A surprising number of airlines from the early days of commercial flight still survive today in their original form, and the oldest of all of them is KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. Founded in 1919, it made its first flight from Amsterdam to London’s Croydon airport in 1920 using a four-seater De Havilland DH.16. Just four years later, it launched a service to Batavia (now Jakarta) in what was then the Dutch East Indies.
Many of us can recall the KLM centenary celebrations, not least for the striking centenary livery that adorned its first Boeing 787-10. And if you’ve been paying attention, you have seen the likes of Qantas, avianca, and Finnair have similar celebrations. But what are the oldest airlines in the US? Quite a few of them are rapidly approaching their centenaries, so let’s take a closer look at the New World’s ‘boomer’ airlines.
The younger airlines in the US
While the oldest airlines in the US are near triple digits in age, many of those that have become a familiar sight at airports across the country have yet to reach half a century. Here then are the younger airlines in the US:
- Sun Country Airlines (42): Established in Minneapolis in 1982
- Spirit Airlines (41): Founded in 1983 as a charter airline; became Spirit in 1992
- Frontier (30): Created in 1994 as a charter airline in Denver
- Allegiant Air (27): Founded in 1997 in Las Vegas, with its first flight in 1998
- JetBlue (26): Established in 1998 and made its first flight in 2000
- Breeze (6): Founded just six years ago by David Neeleman
Photo: Robin Guess | Shutterstock
Southwest Airlines: 57 years
Founded |
March 1967 |
Fleet Size |
810 |
Headquarters |
Dallas, Texas |
Southwest Airlines was founded in 1967 by Herb Kelleher, and initially flew only in Texas with a focus on the ‘Texas Triangle’ cities of Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. Over time it expanded to other cities within Texas, but it was only after the Airline Deregulation Act in 1978 that it began to expand nationwide. Southwest is credited with pioneering the low-cost carrier (LCC) model, characterized by high utilization of a single aircraft type in a point-to-point network, and today it is the largest LCC in the world with over 800 aircraft (all Boeing 737s) and over 4,000 departures on any given day.
Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock
Alaska Airlines: 92 years
Founded |
April 1932 |
Fleet Size |
327 |
Headquarters |
Seattle, Washington |
Alaska Airlines was established in Anchorage in 1932, offering unscheduled service to various points across Alaska, with flights taking off when passengers, a load of cargo, or mail needed passage. It limped along in a small market for much of its early years, and, despite introducing jet service with Boeing 727-200s in the 1960s, faced heavy competition from Northwest Airlines and Pan Am. But Alaska Airlines was to have the last laugh: Deregulation in 1978 allowed it to expand extensively across the West Coast, becoming a dominant carrier in the Pacific Northwest. Most recently, it has completed a merger with the next oldest airline in the US, Hawaiian Airlines.
Photo: Alaska Airlines
Hawaiian Airlines: 95 years
Founded |
January 1929 |
Fleet Size |
69 |
Headquarters |
Honolulu, Hawaii |
Hawaiian Airlines was founded in 1929 as Inter-Island Airways, starting scheduled service with a fleet of two 8-seater Sikorsky S-38 aircraft, and built a successful business as an inter-island commuter service. Fifty years ago, the airline started to grow considerably, launching its iconic ‘Pualani’ livery to adorn the incoming Lockheed L-1011 and McDonnell Dougless DC-10s, enabling it to expand more widely to the continental US and across the Pacific Rim. With the acquisition by Alaska Airlines, everyone is holding their breath in the hope that we won’t be losing the eye-catching Hawaiian Airlines floral livery any time soon.
Photo: christopheronglv | Shutterstock
American Airlines: 98 years
Founded |
April 1926 |
Fleet Size |
971 |
Headquarters |
Fort Worth, Texas |
The largest airline in the world, when measured by the number of scheduled passengers carried, American Airlines started from humble beginnings as a union of more than eighty small airlines through a holding company called The Aviation Corporation. This was later converted into an operating company and rebranded as American Airlines. Over its 98 years of growth, American is notable for having acquired two other early airlines: Trans World Airlines (TWA), founded in 1930, and US Airways, founded in 1937.
Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock
United Airlines: 98 years
Founded |
April 1926 |
Fleet Size |
967 |
Headquarters |
Chicago, Illinois |
United Airlines is just nine days older than American Airlines and was formed by the amalgamation of several airlines in the late 1920s. The oldest of these was Varney Air Lines, created in 1926 by Walter Varney. In a twist of fate, he would later co-found the predecessor to Continental Airlines, which United would ultimately go on to merge with in 2012. With its centenary just over a year away, United is now the airline with the largest network in the world with over 430 destinations.
Photo: Carlos Yudica | Shutterstock
Delta Air Lines: 99 years
Founded |
March 1925 |
Fleet Size |
991 |
Headquarters |
Atlanta, Georgia |
Delta Air Lines is the oldest airline in the US and the seventh oldest in the world, starting out in 1925 as a small crop-dusting operation in America’s Deep South. It made its first passenger flight in 1929 from Dallas to Jackson, Mississippi, with stops in Shreveport and Monroe, Louisiana. Visit the Delta Flight Museum, located in Delta’s original 1940s-era aircraft hangars alongside its headquarters in Atlanta, and you can get up close and personal with some of the earliest 1920s and 1930s passenger aircraft from Delta’s fleet.
Photo: Spyros Vasileiou | Shutterstock
Delta extended this early service to Atlanta in 1930, and the rest is history: ATL has become “a hub like no other”, where Delta sits firmly as the largest airline at the world’s busiest airport. The carrier is now just a few months away from becoming the first US airline to mark its centenary, and we can surely expect some special events and maybe even a celebratory livery.
Photo: Karolis Kavolelis | Shutterstock