In contrast to Hawaiian and Aloha, Mid Pacific Air's fleet was made up primarily of
NAMC YS-11 turboprop planes; Hawaiian and Aloha operated
jet aircraft such as the
McDonnell Douglas DC-9 (Hawaiian) and
Boeing 737 (Aloha) on the same interisland routes. Mid Pacific added
Fokker F28 Fellowship twin jets in 1985. In October 1982, the airline wet leased a
Boeing 707 from
Arrow Air and operated a short lived service from Honolulu to
Pago Pago, American Samoa using the name
Mid Pacific Arrow. In 1984, Mid Pacific leased four of its YS-11's to
Fort Worth Airlines in
Texas, and in February 1985 it became one of that airline's largest shareholders. That same month, the airline expanded to the southwestern United States, where it operated low-fare service between from Las Vegas, Nevada and the
Grand Canyon to
Burbank and
Orange County, California, and also flew nonstop between Orange County and
Fresno, California. In January 1986, Mid Pacific was sold to
KOA Holdings, and shortly thereafter the F28 jets were removed from service. Although Mid Pacific was able to lure customers with low fares and promotions that compensated for the slower, noisier turboprop aircraft, the airline was unable to compete with Hawaiian and Aloha and ended passenger flights in Hawaii on January 19, 1988, and ended cargo flights there a month later. Following the termination of the Hawaii operation, Mid Pacific moved to the midwestern United States and operated all cargo freighter flights using the YS-11s from a base in
Lafayette, Indiana, and in the 1990s operated commuter service via a
code sharing agreement with
Reno Air under the name
Reno Air Express using
British Aerospace BAe Jetstream 31 turboprop aircraft. These Reno Air Express flights provided connecting passenger feeder service at the Reno Air hub located at the
San Jose International Airport (SJC) in northern California. In 1992 and 1993, the airline operated a
British Aerospace BAe 146 jet in cargo freighter service on behalf of
TNT between New York City and
Bermuda. The airline ceased operations in 1995. ==Mid Pacific Air destinations in 1986==