The story
Emery Air Freight and CF AirFreight
Emery Air Freight (EAF) was an air freight forwarder that started chartering aircraft in 1976 to serve a hub at Dayton Airport. In December 1981, EAF adopted the Emery Worldwide brand as part of a new image to compete in overnight delivery with Federal Express. In 1989, Consolidated Freightways (CF), a trucking and logistics company, bought Emery. CF had its own air freight operation, CF AirFreight, but adopted the Emery name for the combined operation. At the time, CF AirFreight and the air operations of Emery Worldwide were both virtual airlines; the aircraft were operated by third parties.
Air Train
Air Train (IATA: GJ, ICAO: ATF, call sign: AIR TRAIN) was a small, San Jose, California, freight airline founded in 1985 and certificated in May 1987. CF AirFreight bought Air Train, then flying four Douglas DC-8s, in May 1989 because it needed to have its own certificated air carrier so that later that year it could bid (and win) a contract to fly for the United States Postal Service (USPS), which would use the former CF AirFreight sort facility in Indianapolis.
Air Train became Emery Worldwide Airlines (EWA) in October 1989. In 1990, EWA headquarters transferred from Redwood City, California to Dayton, Ohio. EWA had 31 aircraft by year end 1993.
Postal contracts and heavy freight
EWA had the USPS contracts to transport (next-day delivery service) Express Mail (from 1989) and (two-day delivery service) Priority Mail (from 1997). Table 1 shows USPS dominated EWA revenue. At year-end 2000, Emery Worldwide leased or owned 74 aircraft, EWA operated 54 of these (see also Subcontractors below). Of the 74, 25 were dedicated to Express Mail network. EWA dedicated two aircraft to Priority Mail and shared a further 19 between Priority Mail and non-USPS business, flying daylight trips for Priority Mail and at night for non-USPS business.
Priority Mail included substantial ground operations. The Priority Mail contract required EWA to establish, equip and staff ten east coast processing centers, ranging in size from 120,000 to 300,000 square ft, and to provide ground transportation between them and other USPS facilities. At year-end 1998, EWA employed 3,800 full time employees for its Priority Mail operations. At year-end 1999, EWA was using 900 trucks, tractors and trailors to support Priority Mail.
Under CF/CNF ownership, Emery Worldwide, concentrated on heavy freight for its non-USPS business. In 1998, the average air freight shipment weighted 248 lbs. In 1996, EWA's corporate parent was re-named CNF Transportation, reflecting the spin-off of the heritage Consolidated Freightways long-haul trucking business to a separate company. The airline's livery changed slightly; the livery before the split had "A CF Company" in a square on the tail. After the split, that changed to "A CNF Company."
In 1996, EWA ranked number 7 in the world among all-cargo carriers by ton-miles.
Events of 2000 and 2001
On 16 February 2000, EWA suffered the fatal crash of Flight 17 on takeoff from Sacramento Mather Airport. FAA investigations in 2000–2001 uncovered widespread safety violations.
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In November 2000, USPS and EWA announced the termination of the Priority Mail contract. The USPS took over ground services as of January, EWA provided some air service through April.
In response to an FAA request, EWA suspended operations on 13 August 2001. USPS notified EWA that it was cancelling the Express Mail contract as of August.
On 4 December 2001, CNF informed the FAA that it would not resume EWA operations. A year later it turned in its operating certificate to the FAA. The Dayton hub continued to operate with contractors.
On its last day of operation, EWA had a fleet of 37 aircraft: 29 DC-8s and 8 DC-10s.
From Wikipedia’s article on Emery Worldwide Airlines, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4