Жоғалған "Modern Air" авиакомпаниясының тарихы (1946-1975)

Defunct US based charter carrier (1946 1975

Although Modern Air was conceived in 1946 in Hempstead, Long Island, it was incorporated as Modern Air Transport, Inc. on 3 January 1947. Later that year, Modern Air commenced commercial operations from Miami International Airport with war surplus Curtiss C 46 piston engined aircraft. In 1950, the airline's operational base moved to New York's Newark Airport. At Miami, Gulf American Land's prospective customers transferred between Modern Air's Curtiss C 46s and the Douglas DC 3s of Gulf American Land's own airline, Gulf American Airlines, which operated a shuttle service linking Miami to Fort Myers across the Everglades. Together with complimentary bus transfers between Gulf American Land's Golden Gate Estates development in Cape Coral and Fort Myers' Page Field airport, these flights formed part of Gulf American Land's free sales pitch and were free for prospective customers, who were also served a free meal on board the aircraft on each leg of their journey. Modern Air's charter flights on behalf of Gulf American Land into Miami eventually accounted for 25% of the airline's total business. Only two of these entered actual airline service; the remaining three were used for spares. On 30 May 1966, the CAB authorised Modern Air to operate charter flights from the US to Canada and Mexico. Further fleet expansion ensued in August 1966 with the acquisition of five Martin 2 0 2s from TWA and Allegheny Airlines, respectively. Also in 1966, the CAB broadened Modern's civilian and military charter authority, including granting the airline permission for limited scheduled air services. This enabled it to temporarily replace scheduled air services normally provided by major US certified route carriers during labour disputes resulting in strike action at the certified carriers and to obtain temporary CAB authority for scheduled flights from New York and Washington, D. C. to Miami. the transfer of the DC 3s and Martinliners to sister airline Gulf American Airlines and the sale of the company's last remaining Constellation the following year. Gulf American Land Corporation's stockholder meeting in December 1966 resolved to shorten its name to Gulf American Corporation (GAC) to reflect its increasing diversification and approved an employee stock purchase plan worth $600,000. Although Modern Air and Gulf American Airlines shared the same owners, who attempted to merge both airlines under the Modern Air name, both airlines largely remained organisationally independent of each other, with former Modern Air pilots continuing to fly the DC 7s on long haul charters and their former Gulf American Airlines colleagues flying the smaller piston types (the DC 3s and Martinliners) into Fort Myers. Gulf American's takeover by the General Acceptance Corporation in 1969 resulted in a major reorganisation of GAC's business units. This saw Gulf American Corporation and Modern Air become wholly owned subsidiaries of newly created holding company GAC Corporation, with all real estate related business activities being absorbed into newly formed GAC Corp subsidiary GAC Properties. These changes resulted in former GAC treasurer James M. Browne being appointed Modern Air president. Following the award of these new foreign charter rights, the airline concluded a US$17.5 million purchase agreement with American Airlines to acquire five of the latter's Convair CV 990A jetliners between January 1967 and February/March 1968, in anticipation of major growth for low cost overseas travel by US tour groups. The first two examples sported a new natural metal "Silver Palace" livery, which replaced the Modern Air Transport/MAT fuselage titles used in previous schemes with Modern Air titles. Modern Air's first jet, Convair CV 990A N5609, was handed over to the airline in February 1967. It was based in Miami and contracted by GAC to operate charter flights for prospective investors in its real estate development projects in Florida and Arizona. Modern received its second CV 990A, N5605, the following month. This aircraft was repainted in the contemporary Air France livery, in preparation of a short term wet lease beginning in April that enabled the French national airline to introduce high capacity jet aircraft on four daily round trips between Paris Orly and London Heathrow while awaiting delivery of its own Boeing 727 200s. Modern Air's CV 990s were configured in a spacious 139 seat, single class seating arrangement. It also began negotiations with Boeing for the purchase of a single 727 200 and two 727 100s direct from the manufacturer. The latter move saw the DC 3s and DC 7s put into storage at Fort Myers while the Martinliners were stored at Cape May, New Jersey. It also resulted in 100 job losses among flight crew. Modern Air carried more than 360,000 passengers in 1967 while revenues increased to over $9.5 million. However, costs associated with the transition to a jet fleet and excess capacity resulted in a $3 million loss (a $2.98 million operating loss and a $3.6 million net loss, respectively).

The agreement with Air France for the temporary lease of one aircraft beginning in April 1967 provided additional work for the new jets. Further work to increase the growing jet fleet's utilisation was secured when the Federal Government awarded Modern Air a contract to carry military personnel between camps in the US. However, this was insufficient to justify continuing expansion of the fleet and workforce. By the time Modern's third 990 was delivered, it experienced financial difficulties. This resulted in layoffs and management changes. As Modern Air was liable to pay substantial cancellation fees and would have forfeited the deposits that it had already paid for the outstanding aircraft deliveries if it terminated its purchase agreement with American Airlines unilaterally, Modern opted to begin looking for additional business opportunities to keep the expanding fleet fully employed. As a result of a narrow Soviet interpretation of the Potsdam Agreement between the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, access to West Berlin by air was restricted to three 10,000 feet (3048 m) high and 20 mile (32 km) wide air corridors, for exclusive use by aircraft under the control of individuals and (where applicable) organisations from the United States, the United Kingdom and France, the three Western victorious powers of World War II. These three air routes existed from February 1946 until German reunification in October 1990. They linked the exclave of West Berlin with West Germany and passed over the territory of communist East Germany. The airspace they encompassed was jointly administered from the Berlin Air Safety Center in West Berlin by representatives of the governments of all four victorious powers that had defeated Germany in World War II. The massive post war reconstruction effort in West Berlin, the city's rapid economic recovery following the end of the Berlin Blockade and the beginning of the German economic miracle resulted in rapidly rising living standards and disposable incomes of the local population. Together with the lifting of travel restrictions imposed by other countries on West German passport holders in the immediate aftermath of World War II and West Berlin's location inside East Germany this in turn drove the local population's rapidly rising demand for overseas travel and the growing popularity of package tours involving air travel. As West Berlin was out of bounds for German airlines, local tour operators chartered aircraft of the British independent airlines and US supplemental carriers that began flying from the city's Tempelhof and Tegel airports in the early 1960s. Prior to Modern Air's arrival in Berlin, the biggest among these was US supplemental Saturn Airways. Saturn opened a base at West Berlin's Tempelhof Airport in 1964. Its Berlin based fleet comprised Douglas DC 6 and DC 7 piston airliners, which were chartered by Flug Union Berlin for its flying programme to several airports serving popular holiday resorts, chiefly in the Mediterranean. Flug Union Berlin was the first tour operator with a West Berlin flying programme and acted at the time as the city's consolidator for the big West German tour companies Neckermann (then part of the eponymous department store chain) and Touristik Union International (TUI), the travel arm of the Federal German Railway. Local rival tour operator Berliner Flugring, which had begun as a consortium of 70 local travel agents arranging inclusive tour (IT) flights from West Berlin to holiday resorts in Europe, as well as a similar $2 million programme with Flug Union Berlin and a $1.5 million, seven months wet lease of up to two aircraft to Canadian charter carrier Nordair, enabled Modern Air to profitably utilise its spare aircraft capacity. This was more liberal than in the US, where restrictive rules governed non scheduled air services as part of an effort by the CAB to protect the country's scheduled airlines. The acquisition of a further two CV 990s from American Airlines at the end of 1970 expanded Modern's 990 fleet to seven aircraft. This allowed it to vie with Swissair for the title of the world's largest Convair 990 operator. The expanded all jet fleet facilitated the introduction of regular tour group charters carrying American tourists from the Miami and New York areas to popular holiday resorts in North and Central America, as well as the launch in May 1968 of a Canadian based Caribbean and transatlantic charter programme, in addition to operating a large German charter programme. While all Modern Air commercial flights from and to Berlin principally used Tegel to take advantage of the airport's longer runways and the fact that it was not in a built up area making for easier approaches (compared with nearby Tempelhof), the airline conducted its training for Berlin based flight deck crews at Tempelhof. The latter was also the designated diversion airport in bad weather in the Tegel area. Modern's two Berlin based Convair jets flew to 19 destinations from Tegel Airport during their first summer season, which lasted from May to September. The successful conclusion of Modern's first summer season in Berlin saw one aircraft speculatively retained for the winter season to develop a new charter programme to the Canary Islands, a first in the West Berlin market. Modern Air carried over 135,000 passengers (out of a company wide total of just under 300,000) during its first year of operations from Tegel. in its marketing. This was the nickname pioneered by Swiss flag carrier Swissair, the type's first operator in Europe. Modern Air's five year contract with Berliner Flugring and an expanded US based flying programme under contract to parent GAC that saw prospective homeowners flown into Tucson, Arizona from May 1969 to view the new Rio Rico property development near Nogales significantly improved aircraft utilisation. In addition to the city's established tour operators such as Berliner Flugring, which provided Modern Air with the bulk of its business out of West Berlin, Modern Air also attracted business from smaller local startups and other operators catering to a more cost conscious clientele by offering lower rates for midweek and night flying. In addition to smaller local tour companies, the local organisers of VFR flights back home for West Berlin's large Turkish migrant population contracted their business to Modern Air to take advantage of lower rates at less popular times. This in turn enabled the airline to generate more business outside the Friday to Sunday peak, with the aim of smoothing peaks and troughs in activity. The decision to base most of its aircraft away from the US was taken in response to the disappointing financial performance of US based operations. This contrasted with good financial results achieved by the growing operation in Berlin, which had effectively subsidised the shrinking US operation for a number of years. The additional Berlin based aircraft and personnel also enabled Modern Air to supplement its regular charter programme from Berlin with one off luxury charters to far flung, exotic destinations, such as Bangkok, Colombo, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Karachi and Mauritius. To maximise the CV 990's range, as well as to provide an enhanced level of passenger comfort, these flights had their usual Modern Air charter airline seats replaced with the original American Airlines first class seats and carried a bigger crew complement. this would provide sufficient utilisation for the airline's additional Berlin based aircraft and enable it to obtain better rates than in the city's heavily contested short /medium haul charter market. This in turn would allow Berliner Flugring to further differentiate itself from rivals and enable it to charge its customers a premium for a new, unique and superior product. However, this was dependent on regulatory approval by the Allied Air Attachés in Bonn and the aviation authorities of destination countries. However, as a result of pressure exerted by Pan Am, British European Airways (BEA) and Air France on the Allied Air Attachés, as well as objections lodged by the destination countries' national airlines with their aviation authorities, the relevant approvals were withheld. The established airlines viewed Modern Air's plans as a backdoor route to the scheduled air market. They feared that granting permission to a non member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) outside the relevant intergovernmental, bilateral air transport agreements would set a precedent for other non IATA members to bypass regulatory restrictions in contemporary bilateral air transport agreements that limited access to scheduled air services and encourage circumvention of IATA fare rules by non members. Similar to the case of the Bulgarian communist authorities' sudden and unexplained withdrawal of landing and overflight rights for flights originating/terminating in West Berlin (despite the much needed hard currency Bulgaria earned from air navigation fees and airport user charges paid by the American and British airlines that operated these flights), some Western political observers at the time suspected behind the scenes East German lobbying of its Warsaw Pact ally and chief political backer respectively to have caused this to ensure East Germany's political and economic interests were not ignored in its Cold war allies' interactions with the West, especially where these concerned relations with West Berlin.

The operation of a special, one off Busenvogel charter excursion from Tegel to Paris to celebrate Father's Day in June 1970, during which topless showgirls from West Berlin's Daily Girl Club assisted four flight attendants in serving champagne to a group of 110 passengers (107 male, three female), gained Modern Air notoriety.

The operation of two round the world transpolar luxury charter flights in 1968 and 1970, respectively, arguably ranks as Modern Air's greatest achievement.

On 22 November 1968, the first of these saw CV 990A N5612 Polar Byrd I, which had a special Polar Path Compass (PPC) system fitted for the polar trip, become the first commercial jetliner to land on and take off from the 10,000 feet (3048 m) ice runway at the McMurdo Station airfield at Williams Field, McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. This flight commemorated the 40th anniversary of Admiral Richard Byrd's South Pole flight. The special commemorative flight was arranged by Edward C. Bursk, chairman of the Admiral Richard E. Byrd polar research centre in Boston and editor of the Harvard Business Review. He offered 400 wealthy US businessmen the chance to make history by joining this unique mission in support of his fund raising exercise for the Byrd Center. Eventually, 70 US businessmen took up Bursk's offer. They paid $10,000 each to partake in the special, round the world trip over both Poles. Flight KV 907 departed Boston on 8 November 1968 with 70 passengers and 10 crew on board. Modern Air's chief pilot (and former Air Force One pilot), Harold L. Neff was in command. The passengers were seated four abreast (two on each side of the aisle) in the former American Airlines first class seats, which Modern Air had acquired together with the aircraft from the US major and which had replaced the aircraft's usual, five abreast, slimline charter seating configuration for this trip. Cdr F. G. Dustin, who had accompanied [then Cdr] Byrd on his second Antarctic expedition in 1934, was among the passengers. The flight routed over the North Pole via Greenland, Alaska, the Philippines, Japan, Australia and New Zealand to Antarctica, where it made the historic landing at McMurdo Sound. From there it routed over the South Pole, before crossing the International Date Line a second time and proceeding northwards to southern Argentina, Brazil, West Africa and Europe. Rome was the first European stop, from where the flight continued to Moscow via Copenhagen (where an Aeroflot navigator joined the flight deck), before night stopping in London and returning to Boston the following day, 3 December 1968. The en route stop in Moscow also made Modern Air the first US commercial airline to operate a charter flight to the erstwhile Soviet Union. Modern Air's historic arrival in Moscow was memorable for a different reason as well. In common with other contemporary jet aircraft types, such as the Boeing 707/720, deHavilland Comet, Douglas DC 8, Sud Aviation Caravelle and Vickers VC 10, Convair's 880/990 lacked an auxiliary power unit (APU). This made the Convair jets dependent on an external ground power unit (GPU) to provide electrical power for the aircraft while stationary on the ground, including starting the engines. When Polar Byrd I needed power externally supplied by a GPU to start its engines at the end of the stopover in Moscow to resume its journey, it was found that the Soviet GPUs could not be connected to the CV 990s air intake valve due to an incompatibility between the ground equipment's fittings and the aircraft's valve. This necessitated flying in a Modern Air GPU from West Berlin and resulted in the delay of the onward flight. It also resulted in a subsequent collaboration between Modern Air's maintenance department and Garrett AiResearch to design and test a CV 990 APU, which was located in a hollow area behind the fuel tank inside the aircraft's inboard anti shock body on the starboard wing. This however proved unsuccessful, resulting in the unit's removal after the first installation. Similar to the pattern established in 1968, the flight routed over the North Pole (via Anchorage) before heading for Europe, Africa, South Asia and the South Pacific, where a stopover on Easter Island enabled passengers and crew to disembark and tour the island before proceeding to Santiago de Chile and Punta Arenas. Apart from there being far fewer en route stops (compared with 1968), the main difference between the Polarbyrd I and Polarbird II flights was that landing on McMurdo Station airfield's ice runway at the US Navy's Williams Field Antarctic research station in McMurdo Sound was no longer possible as the US Navy had begun restricting access to the airfield to essential flights only, in the wake of an incident two months earlier. This had resulted in a US Navy Constellation on a non essential flight with 80 passengers and crew on board crash landing there in a snowstorm and stranding its passengers and crew for several days. As a result of this incident, the US Navy had also withdrawn refuelling facilities at the airfield, which made commercial airline operations impractical. A last minute appeal at the highest level of the US government failed to reverse the US Navy's decision. As a consequence (as well as owing to bad weather in the area at the time), when the flight departed Punta Arenas on 11 December on the last leg of the trip (before returning to the US) the closest Polarbird II came to the original South Pole experience of Polarbyrd I back in 1968 was to offer its passengers a round trip within a 950 mile (1529 km) radius of the South Pole with views of the Antarctic icecap.