CalJet Airlines (Part 1)
19th in a Series: A Fictional California Airline - Part 1 of 2
[ This is the 1st of 2 articles about CalJet. | Skip to Part 2 ]
CalJet Airlines is an American low-cost regional airline headquartered on the grounds of Oakland International Airport (OAK) in Oakland, California USA.
Founded in 1950 as an intrastate airline under the name CalAir, the company renamed itself to CalJet in 1964 when the carrier began the transition to jet aircraft. For decades the airline prominently billed itself as “The Traveler’s Best Friend” and a “Golden State of Mind,” while fielding aircraft with a friendly grin known as the CalJet Smile painted on the nose of its planes. The airline’s image on the US West Coast has been so dominant the carrier is frequently (though incorrectly) portrayed as California’s flag carrier.
During the late 20th century CalJet served over 70 cities in the central and western United States as well as Hawaii, Mexico and Canada. Since 2008 the company has reduced its footprint significantly and reorganized itself to be a West Coast regional airline. Today CalJet serves 28 destinations, 16 of them within the state of California, plus four destinations in northwestern Mexico and 8 cities in neighboring US states.
History
Startup
CalAir was founded on 20 March 1949 by brothers George Calabrese (1915-1984) and Vincent Calabrese (1918-1976), whose family made its fortune in real estate. George Calabrese was a decorated fighter pilot during World War II (Pacific Theater), while Vincent Calabrese served as an infantry officer in Europe during the war.
When the two men came home from the war they realized that, as the 4th and 5th sons respectively within the family, they would have no particular future working for Calabrese Bros. & Co., the family business that specialized in building New York City skyscrapers.
George decided to settle in Oakland and work for Central California Airways (CCA), and Vincent joined him soon thereafter.
By late 1949 CCA ran into serious financial and regulatory problems, and it was clear to George and Vincent that the airline would fold soon. While visiting New York during Thanksgiving 1949, the two brothers sold back their inherited shares in Calabrese Bros. & Co. and persuaded 3 other members of the Calabrese family to provide them with some additional seed money to start an airline of their own, CalAir. To avoid having to deal with the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), a Federal entity that strictly controlled interstate commercial aviation routes and pricing at the time, George and Vincent chose to start up CalAir as an intrastate carrier that would operate only within the state of California.
When Central California Airways did go bankrupt in December 1949, the newly established CalAir snapped up CCA’s operating certifications, three of its Douglas DC-3s and one Douglas DC-4, took over the former CCA hangar at Oakland-OAK and hired back most of CCA’s former flight crews and staff.
After working through some regulatory hurdles, CalAir finally began scheduled flights on 14 April 1950, when a Douglas DC-4 took off from Oakland-OAK «» Los Angeles-LAX. Thirty minutes later, the first of its 3 Douglas DC-3s took off for Oakland-OAK «» Palm Springs-PSP, followed by other DC-3s connecting Oakland-OAK «» Fresno-FAT and Oakland-OAK «» Bakersfield-BFL. Nonstop DC-4 service from Oakland-OAK «» San Diego-SAN was added in early 1951, as was service from San Francisco-SFO «» Los Angeles-LAX.
In early 1952 CalAir took delivery of its first Douglas DC-6, which was placed on the Oakland-OAK «» Los Angeles-LAX route while the smaller DC-4s were reassigned to fly Oakland-OAK «» Long Beach-LGB. Additional DC-6s added flights from San Francisco-SFO «» Los Angeles-LAX, while another DC-4 was assigned to fly San Francisco-SFO «» Palm Springs-PSP. In mid 1952, DC-3 service began to Monterey-MRY using a route connecting San Francisco-SFO «» Monterey-MRY «» Los Angeles-LAX and return.
Meanwhile, during the fall of 1952, CalAir signed a lucrative deal with the Wincott Confectionery Company, a family-owned multinational manufacturer of confectionery, pet food, and other food products, to operate daily DC-3 flights to Los Angeles-LAX «» Catalina Island-AVX and San Francisco-SFO «» Catalina Island-AVX . Flights began accordingly in November 1952, beginning the first year round scheduled air service to the island.
Service to Long Beach-LGB «» Catalina Island-AVX and San Diego-SAN «» Catalina Island-AVX was added in 1953, together with a new route connecting San Francisco-SFO «» Santa Barbara-SBA «»Los Angeles-LAX «» Palm Springs-PSP. In 1954 CalAir also set up a regularly scheduled passenger flight using a DC-3 to connect Los Angeles-LAX «» Fresno-FAT «» San Francisco-SFO that alternated with a 2nd route connecting Los Angeles-LAX «» Bakersfield-BFL «» San Francisco-SFO.
1954: CalAir Splits Into Three Companies
During the 1950s it was nearly impossible for any intrastate airline to swap out its state Air Operating Certificate (AOC) for a Federal one. By 1953 the Calabrese brothers began to think seriously about how to add interstate routes to places like Las Vegas and Seattle. They also kicked around the idea of flying from Los Angeles-LAX «» Honolulu-HNL in the US territory of Hawaii. But because CalAir started out as a strictly state-certified carrier, there was virtually no chance for the airline to expand into other states without acquiring a 2nd AOC.
Enter Chicago Western Airlines (CWA), a trunk carrier that was originally certificated in California in 1939. During its own lifetime, Chicago Western was never a particularly important carrier. During the 1930s, when it did business as Pacific Coastal Airways (PCA), the small airline mainly carried passengers up and down the California coast between Los Angeles and San Francisco while making 6-7 stops along the way. But as a side hustle PCA also flew regular contracted mail routes that went inland to other western US states and between California and Hawaii. In 1937 the PCA packed up and relocated to Chicago, renamed itself Chicago Western Airlines (CWA), and started carrying mail and passengers along routes passing through several states around the Mississippi River Valley and the Midwest.
When the 1938 Civil Aeronautics Act became law, it imposed a new regulatory regime on US airlines controlled by the new Civil Aeronautics Authority (later the Civil Aeronautics Board). Fortuitously, Chicago Western lucked out because it achieved easy certification through grandfathering, because the company was a previously existing scheduled service airline. This status gave CWA substantial regulatory advantages in applying for and getting access to newer routes. During the 1940s and early 1950s CWA expanded a bit into international “milk run” passenger and mail flights running from Houston-HOU and New Orleans-MSY down to Mexico and to numerous Caribbean destinations such as Havana-HAV, Santo Domingo-SDQ, Port-au-Prince-PAP and Aruba-AUA.
By the early 1950s CWA fell on hard times due to mismanagement, and it appeared to be on the brink of collapse. During the summer of 1954, a friend tipped off George Calabrese to CWA’s troubles, and George was able to step in and gain an easier path to entering interstate air service. CalAir bought out CWA and picked up several of CWA’s Douglas DC-3s and Douglas DC-4s at a steep discount. He then shut down CWA’s existing operations, sold off the rest of the CWA fleet, and transferred Chicago Western’s AOC back to California.
He also rehired several CWA employees and relocated them to Oakland, and placed an order for several longer-range Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation.
CalAir then proceeded to set up three separate companies to advance the company’s future growth plans:
CalAir Intrastate, which would continue servicing flights within the state of California as usual, allowing it to operate mostly unimpeded by CAB regulations;
CalAir Interstate, a 2nd airline that would take over the AOC from Chicago Western, allowing it to undertake interstate (and international) services regulated by the CAB; and
CalAir Aviation, an aircraft management and administrative company, to furnish the two airlines with ACMI services - aircraft, crews, maintenance and insurance - then bill the two airlines accordingly for regulatory, reporting and tax purposes.
The CAB objected to this bit of regulatory sleight of hand, insisting that the CalAir Intrastate and CalAir Interstate were in fact one and the same entity - which in a sense they were. Both airlines shared the same CalAir liveried aircraft interchangeably, printed combined schedules and used similarly written documentation. But individual flights were also identified, announced and advertised as being either a CalAir Intrastate or CalAir Interstate flight. CalAir Aviation cockpit crews and cabin crews were given two sets of identity credentials, caps and lapel pins belonging to each airline, and they would wear one set or the other depending on whether their assigned flight was intrastate or interstate.
In the end CalAir’s arrangement was ruled to be legitimate in Federal Court, on grounds that CalAir had been a California-only carrier beforehand and legally acquired a 2nd carrier with grandfathered authority to engage in interstate airline activity. This regulatory workaround remained in place until 1979, when the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act took effect.
Although the CAB still tried to drag its feet in approving CalAir’s requests to add interstate routes, another airline, Los Angeles-LAX based Pacific World Airways, suddenly started running into significant financial turbulence that provided another opening for CalAir.
1955: Lockheed Super Constellation; Entry Into Interstate Service
When CalAir Aviation received its first pair of Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation aircraft in the summer of 1954, the company was already training flight and cabin crews to operate them while Vincent Calabrese was overseeing efforts to outfit them as high-class aircraft. The company was betting they would get the required CAB approvals to fly to Honolulu-HNL. However, by the fall of 1954 it appeared the company’s requests to add routes connecting Los Angeles-LAX «» Honolulu-HNL and San Francisco-SFO «» Honolulu-HNL were stalled, and possibly in jeopardy.
CalAir Interstate had spent much of 1954 fighting with the CAB to get permission to fly those routes. Fortunately, passenger demand between Northern and Southern California was very strong. George Calabrese figured at worst the company could simply reassign these new “Super Connies” to fly intrastate routes if necessary, until the routes were approved.
Then CalAir Interstate hit a lucky break in late October 1954, when Pacific World Airlines suddenly announced they would have to withdraw from their lucrative San Francisco-SFO «» Honolulu-HNL and Los Angeles-LAX «» Honolulu-HNL routes to remain financially viable - just as the winter tourist season was approaching.
Mr Calabrese leaped at the opportunity to score those routes, and with the help of some political pressure strategically applied by a group of influential California congressmen, the CAB relented and fast-tracked approval of CalAir Interstate’s request to take over Pacific World’s Hawaiian routes. On 7 January 1955, CalAir Interstate launched its first Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation flight from San Francisco-SFO «» Honolulu-HNL to much fanfare.
During early 1956 a few additional CAB approvals landed, with requests approved for Super Constellation service to San Francisco-SFO «» Chicago-ORD and Oakland-OAK «» Chicago-ORD, followed by a similar approval for the Los Angeles-LAX «» Chicago-ORD corridor. By the end of 1956 CalAir Interstate also received clearance to service Oakland «» Las Vegas-LAS, San Francisco-SFO «» Las Vegas-LAS, Los Angeles-LAX «» Las Vegas-LAS using Douglas DC-6s.
During 1957 more L-1049s entered service on the airline’s Oakland-OAK «» Los Angeles-LAX and San Francisco-SFO «» Los Angeles-LAX sectors, allowing CalAir Intrastate to also initiate a new DC-6 service San Francisco-SFO «» San Diego-SAN.
1958: Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta
In early 1958, Pacific World Airways (PWA) suddenly collapsed entirely, causing a scrum to pick up several routes the company had left behind. It brought about CalAir Interstate’s first opportunity to open international air routes into Mexico, as well as a chance to gain entry to the Rocky Mountain region.
To redistribute PWA’s many routes fairly, a lottery was held in Washington by the CAB to reallocate the routes to other carriers. CalAir Interstate applied for about a dozen former PWA connections, and ultimately drew lucrative routes connecting SFO, OAK and/or LAX to Denver-DEN and Acapulco-ACA. Denver had been sought for its importance as a regional business hub and for its winter tourist trade, while Acapulco-ACA had recently become a very fashionable resort destination for affluent tourists. The company’s Super Constellations soon began to fly to those destinations.
A year later, CalAir Interstate managed to pick up another route between Los Angeles-LAX «» Puerto Vallarta-PVR - a less well known resort destination back then - when another airline suddenly lost its rights to service the route due to some regulatory problem. LAX-PVR was added in the fall of 1959, followed by CAB approval to service San Francisco-SFO «» Puerto Vallarta-PVR in early 1960.
Rosalie Thompson
In 1958, 23 year old Rosalie Thompson was hired by CalAir Aviation, becoming the first known African American stewardess (flight attendant). Rosalie first flew revenue service in July 1958, working on L-1049 Super Constellations flying between Los Angeles and the Bay Area, before moving on to servicing flights between LAX and Honolulu-HNL.
After working as a stewardess for 17 years, Ms Thompson went on to become a CalJet pilot in 1975 - one of the first African American women to do so. She flew Boeing 727 and Boeing 757 jets before entering mandatory retirement in 1995 at the rank of captain.
Early 1960s
While the 1960s began with CalAir Interstate opening new interstate routes in January 1960 to Portland-PDX and Seattle-SEA from LAX, SFO and OAK, most of the company’s real growth during the period occurred at CalAir Intrastate. Taking further advantage of its position as a lightly regulated intrastate carrier, CalAir Intrastate began to rapidly solidify its position within the state by starting new service to several new California airports.
By 1963 CalAir Intrastate had firmly established routes connecting to Ontario-ONT, Sacramento-SAC, San Jose-SJC, Burbank-BUR, Santa Ana-SNA, Eureka/Arcata-ACV, Lake Tahoe-TVL, Riverside-RAL, Santa Rosa-STS, Stockton-SCK and Yuma-YUM.
1964: Entering The Jet Age And Creating A New Brand
As the CalAir enterprise entered the Sixties, George and Vincent Calabrese began to make tentative plans to migrate the company’s fleet over to jet airliners. Originally they wanted to do it with the Convair 880, but the 880’s poor sales performance and inferior fuel consumption were concerning to the two men. By the fall of 1960 they decided to go with Boeing jets instead as the airline’s aircraft of choice for the future.
In March 1961, CalAir inked a deal to purchase 25 Boeing 727-100 trijets with options to purchase 25 more. They planned to use the 727s as the fleet’s workhorse for most West Coast routes, while the airline also purchased several new generation Boeing 707-320B quadjets for its longer range routes to destinations like Honolulu-HNL and Chicago-ORD.
As part of this change in fleet composition, CalJet Aviation also commissioned a new aircraft livery design to be created by Terrell & Associates, a major New York-based design consultancy.
The resulting livery Terrell delivered to CalAir sported a bright, sunny tri-color “hockey stick” cheatline along the fuselage on a white background, a departure from the company’s traditional bare metal frame with black and gold livery highlights. The new design also featured a simple yet friendly looking smile drawn on the nose of the fuselage, to convey a sense of warmth and positivity.
Terrell also recommended the airline rebrand itself as CalJet, to signify its entry into a new era of commercial aviation, and they hired the avant-garde fashion designer Axel Neumark to redesign the company’s flight attendant uniforms, including a version that would feature tight fitting hot pants.
The Calabrese brothers accepted Terrell’s proposals. The company renamed its subsidiaries to CalJet Intrastate for its California-only flights, CalJet International for flights beyond California, and CalJet Airlines for its subsidiary handling ACMI functions.
CalAir began a large-scale advertising campaign using television, radio, newspapers, magazines and billboards to promote the company’s new brand identification, calling CalJet “The Traveler’s Best Friend” and “The California Airline.” Models wearing the company’s new flight attendant uniforms made appearances at several fashion shows, a practice that Calair has continued periodically ever since. The now-iconic “CalJet Smile” was a prominent feature of the campaign, and it has remained a familiar symbol that is still displayed on CalJet aircraft and in company marketing materials several decades later.
The public’s response to the company’s new brand identity turned out to be overwhelmingly positive, and Terrell’s recommendations served to recast the company as California’s quintessential airline brand.
Another prominent marketing feature CalJet capitalized on was Mr Neumark’s racy hot pants uniforms, which were worn by about half of the company’s stewardesses. Mr Neumark also created modest looking skirt and pants uniforms to wear. But many cabin crew, known as CalJet Girls, volunteered to wear the signature CalJet hot pants uniform in exchange for being paid up to $50 cash in bonus money, depending on the length of their flight.
Nearly every other airline at the time prohibited cabin crew members from getting married, while to CalJet’s credit their flight attendants were always to marry if they wished. On the other hand, like every other carrier at the time, CalJet also required its CalJet Girls to end their cabin crew careers on their 35th birthday, forcing them to find other positions within the company or be fired. Many former CalAir Girls were able to continue working at CalAir by taking on new jobs as gate agents, schedulers, or clerical roles. Some also followed the example of former CalJet Girl Rosalie Thompson and went on to become CalJet pilots, which allowed them to continue working until they reached the mandatory retirement at 60 years of age (which was raised to 65 years of age in 2007). More than a few, regrettably, ended up being forced to leave the company and find employment elsewhere.
In March 1964, CalAir officially joined the Jet Age when it took delivery of its first Boeing 727-100 trijet, with the new brand name CalJet emblazoned on the tail and its new, affable grin on the front of the aircraft. The first 727s entered revenue service flying routes to Acapulco-ACA and Las Vegas-LAS from LAX, OAK and SFO.
1965-1970
During 1965, the first Boeing 707-320Bs entered the fleet and began to quickly replace CalJet’s Lockheed L-1049s. The first 707s were assigned to its routes to Honolulu-HNL, followed by its Chicago-ORD routes. Within a year, further 707s were added to fly the Los Angeles-LAX to San Francisco-SFO route as well.
Meanwhile, the Boeing 727s kept coming, and were used on flights along CalAir Intrastate many routes connecting Northern and Southern California, on routes to Portland-PDX and Seattle-SEA, and routes going to Denver-DEN and Puerto Vallarta-PVR.
Meanwhile, the final Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation was retired from the fleet and sold off to become a freighter.
In March 1968, CalJet took delivery of its first Boeing 727-200 Trijets, which the company assigned to fly the Oakland-OAK «» Los Angeles-LAX route. The 727-200, which had a greater passenger capacity than the 727-100, quickly became the company’s signature aircraft and the backbone of the airline’s fleet for the next quarter century.
In late 1968, CalJet announced it would officially remove its arbitrary age restriction for flight attendants - which, like other airlines, was set at 35 years of age - and allow CalJet Girls to continue flying as cabin crew until the age of 60, the same retirement age applied to cockpit crew employees.
The 1950s and 1960s were widely considered to be the golden age of air travel, and by the end of the 1960s, CalJet had emerged as the preeminent West Coast carrier. CalJet had such a sense of style that the company even conducted in-flight fashion model catwalks which were designed to promote the brand and advance the image of the CalJet Girl as a form of haute couture, even though the day to day work-life of a flight attendant wasn’t nearly so glamorous.
In the 1970s, new trends in the airline industry would force CalJet to evolve into a hybrid carrier, mixing low cost carrier and legacy carrier concepts, while also wrestling with onerous government-imposed regulatory constraints.
Catalina Air Spinoff
Six years after renaming itself as CalJet, the 1970s began with CalJet actually becoming an all-jet airline.
CalJet still had its ongoing arrangement with the Wincott family to provide scheduled air service to Catalina Island-AVX, but there was a problem: CalAir would never be able to use jets to fly to Catalina Island. This was because AVX was (and still is) a small “airport in the sky,” sitting at 1602 feet above sea level and measuring only 3000 feet long, with steep roads leading up to the airport from the rest of the island.
Still, Catalina Island was a popular and profitable destination for well-heeled tourists, despite not being able to safely handle any sort of jet aircraft.
So in late January 1970, George and Vincent Calabrese removed the company’s remaining Douglas DC-3s from the CalJet fleet as well as their routes to Catalina Island-AVX, and used them to form another intrastate airline venture in conjunction with the Wincott family: Catalina Air.
The exteriors of the DC-3s, which had always kept the company’s original 1950s style livery, were simply tweaked to read as Catalina Air instead of CalAir. The aircraft interiors, however, were lovingly transformed to seat 22 passengers in first class, golden-age style. The new carrier in effect became a boutique airline, and soon evolved into a tourist attraction in its own right.
Catalina Air continued to operate the DC-3s from Catalina Island-AVX «» Los Angeles-LAX, Catalina Island-AVX «» San Diego-SAN and Catalina Island-AVX «» San Francisco-SFO until 1989, when they were finally replaced by more mundane 37-seat De Havilland DHC-8-100s, then Bombardier Dash 8 Q200s, and most recently by ATR 42-600S STOL turboprops. CalJet eventually divested itself from the venture in 2008 when the Great Recession forced CalJet to quickly cut costs, but Catalina Air still flies daily to Catalina Island-AVX «» Los Angelese-LAX and Catalina Island-AVX «» San Diego-SAN, as well as on weekends to Catalina Island-AVX «» San Francisco-SFO and Catalina Island-AVX «» Las Vegas-LAS.
1970-1979
As the 1970s came into bloom, a new regional competitor: AirWest, a new Reno-RNO, Nevada based carrier that mostly appealed to the middle class - began to emerge in the Western US market and sought to contest CalJet’s dominance in California.
AirWest first began operations in 1968 with flights between Reno-RNO and Las Vegas-LAS. When it entered the California market in February 1970 with flights to Oakland-OAK, the newcomer promptly began calling out what it saw as CalJet’s undue dominance over the California airline market, and started aggressively litigating against that in the courts and before the CAB. Having spent several years battling the CAB as an up and coming concern trying to increase its national and international footprint while having a free hand within California, CalJet suddenly found itself on its backfoot. The CalJet vs AirWest rivalry would continue on for several years, with CalJet coming out on top in many cases, but the rivalry mostly kept airfares lower within the region than might’ve been the case otherwise.
SuperSaver Class
In order to keep the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) happy with CalJet’s ticket pricing and to push back against the incoming AirWest threat, as well as to bring in more customers, the Calabrese brothers introduced a new 3rd class of passenger service, known as the SuperSaver Class.
SuperSaver was an early iteration of what is now called basic economy class: A no-frills option for budget-minded passengers who would do without many traditional airline luxuries in exchange for cheaper fares. Without putting too fine a point on it, SuperSaver customers would get a seat at the back of the plane, toilet access and a glass of water for free; if they wanted anything more than that they would have to pay for it. Meanwhile, those who still preferred more traditional amenities at no additional charge could book either Coach Class or First Class and receive a greater degree of service.
As part of the SuperSaver rollout, CalJet began to reconfigure all of its planes so that the back half of a given aircraft were designated as SuperSaver seats, 8 to 12 seats at the front were remade as an exclusive First Class cabin, and the rest of the seats in the midsection remained as standard Coach Class. This change made things more manageable with the CPUC, because CalJet was definitely keeping ticket prices lower with its SuperSaver effort. More importantly it allowed CalJet to cater to a wider variety of customers across the economic spectrum, thus enabling more working-class customers to fly instead of taking a train or driving.
Emiliano Alvarez
In 1971, CalJet settled a gender discrimination lawsuit, Alvarez vs CalJet, wherein Mr Emiliano Alvarez had been denied employment as a steward (male flight attendant) in 1965 because he was male. CalJet agreed to hire Mr Alvarez, and going forward would hire men shown to be otherwise qualified to work as flight attendants. Mr Alvarez began working in cabin service later the same year, where he was welcomed by his female colleagues (who referred to him as a CalJet Man). He remained a CalJet employee until 1985, when he left to become a full time labor union official with the Airline Stewards and Stewardesses Union (ASSU), which eventually merged into the Aviation Workers Union (AWU).
Soon after Mr Alvarez’s hiring in 1971, George Calabrese decided to end the use of hot pants within the airline’s flight attendant wardrobe - over Vincent Calabrese’s objections. Since then cabin crew have been able to choose freely between wearing pants or knee-length shorts.
Douglas DC-9s Enter The Picture
In the spring of 1972 the last of CalJet’s Boeing 727-100 left the fleet, while the company also began to receive newer generation Boeing 727-200 Advanced trijets, which had improved performance and range over the previous “regular” 727-200s. Both variants of the 727-200 were very regularly seen around the CalJet route network, particularly at high traffic airports.
At the same time, CalJet began to acquire Douglas DC-9s to help the carrier maintain higher load factors on its thinner routes and to airports with shorter runways. CalJet’s first DC-9 entered service in April 1973, flying between Oakland-OAK «» Arcata/Eureka-ACV. The DC-9 quickly became CalJet’s 2nd most common aircraft type during the late 20th century (after the Boeing 727-200 and -200 Advanced), and were a regular sight at smaller airfields serviced by the carrier.
Vincent Calabrese Killed Stopping A Mugging
On 30 October 1976, Vincent Calabrese was out on a date in San Francisco with his wife when the couple witnessed a mugging taking place. Vincent stepped in and stopped the attack, only to be shot by an unseen accomplice of the robber. He was taken to a nearby hospital where he died two days later.
The mugger was arrested that night and later convicted, but Vincent’s killer was never identified, found or prosecuted.
Although his older brother George Calabrese was definitely the public face of CalJet, Vincent Calabrese, who never cared for the limelight, served as the company’s behind-the-scenes guy who worked tirelessly to make most of the company’s ambitions a reality. CalJet suspended all air service to and from Oakland-OAK on 6 November 1976 so fellow CalJet employees could attend Vincent’s funeral.
1978: Airline Deregulation Act Becomes Law
For almost three decades, CalJet’s continuing boardroom and courtroom battles with the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) and the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) had become frustrating and tedious for George Calabrese and CalJet. During the 1970s Mr Calabrese had become an outspoken proponent for the economic deregulation of the airlines, to the point where he wanted to run for Congress to make it happen… but before he could get around to actually doing that things suddenly changed on the regulatory front.
In February 1978, five US Senators cosponsored groundbreaking legislation that would abolish the CAB entirely, end airline pricing regulation, lift Federal controls over airline routes and hub cities, and restrict economic regulation of air carriers by state authorities such as the CPUC, all while leaving Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in place to manage air traffic control, airline safety and other such matters.
Mr Calabrese was excited and spent much of 1978 lobbying various members of Congress to generate support for the legislation. By the fall of that year congressional support had become more than strong enough. In October 1978 the Airline Deregulation Act was passed by wide margins and signed into law by President Carter.
At last, CalJet was finally free to operate without being constrained by the CAB and CPUC. The impacts of the law on the US air travel industry - and CalJet - would prove to be very profound.
=== END PART 1 ===
👉 Continue To: CalJet Airlines (Part 2)
Destinations
On 31 December 1978, CalJet flew routes to the following destinations.
Acapulco-ACA, Mexico
Bakersfield-BFL, California USA
Burbank-BUR, California USA - Focus City
Chicago-ORD, Illinois USA
Denver-DEN, Colorado USA
Eureka/Arcata-ACV, California USA
Fresno/Yosemite-FAT, California USA
Honolulu-HNL, Hawaii USA
Lake Tahoe-TVL, California USA
Las Vegas-LAS, Nevada USA - Focus City
Long Beach-LGB, California USA
Los Angeles-LAX, California USA - Base
Monterey-MRY, California USA
Oakland-OAK, California USA - HQ and Main Base
Ontario-ONT, California USA
Palm Springs-PSP, California USA
Portland-PDX, Oregon USA
Puerto Vallarta-PVR, Mexico
Riverside-RAL, California USA
Sacramento-SAC, California USA (1961-1967)
Sacramento-SMF, California USA (since 1967)
San Diego-SAN, California USA - Focus City
San Francisco-SFO, California USA - Base
San Jose-SJC, California USA - Focus City
Santa Ana-SNA, California USA - Focus City
Santa Barbara-SBA, California USA
Santa Rosa-STS, California USA
Seattle-SEA, Washington USA
Yuma-YUM, Arizona USA
Fleet
Current Fleet
On 31 December 1978, CalJet was operating the following aircraft.
Former Fleet
By 31 December 1978, CalJet had previously operated the following aircraft.
† = JStream original aircraft
=Nota Bene=
This article was split into 2 parts due to its length. The Part 2 article will include the relevant Nota Bene notes.