Modern Air Transport

The early years

Modern Air commenced commercial operations in 1946 with war-surplus Curtiss C-46 piston-engined aircraft.

The airline was originally headquartered at New York's Newark Airport.

Five ex-Capital Airlines Lockheed L-049 Constellation piston airliners joined the fleet during summer 1962. Only two of these entered actual airline service; the remaining three were used for spares. In addition, the airline leased a Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation.

The grant of an interim certificate by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) in October 1962 to operate domestic military contract flights, intrastate and overseas charters from 1 April 1963 was followed by further fleet expansion, including the lease of another L-1049 and the purchase of an L-749A in 1964.

The acquisition of several Douglas DC-7Cs in April/May 1965 resulted in retirement of the Constellation fleet.

Gulf American era

In 1966, Modern Air became a wholly owned subsidiary of Gulf American Corporation, a Florida-based property developer. The change in ownership resulted in a move of the airline's headquarters to Miami International Airport and the withdrawal of the company's last Constellation the following year. In 1969, Gulf American Corp transferred its holding in the airline to GAC Corporation, Gulf American's holding company.

Transition to an all-jet fleet

The award of a five-year licence by the CAB in October 1966 to engage in cargo and passenger charter operations including all-expense tour charters between the US and points in Canada and Mexico enhanced Modern Air's new status as a permanently certificated US supplemental carrier. Following the award of these new foreign charter rights, the airline concluded a US$17.5 million purchase agreement with American Airlines to acquire five of the latter's Convair CV-990A Coronado jetliners between January 1967 and February/March 1968, in anticipation of major growth for low-cost overseas travel by US tour groups. The first two examples sported a new natural metal "Silver Palace" livery, which replaced the Modern Air Transport/MAT fuselage titles used in previous schemes with Modern Air titles. Initially, both were based in Miami and contracted by sister company Gulf American Land Corporation to operate charter flights for prospective investors in its real estate development projects in Florida and Arizona. Modern Air's Coronados were configured in a spacious 139-seat, single-class seating arrangement.

Diversification into new business areas and overseas expansion

An agreement with Air France for the temporary lease of one aircraft beginning in April 1967 provided additional work for the new jets.

Further work to increase the growing jet fleet's utilisation was secured when the Federal Government awarded Modern Air a contract to carry military personnel between camps in the US. However, this was insufficient to justify continuing expansion of the fleet and workforce. By the time Modern's third 990 was delivered, it experienced financial difficulties. This resulted in layoffs and management changes. Initially, the airline attempted to renegotiate its aircraft purchase agreement with American, requesting a release from contractual obligations regarding the two remaining deliveries. American's refusal to agree to Modern's request compelled the latter to begin looking for additional business opportunities to keep the expanding fleet fully employed. Ensuing successful negotiations with two West German package tour companies to operate a $3.5 million, West Berlin based programme, as well as a $1.5 million, seven months wet lease of an aircraft to Canadian charter carrier Nordair, enabled Modern Air to profitably utilise its spare aircraft capacity. The two German tour companies that had contracted Modern Air to operate their flying programmes from West Berlin were Berliner Flugring and Flug-Union Berlin. The former had begun as a consortium of local travel agents arranging IT flights from West Berlin to holiday resorts in Europe. By the time the American supplemental assumed its flying programme, it had become the city's foremost package tour operator. The latter had been the first tour operator with a West Berlin flying programme. The decision to supply whole-plane charter airline seats to both of West Berlin's leading package tour operators also enabled Modern Air to take advantage of the fact that all airlines other than those headquartered in the United States, the United Kingdom and France — the airlines of the three Western victorious powers of World War II — were banned from West Berlin.

By 1968, Modern Air operated an all-jet fleet comprising five CV-990s. The acquisition of a second batch of three CV-990s sourced from VARIG resulted in an active CV-990 fleet of eight aircraft by 1972. As a result, the airline briefly became the world's largest CV-990 operator. The expanded all-jet fleet facilitated the introduction of regular tour group charters carrying American tourists from the Miami and New York areas to popular holiday resorts in North and Central America, as well as the launch in May 1968 of a Canadian-based Caribbean and transatlantic charter programme, in addition to operating a large German charter programme.

The operation of a round-the-world transpolar luxury charter flight in 1968 arguably ranks as Modern Air's greatest achievement. On 22 November 1968, this saw CV-990A N5612 Polar Byrd I, which had a special Polar Path Compass (PPC) system fitted for the polar trip, become the first commercial jetliner to land on and take off from the 10,000 feet (3,000 m) ice runway at the McMurdo Station airfield at Williams Field, McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. It also made Modern Air the first US charter airline to fly to the erstwhile Soviet Union. This flight commemorated the 40th anniversary of Admiral Richard Byrd's South Pole flight. It carried 60 US businessmen who had paid $10,000 each to fly on a round-the-world trip over both Poles that left Boston on 8 November 1968. Cdr F.G. Dustin, who had accompanied [then Cdr] Byrd on his second Antarctic expedition in 1934, was among the passengers. The flight routed over the North Pole via Japan, Australia and New Zealand to Antarctica and over the South Pole, before crossing the International Date Line a second time and proceeding northwards to Chile, Africa and Europe. Rome was the first European stop, from where the flight continued to Moscow, before night-stopping in London and returning to Boston the following day, 2 December 1968. Profits from that trip were used to establish The Admiral Richard E. Byrd Polar Center, a polar research centre in Boston.

Establishment and growth of West Berlin operation

In March 1968, two newly acquired jets were stationed at West Berlin's Tegel Airport. These were the airline's fourth and fifth example of the original batch of five ex-American Airlines CV-990s that had initially been surplus to the airline's requirements. They were also the biggest and fastest aircraft based at any Berlin airport at that time.

Modern Air appointed former Saturn Airways manager John D. MacDonald general manager to oversee its European operations from its Tegel base.

Modern Air carried over 135,000 passengers during its first year of operations from Tegel.

The successful conclusion of Modern Air's first year in West Berlin resulted in the airline signing a five-year contract with Berliner Flugring worth $20 million (£8.3 million). The contract ran from the beginning of the 1969 summer season until the end of the 1974 summer season.

Following the signing of the five-year contract with Berliner Flugring, Modern Air's Tegel-based European operations manager John MacDonald assumed additional responsibilities as the airline's vice president.

As the company's flying programme from Berlin gradually expanded, additional aircraft joined the Berlin-based fleet. By the early 1970s, a minimum of five Coronados were stationed at Tegel Airport year-round along with most of the airline's 400 employees. In addition to handling all of its own flights at Tegel, the firm provided third-party ground handling services at that airport as well.

The operation of a special, one-off Busenvogel charter excursion from Tegel to Paris on Father's Day 1970, during which topless showgirls entertained a group of 110 passengers (107 male, three female), gained Modern Air notoriety. It was said to be the idea of Morten S. Beyer, who ran Modern Air at the time. Despite protests from women's rights groups, Mort Beyer was unapologetic, opining that the free publicity it gained the company was worth the public outrcy.

Another change in management at Modern Air's parent company during 1971 resulted in the adoption of a new strategy for the airline. This entailed focusing all commercial activities on West Berlin. Poor financial results followed by a spell under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection necessitated a partial reversal of this strategy and resulted in the resumption of limited charter services from bases in the US the following year.

Entering West Berlin executive charter and scheduled markets

At its Berlin base, Modern Air also experimented with executive charter and scheduled services.

A single 12-seater HFB-320 Hansa Jet was acquired in 1970 as an air taxi to serve destinations not accessible by scheduled flights from West Berlin at the time.

Modern Air's May 1971 launch of thrice-daily Tegel—Saarbrücken flights with a 14-seater Hansa Jet marked the airline's scheduled debut.

Following a steady increase in passenger loads, Modern Air applied to the Allied Air Attachés in Bonn for permission to operate two daily rotations with larger Coronados. However, the Allied Air Attachés refused this under pressure from both Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) and British European Airways (BEA), West Berlin's leading contemporary scheduled airlines. Having had its application to introduce larger equipment on this route turned down, Modern Air withdrew all Tegel—Saarbrücken flights in November 1971. Pan Am's takeover of Modern Air's Saarbrücken route in February 1972, which entailed serving it from the former's base at the rival Tempelhof Airport with 128-seat Boeing 727-100s, was followed by the airline's unexpected suspension of Tempelhof—Saarbrücken services after less than a year's operation, citing insufficient demand. This turn of events resulted in Modern Air applying for permission to re-enter the Berlin—Saarbrücken scheduled market with two daily return flights using Coronados. Permission for Modern Air to resume its Tegel—Saarbrücken route was granted in time for a summer 1973 re-launch. As a result, the CV-990A Coronado became the largest contemporary aircraft type to operate a scheduled service into Saarbrücken's small airport.

Several fare increases and the recession following in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis resulted in much reduced demand for air travel in the Berlin—Saarbrücken market. This in turn necessitated a major reduction in frequency to just two round-trips per week.

These events as well as the fact that the Coronado was far too big and consumed too much fuel to serve a regional scheduled route economically ultimately put paid to the firm's scheduled ambitions.

Deteriorating business environment

Steeply rising jet fuel prices in the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and Modern Air's reliance on the fuel-thirsty Coronado had caused a significant increase in its operating costs. This was of particular importance for its operations from and to West Berlin as under Allied air navigation rules aircraft were only permitted to fly at a height of 10,000 ft (3,000 m) while passing through the Allied air corridors over East Germany, a sub-optimal, fuel-inefficient cruising altitude for modern jet aircraft. Fuel conservation and revenue-enhancing measures Modern Air adopted to contain the sudden and unforeseen cost escalation included reducing the Coronado's speed limit to Mach .78 and squeezing in two additional seat rows. The former had the beneficial side effect of increasing the aircraft's range by 20%, permitting non-stop transatlantic flights from the eastern seaboard of the US to Central Europe with a full payload. The latter was achieved by installing a then new type of light-weight, UK-manufactured "slimline" seat, which increased capacity to 149 passengers per plane. To recoup its sharply higher fuel costs in the Berlin market, the airline imposed a fuel surcharge on all tour operators that had contracted their flying programme from Berlin to it. The operators passed on this fuel surcharge to their IT passengers. A major disagreement over the fuel surcharge between Modern Air's management and its counterpart at Berliner Flugring, its main overseas business partner, led to a reduction in the Berlin-based fleet from five to four aircraft for the 1974 summer season. There was a plan to replace the fuel-guzzling Coronados with more efficient, second-hand McDonnell Douglas DC-8s and DC-9s in time for the 1975 summer season. However, an attempt on Modern Air's part to pass on a further increase in its fuel surcharge to Berliner Flugring for the planned 1974/'75 winter flying programme resulted in the tour operator's refusal to renew its long-standing charter contract with the airline. This in turn resulted in the closure of Modern Air's Berlin Tegel base at the end of October 1974. The airline had carried over two million passengers during its seven-year presence in West Berlin, which roughly equated to the city's contemporary population.

Business closure

Modern Air ceased operations in September 1975 and surrendered its operating permit the following month, as a consequence of the CAB's unhappiness over GAC's refusal to commit new funds to the airline. Its West Berlin traffic rights were acquired by Aeroamerica, another US charter and supplemental carrier. Denver-based travel club and charter airline Ports of Call acquired most of the erstwhile Modern Air fleet. Five CV-990As saw active service with Ports of Call while a further three were cannibalised for spare parts. Another former Modern Air CV-990A was acquired by NASA. It was used on the Space Shuttle programme as a landing systems research aircraft.

Aircraft operated

In its 29-year existence Modern Air operated the following aircraft types:

Fleet in 1967

In November 1967, Modern Air's fleet comprised 16 piston airliners.

Deliveries of five former American Airlines Convair CV-990A Coronados began in January 1967.

Fleet in 1972

In May 1972, Modern Air's fleet comprised nine jet aircraft.

300 people were employed.

Accidents and incidents

On 8 August 1970, a Convair CV-990A-30A-8 (registration N5630) undershot the runway at Acapulco's Álvarez International Airport during a VOR/ILS approach at the end of a ferry/positioning flight that had originated in New York. The aircraft collided with the airport's approach lights and caught fire. This resulted in the death of one of its eight crew members.

On 28 May 1971, one of Modern Air's Berlin-based CV-990As with 45 passengers on board en route from Berlin Tegel to Bulgaria was unexpectedly denied permission to enter Bulgarian airspace, as a result of a new policy adopted by that country's then communist government to deny any aircraft whose flight had originated or was going to terminate at a West Berlin airport the right to take off and land at any of its airports. This resulted in the aircraft having to turn back to Berlin, where it landed safely at the city's Tegel Airport.