The story
1930s
George T. Baker and D. K. Franklin created a partnership called National Airlines Taxi System to fly an airmail route from Daytona Beach to St. Petersburg, Florida, pursuant to a contract with the Post Office dated August 2, 1934. The route was operated continuously from October 15, 1934. On January 6, 1935, Franklin signed over his rights to Baker, and on March 1, 1935, Baker took over the contract as a sole proprietor, operating under the name National Airlines System until September 30, 1937. On that day, Baker's rights to the airmail contract and all property used to operate the contract were transferred to National Airlines, Inc., under a contract signed July 12, 1937. The new entity, National Airlines, was incorporated in Florida on 8 July 1937.
National Airlines was founded by George T. Baker (1899–1963) in 1934. Its headquarters were in St. Petersburg, Florida, and it was based at the city's Albert Whitted Airport. On October 15 of that year, revenue flights were launched, transporting passengers and mail from St. Petersburg to a few destinations within Florida using a fleet of two Ryan ST monoplanes. In 1935, the Stinson Trimotor was introduced with National Airlines, which were soon replaced by the Lockheed Model 10 Electra. In 1939, the company headquarters were moved to Jacksonville. By the end of the decade, the National Airlines network spanned from Miami to New Orleans, on what it called the Buccaneer Route.
1940s
In 1940 the Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar became the backbone of National's fleet. National was awarded rights from Florida to New York City and other cities along the East Coast in 1944, with flights starting in 1945. In 1946 National got approval to fly to Havana, Cuba, which coincided with the introduction of the Douglas DC-4. The DC-4 allowed non-stop flights between Miami and New York that started on February 14, 1946. Later that year National relocated its headquarters to Miami International Airport; a maintenance base opened at Miami in 1950.
The Douglas DC-6, National's first pressurized airliner, began flights on July 1, 1947 and reduced New York to Miami flight time from five to four hours. Flights on the DC-6 were marketed as Star Service. National ran the Piggy Bank Vacations campaign, promoting low-fare flights to Florida during the off-peak summer season.
1950s
This decade saw the introduction of the Convair 340/440, the Douglas DC-7, and the Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation. On December 10, 1958, National became the first airline to operate domestic jet flights, using a Boeing 707 leased from Pan American World Airways between Miami and New York. In 1959 the Lockheed L-188 Electra was introduced into the fleet. It was the only turboprop aircraft type ever operated by the airline. At the end of the decade, Houston and Boston were the ends of the network, with heavy emphasis on service between Florida and the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast.
1960s
With the award of traffic rights on the southern transcontinental route on March 11, 1961, National Airlines gained access to California and began operating new Douglas DC-8s between Florida and Los Angeles and San Francisco, with a number of flights stopping in Houston and/or New Orleans (previously, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and National had together operated Douglas DC-6s and DC-7s between Miami and California). In March 1962, National scheduled one round trip transcontinental nonstop flight: National flights 34 and 35 between Miami and Los Angeles on DC-8s. Concerning international destinations in Central and South America, a cooperation involving interchange flights with Pan Am was set up.
In the early 1960s, National started a new service with the Lockheed Electra propjet to Las Vegas and San Diego. Eastbound coast to coast routes flown with the Electra included San Diego-Los Angeles-Houston-New Orleans-Miami and San Francisco-Las Vegas-Houston-New Orleans-Tampa-Orlando-Jacksonville. National had other long, multistop routings with the Electra,such as Boston-New York City-Jacksonville-Orlando-Tampa-New Orleans-Houston-Las Vegas-San Francisco. National fFight 223 departed Boston at 7:30am and arrived in San Francisco at 8:42pm.
In 1962 Louis Bergman "Bud" Maytag, Jr. (grandson of Maytag Corporation founder Frederick Louis Maytag I), who had previously led Frontier Airlines bought a majority share in National Airlines and replaced George T. Baker as CEO. In 1960 the airline modernized its fleet with new Douglas DC-8s, followed by ten new Boeing 727-100 trijets, the first of which was delivered in 1964.
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After the retirement of the Electras in 1968, National became an all-jet airline with the DC-8 and 727. The airline introduced the first jet service into Key West, FL, in 1968 with the Boeing 727-100. The Douglas DC-8 fleet included the stretched Super DC-8-61, which was the largest aircraft type operated by the airline until the introduction of new wide-body jetliners such as the Boeing 747 and McDonnell Douglas DC-10. In 1969 National flew the Super DC-8 nonstop between Miami and New York JFK airport and nonstop between Miami and Los Angeles, flights having names such as "The Royal Biscayne," "The Royal Dolphin," "The Gotham," and "The Manhattan" between Miami and New York, and "The Californian" and "The Caribbean" between Miami and Los Angeles.
On July 26, 1969, the Atlanta-San Francisco nonstop route was awarded to National, and service began on October 1, 1969. It was National's only route out of Atlanta.
1970s
A $17 million IBM electronic computer reservation system, called Res-A-Vision, was completed and put into operation in 1970.
On June 16, 1970, National Airlines reintroduced international flights, when their Miami-London route opened (flights to Cuba were suspended in 1961 after the Cuban Revolution). With the London route, they became the third U.S. transatlantic passenger carrier, after Pan Am and TWA.
In the fall of 1970, the Boeing 747-100 jumbo jet, at that time the largest commercial airliner, entered service with National on the Miami-New York nonstop route on October 1, 1970, and the Miami-Los Angeles transcontinental nonstop route on October 25, 1970. National sold its 747s in May 1976. Also in 1970, National Airlines opened their own terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport, which was dubbed the Sundrome.
Following an order for ten aircraft in 1969, the widebody McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 was put in service on the Miami-New York route on December 15, 1971. A 1971 publicity campaign designed by F. William Free promoting National's flight attendants was criticized by the National Organization for Women as being sexist due to the slogan "I'm (flight attendant's name). Fly me. Fly National," or similar. Seeing one of these posters in Manchester inspired Eric Stewart of 10cc to write the band's 1976 hit song "I'm Mandy Fly Me".
A proposed merger of National Airlines and Northwest Orient Airlines was announced on September 23, 1971, as an effort to combine National’s Florida, East Coast, and southern transcontinental network with Northwest’s Upper Midwest, western U.S., and trans-Pacific system, creating a geographically complementary national and international airline. Under the agreement, National would be absorbed into Northwest, with National shareholders receiving 0.85 Northwest shares for each National share; shareholders of both companies overwhelmingly approved the transaction in December 1971. The airlines argued that the merger would generate operating economies, improve aircraft utilization, connect complementary seasonal traffic flows, and provide passengers with expanded through-service while eliminating relatively little direct competition. However, the proposal faced opposition from labor unions and the Department of Justice and Civil Aeronautics Board staff, who argued that both airlines were financially viable independent competitors and that eliminating one major trunk carrier could reduce competition. After CAB hearings in early 1972, examiner Robert L. Park recommended against approval on May 22, concluding that the claimed benefits did not justify the loss of an independent airline. Although the decision was only an examiner’s recommendation rather than a final CAB rejection, prolonged regulatory uncertainty weakened support for the transaction, and on November 28, 1972, National’s board unilaterally terminated the merger agreement before the full board issued a final decision.
In May 1973, the front cover of the airline's system timetable proudly proclaimed, "National has daily nonstop 747s from Miami to London". By early 1976, the airline was operating scheduled wide body DC-10 service to Houston (IAH), Las Vegas (LAS), Los Angeles (LAX), Miami (MIA), New Orleans (MSY), Orlando (MCO), San Diego (SAN), San Francisco (SFO), Tampa (TPA), West Palm Beach (PBI) and all three airports in the New York City area: John F. Kennedy (JFK), LaGuardia (LGA), and Newark (EWR). With the advent of the intercontinental McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30, National Airlines then expanded their European network by adding Paris (inaugurated on June 22, 1977), as well as Frankfurt, Amsterdam (both in 1978) and Zürich (in 1979). National began the very first nonstop flights from New Orleans to Europe (to Amsterdam) on July 2, 1978. National then began nonstop New York Kennedy (JFK)-Amsterdam flights on December 13, 1978, taking the route over from Pan Am.
National was criticized in 1974 by the Civil Aeronautics Board for giving preferential treatment to Rudy Vallée, allowing him to travel between Los Angeles and Florida with more than 20 bags without charges for excess baggage.
In 1975, National was forced to shut down for several months due to a strike by flight attendants.
In the late 1970s, several airlines attempted to take over National Airlines, which had become a major player in the southern transcontinental and Florida-East Coast airline markets. In 1978, Texas International Airlines (which was led by Frank Lorenzo at that time) acquired 24.6 percent of the shares, but did not succeed in the subsequent tender offer takeover bid. A similar attempt was made by Eastern Air Lines in 1979. At the same time, the shares held by Texas International were sold to Pan American World Airways, who emerged as a white knight and succeeded in accumulating a controlling majority.
Acquisition by Pan Am
On January 7, 1980, the acquisition of National was completed, with Pan Am taking over the National Airlines fleet and route network. Pan Am continued to utilize the former National Miami maintenance base and headquarters building until Pan Am itself ceased operations in December 1991. Much later, National's "Sun King" logo was sold and repackaged, much like Pan Am's, to start-up low-cost carrier Southeast Airlines, which used it on the tail of its aircraft.
Most industry analysts believe that Pan Am paid too high a price for National and was ill-prepared to integrate National's domestic route network with Pan Am's own globe-girdling international network. The cultures of National and Pan Am also proved to be incompatible, making workforce integration difficult. Texas International walked away from their foiled attempt with a multi-million dollar stock profit and was poised for Lorenzo's next ventures—a startup airline in the high-density East Coast corridor (New York Air) and subsequent acquisition of Continental Airlines.
From Wikipedia’s article on National Airlines (1934–1980), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3