Hughes Airwest

On April 17, 1968, three earlier local service carriers in the western U.S. merged to form Air West:

Pacific Air Lines, which previously operated as Southwest Airways when it was founded in 1941, was based in San Francisco, flew along the coast and California's Central Valley, linking cities from Medford, Oregon, to southern California. Pacific operated Boeing 727-100s and Fairchild F-27s in 1968.

Bonanza Air Lines routes reached west from its Phoenix base to southern California and north to Las Vegas, Reno, and Salt Lake City. Bonanza flew Douglas DC-9-10s and Fairchild F-27s in 1968, with a DC-9-30 on order, delivered after the merger.

West Coast Airlines, based at Boeing Field in Seattle, served the Pacific Northwest, Idaho, Utah, Montana, and northern California. West Coast operated DC-9-10s, F-27s, and Piper Navajos in 1968.

The initial Air West fleet included Boeing 727-100s, Douglas DC-9s, Fairchild F-27s, and Piper Navajos. The first new addition to the Air West fleet was a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30, which had been ordered by Bonanza Air Lines.

Hungry for another adventure in the airline industry, TWA's former owner Howard Hughes sought the airline in 1968, and the US$90 million deal was finalized in April 1970. Renamed Hughes Air West, its call sign became "Hughes Air," and the airline expanded to several cities in the western United States, Canada, and Mexico. With the new yellow paint scheme, unveiled in September 1971, the airline began calling itself Hughes Airwest, two words instead of the initial three.

The airline participated in some movies in the 1970s, notably The Gauntlet with Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke in 1977. Eastwood's character arrives in Las Vegas from Phoenix on the airline and when he phones the airport for flight departure times, Locke's character sarcastically called the airline, "Air Worst." Also in 1977, the airline was operating service from both Burbank (BUR) and Orange County (SNA) to Denver (DEN) via an interchange flight agreement with the original Frontier Airlines. Hughes Airwest soon introduced its own jet service to Denver from a number of locations.

Like other local service airlines in the 1970s, Hughes Airwest eliminated many stops and opened longer routes. Service expanded to resorts in Mexico; domestic routes didn't reach east of Utah and Arizona until Denver, Des Moines, Milwaukee, and Houston Hobby Airport were added in 1978. When it ended F-27 turboprop flights in 1979, Hughes Airwest became an all-jet airline with 727-200s, DC-9-10s, and DC-9-30s.

Fleet

Air West and Hughes Airwest operated the following aircraft types at various times during their existence:

Destinations

Air West in July 1968

This is a list of destinations taken from the Air West system timetable dated July 1, 1968, when the merger to form Air West became effective. Cities served with jets are noted in bold. Air West was operating Boeing 727-100, Douglas DC-9-10, and McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 jets, as well as Fairchild F-27 turboprops and small Piper Navajo twin props at this time. The majority of the destinations on this list that did not have jet service were served with Fairchild F-27 twin turboprops.

ARIZONA:

Grand Canyon (GCN)

Accidents and incidents

1971 – Flight 706

On the evening of Sunday, June 6, 1971, Flight 706, a Douglas DC-9-31 collided in mid-air with a U.S. Marine Corps F-4B fighter over southern California near Duarte. All 49 on the airliner and the F-4 pilot were killed; the sole survivor was the F-4 radar intercept officer. Flight 706 had departed Los Angeles for Seattle, with five intermediate stops, the first in Salt Lake City.

1972 – Flight 800 hijacking

Two months after the hijacking by D. B. Cooper of Northwest Orient flight 305, Hughes Airwest was the target of a copycat hijacker in early 1972. After boarding Flight 800 at McCarran airport in Las Vegas in late morning on Thursday, January 20, 23-year-old Richard Charles LaPoint claimed he had a bomb while the plane was on the taxiway and demanded $50,000 cash, two parachutes, and a helmet. When these demands were met, 51 Reno-bound passengers and two flight attendants were released; the DC-9 departed eastward toward Denver, followed by two F-111 aircraft of the U.S. Air Force from nearby Nellis AFB. The parachutes were high-visibility and equipped with emergency locator devices.

Without a coat and in cowboy boots, the hijacker bailed out from the lower aft door over the treeless plains of northeastern Colorado in mid-afternoon. LaPoint was apprehended a few hours later, with minor injuries and very cold. The plane, with two pilots and a flight attendant on board, landed safely at Denver's Stapleton airport at 2:55 p.m. MST. Facing potential death penalty charges for air piracy, the Vietnam veteran and former U.S. Army paratrooper was sentenced to forty years, but served less than eight, and was released from a halfway house in 1979; he died at age 60 in his native New Hampshire in 2008.