Air Cal
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| Founded | 1967 | ||||||
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| Ceased operations | 1981, (integrated into American Airlines in 1987) | ||||||
| Hubs | John Wayne Airport | ||||||
| Fleet size | 21 | ||||||
| Destinations | 13 | ||||||
| Parent company | American Airlines | ||||||
| Headquarters | Newport Beach, California | ||||||
Air California, later renamed AirCal, was founded by William E. Myers and Bill Perrera and began as an intrastate airline operating solely within California. Following the federal Airline Deregulation Act in 1978, it expanded to several destinations in neighboring states, and in the 1980s was flying to Chicago (ORD), Seattle (SEA), Anchorage (ANC), and Vancouver, B.C. (YVR) in addition to its California routes as well as service to other destinations in the western U.S. It was founded by a partnership of Orange County businessmen and its initial route when scheduled passenger operations were commenced on January 16, 1967 was nonstop between Orange County Airport (SNA) and San Francisco International Airport (SFO), a previously unserved route, using two Lockheed L-188 Electra turboprops with five daily round trip flights. Air California was headquartered in Newport Beach, California. The airline's "home" airport was Orange County Airport, now known as John Wayne Airport. The airline ceased operations 6, Apr 1981 and was merged into American Airlines in 1987.
In April 1967, Air California was operating 48 nonstop Lockheed L-188 Electra propjet flights a week from Orange County (SNA) to San Francisco (SFO); the fare was $14.85 plus 5% tax. It added Orange County (SNA) - San Jose (SJC) - Oakland (OAK) flights around the beginning of 1968; in May SNA to SFO had 92 flights a week, mostly Douglas DC-9-10 twin jets, and 50 flights a week from SNA to SJC (most continuing to OAK). By January 1969, Boeing 737s had taken over all flights with the Electras and DC-9s being removed from the fleet. By 1976, the airline was operating nonstop intrastate jet service between Orange County and San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego and Palm Springs; between San Diego and Oakland and San Jose; between Ontario and Oakland and San Jose; and between Palm Springs and San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland.
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