The story
Atlanta Skylarks
The Atlanta Skylarks were an air travel club formed (and operating its first trip) in 1966, using a Douglas DC-7. While the club was non-profit, club functions were contracted to (and aircraft provided by) by profit-making Skylark Enterprises. In 1970, Skylark Enterprises became a wholly-owned subsidiary of a new company, controlled by Harry R. Maugans and James "Hamp" H. Vason—Independent Air. Despite the name, Independent at that time did not hold certification necessary to operate club aircraft. Instead the Skylarks held FAA certification directly (Federal Aviation Regulation Part 123, or FAR Part 123) created specifically for air travel clubs. In 1973, the club entered the jet age with a Boeing 720. In the mid-1970s, Skylarks flew about 40 trips a year, most of them a few days long, to the Caribbean, Mexico, Canada and northern South America. Once a quarter it flew a longer trip to Europe or South America. Skylarks was also briefly one of the few US operators of the Sud Aviation Caravelle, with two in the fleet in summer 1976, both exiting by 1978 (see External links for a photo). In 1981, following 1978 US airline deregulation, operational responsibility for flying Skylarks aircraft transferred to Independent Air after it acquired FAR Part 125 authority (allowing it operate large commercial aircraft not in common carriage).
Atlanta airline
After acquiring Part 125 authority, Independent Air broadened its scope beyond Skylarks to fly a limited number of charter flights and acquired a second Boeing 720.
In 1983, Independent Air received charter authority from the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), completing its transition to an airline. It gained scheduled airline authority the next year. In 1985 the airline successfully avoided being shut by the FAA over noise standards that would otherwise have grounded the airline January 1 due to a shortage of hush kits for its Boeing 707s (it had already agreed to ground its Boeing 720s, for which no hush kits were available). It successfully argued to a Federal appeals court that the FAA had arbitrarily given waivers to some airlines that it had not, in similar circumstances, given to Independent.
Pittman era
Alvin L. Pittman was a former president and long-time officer of Capitol Air, a former supplemental air carrier that ceased operation in 1984. He and another former Capitol executive, Orien L. Dickerson, along with silent partners, bought the carrier in April 1985 for $213,590, Pittman becoming CEO, Dickerson CFO. In October, Independent Air Holdings (which included a travel agency and the Skylarks management) executed an initial public offering through broker Stuart-James, selling 46% of Independent Air Holdings for proceeds of $2.8 million dollars (over $8.5 million in 2026 terms). The airline bought a Boeing 727-100 with the proceeds (sold in 1988—see External links for photo). Stuart-James was a highly aggressive penny stock promoter that shut down in 1990; an SEC attorney later said Stuart-James was a "factory for fraud." The company changed its headquarters from Hapeville, Georgia to Smyrna, Tennessee in 1986, occupying Capitol's old offices at Smyrna Airport.
On February 8, 1989, Independent Air suffered the crash of flight 1851, a Boeing 707 on approach to Santa Maria in the Azores, on a flight from Italy to the Dominican Republic, killing all 137 Italian tourists and the crew of seven on board (see Accidents). The Italian minister of transport, Giorgio Santuz, banned the airline from Italy, pending the accident report. Tour operators cancelled contracts. As the nearby table shows, the airline had already made significant losses in 1987 and 1988. The crash further increased pressure on the airline and by November 1990 it had ceased flying. During 1990, the airline, at the direction of CFO Orien Dickerson, improperly withdrew cash held in escrow accounts for future charter flights, for which Dickerson was later fined $5,000 by the US Department of Transportation, and banned from the airline industry for a year.
Airline of the Americas/UltrAir
Charles P. Caudle was the former leader of pilots Pan Am inherited when it merged with National Airlines. Gordon A. Cain was a Houston executive who had engineered successful buyouts of petrochemical businesses. The two created Airline of the Americas (AoA) to acquire the assets of Independent Air, primarily a lease on a facility at Smyrna Airport, spare parts and its FAA certificate. AoA launched as a charter airline in June 1992, operating from the same Smyrna Airport office space previously occupied by Independent and Capitol. Certification came too late to get tour company business that summer, so it flew press charters for the administration of George H.W. Bush. In November 1992, Cain partnered with Barney Kogen, who had sold his travel agency business to American Express, to create UltrAir out of AoA, appealing to business travelers, with a large first class section and more legroom throughout the aircraft. Headquarters moved to Houston. Service launched on 16 January 1993 with service from Houston to New York and Los Angeles. Passengers earned miles on American Airlines' AAdvantage program.
Caudle left in February, his replacement in April, reportedly due to conflict with Kogen; by then UltrAir had dropped Los Angeles due to low fares. Starting in May, IRS investigators controversially investigated UltrAir as part of the White House travel office controversy; no wrongdoing was uncovered and Caudle was found to be due a $4,900 refund. The airline stopped scheduled service on July 25; the airline's June load factor was only 17%. Kogen gave up his investment days earlier. UltrAir's operating loss for the first six months of 1993 was $15.8 million on revenue of $9.8 million of which scheduled revenue was only $4.3 million.
The airline resumed scheduled service November 11, 1993, this time with an Wal-Mart-inspired everyday low price-strategy from New York Kennedy Airport to Florida. In May 1994 this expanded to include Birmingham and Mobile, Alabama. The airline discontinued operations again as of July 13, 1994.
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Paradise Airways/Prestige Airways
In October 1994, UltrAir assets were sold to NavCom Aviation, which owned a fixed base operator at Manassas, Virginia. NavCom launched the airline as Paradise Airways in March 1995. Paradise became Prestige in November. The airline flew both charters (including for tour operators and virtual airlines) and some limited scheduled service. For instance, Prestige flew for the extremely short-lived Sunair, a virtual airline flying from Cincinnati to Florida in December 1995/January 1996. It also flew for Jet Express, a virtual airline serving Myrtle Beach and Savannah from 1996. Scheduled service by Prestige included service to the Virgin Islands (December 1995 to January 1997) and from Flint, Michigan (September 1996 to February 1997). Operations ended 24 April 1997. NavCom was controlled by Elijah "Zeke" Jackson. His companies, including Prestige, on occasion did not pay employees and vendors. He was later sued by the United States Department of Labor for collecting but not depositing funds for employee 401(k) retirement accounts.
From Wikipedia’s article on Independent Air, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4