against 1969 to do so. Northeast also wrote off its three year old FH-227s in 1969,

2254-410: Was terminated by a CAB decision that year, and Hughes decided to exit from the company, selling control to a trustee in 1964. Northeast launched an aggressive campaign against the CAB's decision, and got a permanent Florida certificate in 1965. In 1965 the airline was bought by Storer Broadcasting , who tried to rejuvenate Northeast in 1966 with a new marketing campaign and new aircraft. Northeast ordered

2303-521: Was that it was Delta’s entrée into Boston and points north (not all of Northeast’s New England routes were terrible, Delta kept a few), plus the Northeast to Florida routes, and routes to Bermuda and Bahamas. These are the bits that Delta wanted. This was the origin of Delta’s presence in these markets. Northeast also contributed the Boeing 727-100 and 727-200 to Delta's fleet, types Delta did not operate prior to acquiring Northeast. Delta used these types as

2352-541: Was the only trunk carrier that needed subsidies to survive, subsidies the CAB paid until 1968. Also included in the investigation were a couple of New England routes that Allegheny Airlines had inherited in its 1972 merger with Mohawk Airlines . The recommendation of the CAB's administrative law judge and its staff was to give these unprofitable New England routes to unregulated air taxi or commuter operators. The New England states and communities saw things differently and board members themselves believed New England deserved

2401-488: Was unusual. ANE was privately held. Its two major owners were Fairleigh Dickinson, Jr. and Robert Hudson Kanzler. Kanzler was a son of Ernest C. Kanzler, an early Ford Motor Company executive (who persuaded Henry Ford to move beyond the Model T , but was forced out as a result) and a friend of Edsel Ford . Ernest and Edsel married sisters so Henry Ford II was Robert Kanzler's first cousin. His mother, Josephine Hudson Clay,

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