at
Düsseldorf 1964. Capitol operated on behalf of
Lufthansa 1964–1969
Startup and transition to airline Capitol Airways was founded by Jesse F. Stallings and R.R. McInnis, former
American Airlines pilots who flew for the
Air Transport Command in World War II. Each contributed $5000 but McInnis withdrew after about six months. Capitol was incorporated in Tennessee on 11 January 1946, and initially operated as a
fixed base operator (FBO), providing flight instruction, aircraft sales and service and chartering of light aircraft at
Cumberland Field in Nashville. This was a
segregated business; a separate operation at the field offered services to black people. Capitol acquired a
Lockheed Lodestar aircraft in 1947 to fly for the
Grand Ole Opry. Capitol's Letter of Registration (what
irregular air carriers received from the CAB at the time in lieu of a certificate) was issued 11 August 1947. Stallings flew Capitol's first
Douglas DC-3, bought for $7,500, to Nashville solo from
New York LaGuardia in winter with a busted copilot-side window. In 1949 just over half its revenues were transport-related.
1950s: decade of growth As
Table 1 shows, the 1950s were a decade of substantial growth for Capitol, though it never achieved much more than break-even financial results. By the 1960 it was the second largest supplemental carrier by revenues. In 1951 Capitol started flying military charters. Capitol Air Sales was incorporated in 1953 and took over the FBO activities. for what became
Logair, a domestic
Air Force cargo
virtual airline. That year, the airline flew a total of nine C-46s and four DC-3s. Further, from October 1954 to July 1955, Capitol operated a Tennessee
intrastate airline under the name Volunteer Airlines with DC-3s (
External links has a link to a Volunteer Airlines timetable). Losses exceeded $100,000 (over $1.2 million in 2025 terms). Capitol would fly for Logair until 1965. In 1956 and 1957, almost all its revenue was from the military (see
Table 1). In 1960, Capitol flew 40 C-46s for Logair, half leased from
AAXICO Airlines, a losing bidder that year. In 1958 Capitol flew its first passenger charters to Europe. at
Mallorca 1967
Turboprops and jets By July 1962, Capitol was flying five
Armstrong Whitworth AW.650 Argosy aircraft for Logair, its first turbine equipment. The Argosies were out of the fleet by year end 1965, consistent with Capitol's exit from domestic military flying. In October 1963 Capitol was the third supplemental air carrier (after
Trans International Airlines and
World Airways) to introduce jets with a convertible (passenger/freight)
Douglas DC-8-54F. In February 1964, Capitol set a commercial aviation world record by flying a DC-8 nonstop from
Tokyo, Japan to Wilmington, Delaware in 12 hours and 25 minutes. Capitol accumulated over a dozen
Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellations in the 1960s. By December 1967, four L-1049Hs, previously employed for the military, were sitting at Capitol's Delaware base with "no prospects for further use of the fully
depreciated aircraft." The L-1049s were out of the fleet by year-end 1968. C-46s remained, because Capitol flew three and then five on
wet lease in Europe for
Lufthansa 1964–1969. By 1970, Capitol had a pure DC-8 fleet.
Gatwick 1973
San Juan 1978
Public company and Atlantic charter carrier On 17 March 1967, the airline changed its legal name to Capitol International Airways, a name it had used for business purposes since at least 1961. Later the same month, Capitol filed an
initial public offering, completing it in May, becoming a
public company. In July 1969,
conglomerate City Investing agreed to buy Capitol, with an offer that expired at year end (buying such carriers was in fashion:
The Hillman Company bought
American Flyers in 1967, and in 1968, investment bank
Stephens bought
Purdue Aeronautics, insurance company
Transamerica Corporation bought
Trans International and
INA Corp., also an insurance company, offered to buy World Airways). In January 1970, with CAB approval incomplete, City Investing walked away. As
Table 2 shows, Capitol's 1969 operating margins dropped significantly vs the prior three years. In 1971, Capitol consolidated operations and headquarters to
Smyrna, Tennessee, at the recently-closed
Sewart Air Force Base (today's
Smyrna Airport) southeast of Nashville. By 1972, charters to Europe were a dominant part (73%) of Capitol's commercial business, similar to the other four (Trans International,
Overseas National, World Airways and
Saturn Airways) of the so-called Big Five charter carriers. Capitol's civil business now dominated military (see
Table 3). Charters accounted for 32% of all Atlantic passengers at the time. In 1973–1974, the US govt sought to prop up Pan Am, which was losing a lot of money, especially on the Atlantic. The
Department of Transportation (DOT) asked carriers to raise transatlantic fares, including charter rates. Capitol refused, noting it was making money, charter rates were going up of their own accord and Pan Am's issues were of its own making. The DOT identified Capitol as the "recalcitrant carrier" preventing a "voluntary" agreement. In response, the CAB imposed minimum charter rates. In late 1974, Senator Ted Kennedy held hearings on the issue, the first of a series of such hearings on airline regulation that in retrospect were seen as starting a process that ended in the
1978 Airline Deregulation Act.
Deregulation and demise Zurich 1982. In 1985 this aircraft crashed as
Arrow Air Flight 1285R As shown in
Table 3, Capitol ended the final year of regulated era (1978) as the third largest supplemental by revenue, but its advancement from number five earlier in the 1970s in part reflected Saturn's 1976 merger into Trans International and Overseas National's September 1978 liquidation. Capitol entered deregulation still reliant on a fleet of DC-8s and the April 1980 death of Mack Rowe, Stallings's long-time lieutenant (at the airline since 1946) and successor as Chairman. Capitol's first scheduled service was in May 1979 from New York to Brussels, at which time the airline intended to remain mostly a charter carrier for the foreseeable future. However, by 1980 it was already mostly a scheduled carrier by revenue (see
Table 4), largely long-haul service (see
Destinations). The CAB cited the recent deaths of Stallings and Rowe in approving
George E. Batchelor's 1980 acquisition of 52% stake for $3.6 million (about $14 million in 2025 terms), which closed in July. Like Stallings, Batchelor was a World War II
Air Transport Command veteran who also founded an irregular carrier in 1946,
Arrow Airways. The CAB shut Arrow Airways in 1951 for operating illegal scheduled services but with deregulation Batchelor was back in the industry, funded by his aircraft leasing and maintenance ventures. Batchelor paid only a bit over $1 million in cash for his stake, the rest being taken back as a note. Batchelor's control lasted until January 1983 when he stopped paying on the note used to fund his Capitol stake and stepped down from management. The airline made a profit in 1981 (
Table 4) and on 6 January 1982, Capitol again changed names, this time to Capitol Air. Batchelor also brought the first widebody aircraft to Capitol, with
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10s in the fleet from 1981 to 1983. But Batchelor was dissuaded by heavy 1982 losses, which resulted in Capitol making a
going concern disclosure by its accountants in May 1983. which in turn sold out its majority stake in September to a group led by Farhad Azima, who also controlled
Global International Airways. Operating margins worsened in 1983. In February 1984, New York City entrepreneur
John Catsimatidis took a stake in Azima's Capitol holding company. The end came in November 1984 after employees, frustrated at not being paid, forced the airline into
Chapter 11 at which point operations ceased. ==Capitol Air Express==