OZARK Airlines

On 1 September 1943 Ozark Air Lines was founded to fly services from SpringfieldMissouri,[2] and in January 1945 it began flights between Springfield and St. Louis on Beech 17 Staggerwings, replaced by Cessna AT-17 Bobcat in the late 1940s. The required license from the Civil Aeronautics Board was not forthcoming and operations had to stop.

In July 1950 Ozark was granted a certificate to operate Parks Air Transport routes not previously activated. Services were started on 26 September 1950 using Douglas DC-3s from St. Louis to ChicagoTulsa and Memphis.[2] In 1955 the airline had 13 DC-3s flying to 35 cities between Sioux City, Indianapolis, Wichita and Nashville. Ozark's main hub was Lambert–St. Louis International Airport. Like other Local Service airlines it was subsidized; in 1962 its operating "revenues" of $14.0 million included $4.5 million of federal subsidy.[3]

In 1960 the fleet added turboprop Fairchild F-27sMartin 4-0-4s were added in 1964.

Jets[edit]

Revenue passenger traffic, in millions of passenger-miles (scheduled flights only)[4]
Year Pax-Miles
1951 8
1955 36
1960 99
1965 229
1970 653
1975 936

In 1961 Ozark's network reached from Minneapolis to Nashville and from Kansas City to Indianapolis and Louisville. Denver was added in 1966 and in 1969 the network sprouted eastward: Ozark was awarded nonstops from Champaign and Peoria to Washington Dulles, continuing to New York LaGuardia. Atlanta was added in 1978 and four Florida cities in winter 1978-79.

 
Ozark Douglas DC-9-31 at Chicago's O'Hare Airport in 1975

By 1967 the Martins and F-27s were replaced with Fairchild Hiller FH-227s, a stretched F-27; the last DC-3 flight was October 1968. Ozark's first jets were Douglas DC-9-10s in July 1966. The DC-9-10s were augmented with DC-9-31/32 and DC-9-40s and Ozark went all-DC-9 in October 1978; in 1984 MD-82s were added. The three swallows on Ozark fins represented on-time flights, referring to the legend of the swallows that return to the Mission of San Juan Capistrano, in California, each year on the 19th of March.

Merger with TWA[edit]

In the mid-1980s Ozark and TWA had a de facto duopoly at Lambert–St. Louis International Airport, a hub for both. Ozark accounted for 26.3 percent of boardings at STL in 1985, while TWA accounted for 56.6 percent.[5] On March 1, 1986 the two airlines announced plans to merge: TWA would buy Ozark for $242 million in cash.[6] Shareholders of both airlines approved the merger by late summer, and the U.S. Department of Transportation gave its approval on September 12, 1986.[7]

Ozark ceased to exist as an independent company on October 27, 1986. The Ozark DC-9s were gradually painted with a modified paint scheme with "TWA" in the tail. Over the next couple of years the fifty Ozark airplanes were repainted in the TWA livery.

 

Ozark July, 15 1971 Timetable

Routings:

700 - KSTL-KMVN-KMTO-KBMI-KORD - FH227

701 - KORD-KBMI-KMTO-KMVN-KSTL - FH-227

702 - KSTL-KUIN-KBRL-KGBG-KORD - FH227

703 - KORD-KBMI-KMTO-KMVN-KSTL - FH227

Total flights

552

17 flights this month

Total distance

488,844

15,345 miles this month

Total hours

13,877

49 hours this month

Total pilots

51

5 active this month

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