Western Air Express aircraft operated by the airline's precursor, Western Air Express, in the late 1920s. In 1925, the
United States Postal Service began to give airline contracts to carry airmail throughout the country. Western Airlines first incorporated in 1925 as
Western Air Express by Harris Hanshue. It applied for, and was awarded, the 650-mile long
Contract Air Mail Route #4 (CAM-4) from
Salt Lake City,
Utah, to
Los Angeles. On 17 April 1926, Western's first flight took place with a
Douglas M-2 airplane. It began offering passenger services a month later, when the first commercial passenger flight took place at
Woodward Field. Ben F. Redman (then president of the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce) and J.A. Tomlinson perched atop U.S. mail sacks and flew with pilot C.N. "Jimmy" James on his regular eight-hour mail delivery flight to Los Angeles. By the mid-1930s, Western Air Express had introduced new
Boeing 247 aircraft. Western Air Express built and owned Vail Airport in
Montebello, CA, from 1926 to 1930 and the
Alhambra Airport in southern California from 1930 to 1931. Western Air Express operated a seaplane route out of
Hamilton Cove Seaplane Base on
Catalina Island, California, from 1928 to 1930
Transcontinental & Western Air The company reincorporated in 1928 as Western Air Express Corp. In 1930 it purchased
Standard Air Lines, a subsidiary of Aero Corp. of Ca., founded in 1926 by
Paul E. Richter,
Jack Frye and Walter Hamilton. WAE with
Fokker aircraft merged with
Transcontinental Air Transport to form
Transcontinental & Western Air (TWA, later known as Trans World Airlines).
General Air Lines In 1934 Western Air Express was severed from TWA and changed its name to General Air Lines, returning to the name Western Air Express after several months. In a 1934 press release by the company, it called itself the Western Air Division of General Air Lines. Its route map ran
San Diego to
Los Angeles to Salt Lake City.
Western Airlines In 1937 Western merged
National Parks Airways, which extended its route north from Salt Lake to
Great Falls, and, in 1941, across the border to
Lethbridge, Alberta. In 1941 Western Air Express changed its name to Western Air Lines and later to Western Airlines. (In 1967–69 Western called itself Western Airlines International.) In 1944 Western acquired a controlling interest in
Inland Air Lines, which became a subsidiary with Inland's schedules in Western timetables until Inland was merged into Western in 1952. Also in 1967, Western added
Vancouver, and in 1969 it began nonstop flights between several California airports and
Hawaii. In June 1968 the scheduled links called at 42 airports. In the late 1960s, Western aimed for an all-jet fleet, adding
Boeing 707-320s,
727-200s and
737-200s to its
720Bs. The two leased B707-139s had been sold in favor of the turbofan-powered Boeing 720B.
Lockheed L-188 Electra turboprops were replaced with new 737-200s. In 1973 Western added nine
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10s, marketing its
wide-body cabins as "DC-10 Spaceships". They were configured with 46 first-class seats, 193 coach, and a lower level galley. From 1976 to 1981 the DC-10s flew Los Angeles to Miami nonstop. Starting in 1968 future billionaire
Kirk Kerkorian was a major investor in Western Airlines. Kerkorian had previously controlled
Trans International Airlines, making his first fortune by selling it to insurance conglomerate
Transamerica Corporation earlier in 1968. Kerkorian built a large stake in Western from 1968 to 1970 and took control of the board, reshaping management (including side-lining Drinkwater) and, among other changes, cancelling Western's orders for
Boeing 747s, helping Western minimize the impact of the
widebody-driven capacity glut of the early 1970s. He remained a power at Western until 1976, when he sold his remaining stock back to the company. However, the merger was opposed by rival airlines such as Continental Airlines and the
United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division under
Richard Wellington McLaren. President
Richard Nixon's attorney
Herbert W. Kalmbach suggested that the antitrust suit would be dropped in exchange for a $75,000 campaign contribution to the
Committee for the Re-Election of the President, which American Airlines CEO
George A. Spater agreed to. However, the merger was nonetheless rejected in a 4–1 decision by the Civil Aeronautics Board in July 1972. at Seattle airport in 1972 Western was headquartered in Los Angeles, California. After the
Airline Deregulation Act in 1978, the airline's hubs were reduced to two airports:
Los Angeles International Airport and
Salt Lake City International Airport. Before deregulation, Western had small hubs in
Anchorage, Alaska,
Denver,
Las Vegas,
Minneapolis/
St. Paul and
San Francisco. In spring 1987, shortly before Western was acquired by
Delta Air Lines, the airline had two hubs, a major operation in Salt Lake City and a small hub in Los Angeles. At its peak in the 1970s and 1980s, Western flew to cities across the western United States, and to Mexico (
Mexico City,
Puerto Vallarta,
Acapulco,
Ixtapa/
Zihuatanejo and
Mazatlán),
Alaska (
Anchorage,
Fairbanks,
Juneau,
Ketchikan,
Kodiak and other Alaskan destinations),
Hawaii (
Honolulu,
Kahului,
Kona, and
Hilo), and Canada (
Vancouver,
Calgary and
Edmonton).
New York City,
Washington, D.C.,
Boston, and
Miami were added on the
east coast as well as
Chicago and
St. Louis, and cities in
Texas (
Austin,
Dallas/Ft. Worth,
El Paso,
Houston and
San Antonio), and New Orleans in the south. Western had many intrastate flights in
California, competing with
Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA),
Air California/
AirCal, Air West/
Hughes Airwest and
United Airlines. In addition, Western operated "Islander" service with
Boeing 707-320s,
Boeing 720Bs and
McDonnell Douglas DC-10s to Hawaii from a number of cities that previously did not have direct flights to the 50th state. In 1973, Western flew nonstop between Honolulu and Anchorage, Los Angeles, Oakland, California, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose, California and one-stop between Honolulu and Las Vegas, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Phoenix, Sacramento and Salt Lake City. From October 1980 to October 1981, Western flew Honolulu to Anchorage to
London Gatwick Airport with a single
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30;
Delta Air Lines merger In the early 1980s
Air Florida tried to buy Western Airlines, but it was able to purchase only 16 percent of the airline's stock. On September 9, 1986, Western Airlines and
Delta Air Lines entered into an agreement and plan of merger. The merger agreement was approved by the
United States Department of Transportation on December 11, 1986. On December 16, 1986, shareholder approval was conferred and Western Airlines became a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta. The Western brand was discontinued and the employee workforces were fully merged on April 1, 1987. All of Western's aircraft were repainted in Delta's livery, including twelve
McDonnell Douglas DC-10s. Delta eventually decided to eliminate the DC-10s from its fleet as it already operated
Lockheed L-1011 TriStars, a similar type. Delta retained Western's hubs in Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City has remained a major hub while Los Angeles was de-hubbed and later regained hub status for Delta. ==Destinations in 1987==