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Private company

Continental Air Services

Defunct airline of the United States (1965–1975)

Continental Air Services, Inc (better known in abbreviations as CASI) was a subsidiary airline of Continental Airlines set up to provide operations and airlift support in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. CASI was formed as the South-East Asia Division of Continental in April 1965 with operations starting in September 1965 using approximately 22, mainly STOL, aircraft. Continental formed CASI by paying over a million US dollars for BirdAir (Bird and Sons) and its 350 employees and 22 aircraft.2 It is headquartered in Los Angeles.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1950Founded1
  • HeadquartersLos Angeles1

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Continental Air Services Inc. Porter 01
Photo: Dr. B. R. Lang ( talk ), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons4

Continental Air Services, Inc (better known in abbreviations as CASI) was a subsidiary airline of Continental Airlines set up to provide operations and airlift support in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. CASI was formed as the South-East Asia Division of Continental in April 1965 with operations starting in September 1965 using approximately 22, mainly STOL, aircraft. Continental formed CASI by paying over a million US dollars for BirdAir (Bird and Sons) and its 350 employees and 22 aircraft. CASI aircraft in Laos were registered as Air Continental. As of 1998, Continental Airlines still operated in the Pacific Islands (as Continental Micronesia). In 2010, Continental merged into United Airlines.2

Products and brands

CASI/Bird Air were known to operate the following aircraft:

Beech 18

Beech Baron

Beech D50C Twin Bonanza

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Bell 47G-3B-1 Sioux

Bell 205

Bell 206A JetRanger

Camair Twin Navion, a Ryan Navion converted by Cameron Aircraft Co

Cessna 180

Cessna 206

Convair CV-440

Curtiss C-46

de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter-300

Dornier Do 28A-1 & B-1

Douglas DC-3/C-47 Skytrain

Douglas DC-6A/B

Fairchild Hiller FH-1100

Helio 395 Super Courier

Lockheed PV-2 Ventura

Lockheed L-100 Hercules (civilian version of the Lockheed C-130)

Pilatus PC-6 Porter & Turbo Porter

Piper PA-18 Super Cub

Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer Series 2

Short SC.7-3-200 Skyvan

Total fleet: 37 to 45 aircraft by 1976

CASI occasionally leased its assets to others such as:

Foreign Air Travel Development, Inc

Boun Oum Airways

From Wikipedia’s article on Continental Air Services, Inc, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Timeline

  1. 1950Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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