National Airlines (1934–1980)

1930s

National Airlines was founded by George T. Baker 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

Revenue passenger miles for years ending June 30:

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 was 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 another new type for National, the only turboprop it ever operated. 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 Douglas DC-8s between Florida and Los Angeles and San Francisco with some flights stopping in Houston and/or New Orleans (previously, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and National had operated Douglas DC-6s and DC-7s through between Miami and California). In March 1962 National had one round trip transcontinental nonstop: flights 34 and 35 between Miami and Los Angeles, both DC-8s. On its timetable, National billed itself as the "Airline of the Stars".

In the early 1960s National began flying the Lockheed Electra to Las Vegas and San Diego. Eastbound coast to coast Electra routes included San Diego-Los Angeles-Houston-New Orleans-Miami and San Francisco-Las Vegas-Houston-New Orleans-Tampa-Orlando-Jacksonville. National also had Electra flights such as Boston-New York City-Jacksonville-Orlando-Tampa-New Orleans-Houston-Las Vegas-San Francisco; flight 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 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 727-100s, the first being delivered in 1964.

After the retirement of the Electras in 1968 National became an all-jet airline with the DC-8 and 727. The airline introduced jet service to Key West, FL in 1968 with the Boeing 727-100. The Douglas DC-8 fleet included the stretched Super DC-8-61, National's largest aircraft until the introduction of the wide body Boeing 747 and McDonnell Douglas DC-10. In 1969 National was flying the Super DC-8 nonstop between Miami and New York JFK airport and nonstop between Miami and Los Angeles, these flights having names such as "The Royal Biscayne", "The Royal Dolphin", "The Gotham" and the "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.

Beginning in 1969, the airline sponsored a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour, the National Airlines Open Invitational. Played in south Florida in late March, it was among the richest events on the schedule, but ran for just three seasons. It was succeeded in 1972 by a tournament headlined by entertainer Jackie Gleason, now known as The Honda Classic. National co-sponsored the second edition of Gleason's event in 1973, but not after.

1970s

A $17 million IBM electronic computer reservation system, called Res-A-Vision, was 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 due to the Cuban Revolution). With the London route, they became the third U.S. transatlantic passenger carrier, after Pan Am and TWA.

In October the Boeing 747-100 jumbo jet, then the largest airliner, entered service with National on the Miami-New York nonstop route on October 1, 1970 and the Miami-Los Angeles 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.

Having placed an order for ten aircraft in 1969, the wide body McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 began flying 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.", or similar. Seeing one of these posters in Manchester inspired Eric Stewart of 10cc to write the band's 1976 song "I'm Mandy Fly Me".

In May 1973 the cover of the airline's system timetable proclaimed, "National has daily nonstop 747s from Miami to London". In early 1976 the airline scheduled DC-10s to Houston (IAH), Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, Orlando, San Diego, San Francisco, Tampa, West Palm Beach and the three airports in the New York City area: John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark. With the advent of the intercontinental McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30, National Airlines expanded their European network by adding Paris (inaugurated on June 22, 1977), as well as Frankfurt, Amsterdam (both in 1978) and Zurich (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.

In 1975, National was forced to shut down for several months due to a strike by flight attendants.

In the late 1970s, several airlines tried to take over National Airlines, who 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. On January 7, 1980, the acquisition was completed, with Pan Am taking over the National Airlines fleet and route network.

Route network

National Airlines scheduled flights to the following U.S. cities:

National scheduled flights to the following European and Caribbean cities:

Fleet

When National was acquired by Pan Am in 1980 it had 43 Boeing 727s (19 of the original series 100 model and 24 of the stretched series 200 variant) and 16 McDonnell Douglas DC-10s (eleven series 10 for domestic service and five series 30 for flights to Europe).

Over the years National owned the following types:

Domestic

International

Fatal

Non-fatal

Hijackings

Between 1961 and 1980, 22 attempted hijackings of National Airlines aircraft occurred, which involved demands to fly the aircraft to Cuba. In 1969 alone, there were nine such occurrences. These events can be attributed to the tense Cuba–United States relations at that time, and the strong focus of National Airlines on the southeastern United States. See List of Cuba – United States aircraft hijackings for more information.

There were several other criminal acts involving National Airlines aircraft: