Today, there are hundreds of low cost airlines around the world, with the largest being Southwest Airlines. However, at one point, there were only a few, and Air Florida was the king of them…
During its heyday, the airline was one of the largest low cost airlines in the South Eastern US, and eventually, the entire eastern seaboard. Following on from other LCCs like Morris Air and PSA, the airline was among the first LCCs to expand internationally!
Pre-Formation
Throughout the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, legislation was passed by Congress which allowed airlines to establish themselves easier. This done by lawmakers repealing a clause that stated intrastate airlines needed government-set prices.
However, those airlines who operated outside of one state were still required to have government-set prices.
This convinced many people to begin their own state-wide airlines, as smaller airliners could be used to make double the profit! With this, these airlines could set lower prices, and thus, attract more flyers.
Through this, the concept of low cost carriers (otherwise known as budget airlines) was born! Many people who had connections in the industry and the money to back it up, soon established so-called budget airlines.
Among these people were Florida resident and financier Eli Timoner and former Eastern Airlines marketing director, Ted Griffin. Having met years previously, both wanted to start their own airline, however, had never done so.
With the repealing of this legislation, the two were ready to come together and form their own airline, which they had begun hypothesizing about in 1970.
Formation & Early Years
The pair formed the airline in September 1971, calling it Air Florida. During their conversations, the pair had singled out Orlando, St Petersburg and Miami as their main three “triangle” routes.
For the next year, the airline would work to acquire an air operator’s certificate (AOC). In doing so, the airline acquired two 707s from Pan Am, that would operate to and from the three initial airports.
Both Timoner and Griffin had settled on Miami International Airport as their primary hub and offices.
Eventually, in September 1972, the CAB issued the airline with its AOC. With this, the airline began operations on September 28 1972. The airline’s initial price for a round trip was $12, which was extremely cheap for the time.
Naturally, the airline began to become quite profitable, however, understood its aircraft were too big for its present operations. With this, the airline chose to buy older Lockheed L-188s which were the right size.
In 1975, the airline chose to relocate its offices outside of Miami International Airport, in order to reduce costs. To do this, the airline set its offices up in Dadeland Towers in Kendall, Florida.
Expansion
In 1978, the US Congress passed the airline De-Regulation Act. This, among other things, allowed airlines to set their own prices, regardless of whether they were an interstate or intrastate airline.
With this, the airline was able to expand outside of just Florida. Initially, this meant the southeast, and eventually the entire eastern seaboard. From there, the airline expanded into the Caribbean, mostly to tourist destinations.
Starting in 1981, the airline began to add long haul international routes too. The first major international route was to London Gatwick Airport, by 1982, Stockholm, Oslo and Brussels had all be added.
By 1983, Madrid, Shannon Frankfurt and Dusseldorf had also been added, although these were among the first to go later on that year. many of the airline’s European cities also flew to one another, utilizing DC-9s.
The airline also struck a deal with British Island Airways to use their fleet of BAC One Elevens alongside the DC-9s on the airlines European routes.
For these international flights, the airline was forced to acquire a fleet of DC-8s and DC-10s. At the same time, the airline removed the last of its Electras, which had served for this entire time (although jets had come in on the most popular routes).
To do this, the airline acquired new 737-100, 737-200 and 727 jet aircraft for the domestic regional routes.
Western Airlines Deal
Throughout the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, the airline had attempted to break into the Western US. All to no avail. As such, they began looking for an airline that they could acquire to do this for them.
Luckily for them, the 1980’s had proven to be challenging for Western Airlines. The increase in low cost carriers was killing their profits and the airline could simply not keep up. As such, it was hemorrhaging money, and fast.
The airline entered negotiations to buy out Western Airlines. However, negotiations broke down somewhat, and Air Florida only acquired 16% of Western Airlines.
In 1987, Western Airlines was bought out by Delta and merged into the Delta brand.
Air Florida Commuter
In the 1980’s, commuter services and airlines became all the rage. Essentially, a small airline, using smaller aircraft would transport passengers to and from two large airports for their flight.
In 1980, Miami-based regional airline, Miami Air, had become an affiliate of Air Florida. Part of this affiliate deal was, that all Miami Air aircraft would repainted all of its aircraft in Air Florida colors.
This was actually a very lucrative deal for both airlines. Miami Air had the backing of Florida’s largest airline, whilst Air Florida had an airline that could fly its passengers to its main hubs, from smaller airports.
Eventually, other airlines joined in on this deal. This created Air Florida Commuter, with all aircraft flying under a modified livery (mostly with the word “commuter” added on at the end!)
At its height, fifteen airlines were a part of the commuter network. However, due to financial issues, the airline closed its commuter network in 1984.
Southampton FC Sponsorship Deal
For many avgeeks today, especially those who also enjoy sports, the idea of seeing airlines sponsor sports teams is not a new one. In fact, it is the opposite, with it being fairly common today.
However, in the 1970’s and 1980’s, this was very uncommon. Generally, only small regional airlines would sponsor a local football team in order to advertise their flights to and from the local area.
Nevertheless, during the 1983/84 Premier League (then called the First Division) season, Air Florida chose to become the main sponsor for British soccer (football) team Southampton FC.
During this season, Southampton came second place, loosing by only three points to victors Liverpool FC. Due to this deal, many British people were familiar with Air Florida.
However, Air Florida’s insolvency issues caused the deal to be cancelled after only one year, as Air Florida would cease operations less than two months after the season had ended.
The Issue
Due to how big the airline was, it operated internationally. On the surface of it, it was really good as it allowed the airline to access more potential passengers, and therefore, become more profitable.
However, there was one issue that came with it: exchange rates. The airline operated almost solely in US dollars, yet it was paid in hundreds of other currencies, including the British Pound, Belgian Franc and German Reichsmark.
This saw the airline play a dangerous game of currency trading. The airline would store everything it earned in other currencies, until the exchange rate was more profitable, then, they’d convert it into dollars.
However, the airline needed this money, and the exchange rate wasn’t right.
On January 13 1982, the regularly scheduled Air Florida Flight 90, from Washington National Airport to Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport took place.
However, January 13 1982 would go down in history as among the worst air disasters in history. A combination of pilot error and icy conditions led to the aircraft crashing shortly after takeoff.
The media ate this up, and reported on it for several weeks, reporting on every aspect of the flight and crash. This was so bad, that the president of the US, Ronald Reagan had to intervene, which only increased the media attention.
Bankruptcy
By the end of 1983, the financial issues of the airline and negative media coverage had become too much. It simply wasn’t making enough money, and operated most of 1983 in the red.
Things did not improve in 1984, in fact, they got worse. Months of operating in the red had not helped the negative press coverage, as many journalists picked up on this fairly early on, and ran with it.
As such, the airline filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early 1984. However, things had not improved as they’d hoped, and the airline was forced to cease all operations in July that same year.
Here, the airline was forced to sell of its assets in order to pay off its debts. At the same time, it kept paying its workforce, even when they were not working on board their aircraft anymore.
Midway Airlines bought the vast majority of Air Florida’s assets, including most of their aircraft, during the airline’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Midway also hired most of the airline’s former employees for simplicty’s sake.
What Was it Like to Fly on Air Florida?
Personally, I flew from Florida to Bermuda on the airline several times for various different reasons. And for the most part, it was actually a more enjoyable experience than on most other low cost airlines I’ve flown on!
Today, low cost airlines have a bad reputation for having incredibly poor customer service. This is because the airlines pay their crews as little as possible, in order to keep costs extremely low.
However, the airline’s crews were generally young women (mid-to-late twenties) who were actually quite courteous. Whenever passengers had any issues, they were generally quite helpful and polite.
With that being said, however, I do remember one incident where a flight attendant was quite rude, not to me, but to a very… handsy passenger. Basically, she told him he had no chance and he got very confrontational.
Besides that, they were very helpful!
As an avgeek, I have flown on hundreds of different aircraft, with many airlines. As such, I have come to understand how certain aircraft “feel” when they’re flying. And more so, how good the flying is.
For the most part, the DC-9s and DC-10s I flew on were piloted quite well, at least from my point of view anyway!
My only issue with the airline was that the seats were less comfy than other low cost airlines of the era that I flew on.
How Safe Was Air Florida?
Part of the reason that the airline is no longer an airline is due to Air Florida Flight 90. The media attention that the crash received gave the general public the impression that the airline was really dangerous.
But was it really?
During the airline’s twelve years of operations, the airline had five incidents of varying degrees of seriousness. However, all of these occurred in the 1980’s, despite the airline spending most of its existence in the 1970’s.
Of these five incidents, four were hijackings, with terrorists demanding to be flown to Cuba. Upon landing in Cuba, as per their demands, the hijackers were arrested by Cuban authorities, with no injuries or fatalities.
The remaining incident was a fatal crash, the aforementioned Flight 90. Here, a combination of atmospheric icing and pilot error caused the 737-200 to crash shortly after takeoff. In total, there were 78 fatalities and four injuries.
In terms of the airline’s aircraft, the main airline operated what were among the safest aircraft (at the time anyway!) This included the 707, 727, 737-100/-200, DC-8 and DC-10.
However, by modern standards, many of these aircraft are among the most dangerous in the world! This is especially so for the 737-200, who’s reputation never recovered after Flight 90 crashed.
Legacy
Despite having only operated for roughly twelve years, the airline left a larger impact on the industry than most would think!
Airline Industry
Prior to Flight 90’s crash, much of the airline’s management resigned or had taken C-Suite roles at other airlines. Among these executives was Ed Acker, the airline’s CEO and very public face.
Acker chose to leave the airline in order to become the CEO of arguably the most famous airline in history, Pan Am. Whilst at Pan Am, Acker would implement many of the things he had done at Air Florida.
Upon the airline entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Midway Airlines bought the airline’s assets. This included the airline’s fleet, which were soon repainted and placed on Midway routes.
This helped to make Midway one of the major non-“Big Four” players in the airline industry. However, the airline eventually ran into its own issues, partly due to the bankruptcy of Air Florida, which resulted in Midway’s own bankruptcy.
Florida
Prior to the airline’s founding, Florida had mostly been left out by the airline industry. No major airlines were based there, and only a handful of airlines operated routes to it, and even then, not by much.
However, the airline soon took Florida by storm. Most people who could afford to fly commercially in Florida during this time, did so on Air Florida.
Eventually, the airline would inspire Renoair (as well as many other airlines!) to operate a second route map there, albeit to completely different places within the state of Florida!
The airline also helped to make places such as Orlando and Miami even more attractive tourist destinations. If you’ve ever flown to either of these destinations in the past thirty years, its probably thanks to Air Florida, even if you don’t know it!
What do you think of Air Florida? Did you ever fly with them? Tell me in the comments!
Featured image courtesy of Martin Addison via Flickr.