DALLAS — Today, in 1980, New York Air (NY) commenced operations. The first flight took place from the airline's LaGuardia Airport (LGA) hub to Washington National Airport (DCA).
Aviation entrepreneur Frank Lorenzo and his Texas Air Corporation launched the airline. Lorenzo wanted to focus on the new carrier in the Northeastern United States, the business epicenter of the country. At the time, Eastern Airlines and its "Shuttle" held the monopoly on routes to and from New York. NY was created to challenge this monopoly.
New York Air became the second carrier to be established, after Chicago's Midway Airlines, following US airline deregulation. NY's launch was initially met with controversy. Indeed, the first flight only carried five passengers. The opposition came from the Airline Pilots Association and the Airline Scheduling Committee, plus an Air Traffic Control strike in its first year.
Taking a Bite of the Big Apple
Despite these struggles, two years after the carrier's launch, it had doubled in size and was managing to turn a profit. A second smaller hub was inaugurated at New York Newark (EWR). Another hub followed this at Boston Logan (BOS), with flights to Baltimore (BWI) and Orlando (MCO). Sadly, this operation proved unprofitable and was closed by the end of 1982.
A new CEO, Michael E. Levine, was brought in to turn around the carrier's ailing fortunes. NY was repositioned as a full-service airline to target business passengers and better compete with the legacy carriers.
However, financial woes continued. Texas Air Corporation decided to merge all of its airline interests under the Continental Airlines (CO) brand. On February 1, 1987, New York Air made its final flight.
Featured image: A portrait of New York Air's aircraft N63305.
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Exploring Airline History Volume I
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David H. Stringer, the History Editor for AIRWAYS Magazine, has chronicled the story of the commercial aviation industry with his airline history articles that have appeared in AIRWAYS over two decades. Here, for the first time, is a compilation of those articles.
Subjects A through C are presented in this first of three volumes. Covering topics such as the airlines of Alaska at the time of statehood and Canada's regional airlines of the 1960s, the individual histories of such carriers as Allegheny, American, Braniff, and Continental are also included in Volume One. Get your copy today!
January 2025 Issue
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