How many well known airlines are no longer around?

Question

I was driving past the back end of an airport and i saw a few passenger jets from australias ANSETT airline, there was now way they would have flown to this destination so i asked. It turns out this airline went bust, the planes were bought for breaking when the gulf war made petrol prices rocket, who knew? how many more well established, well known airlines are no longer around?

Answer 1

There are so many. The top two would have to be Pan-AM and TWA. TWA especially was very well represented in TV and movies.
Pan Am was a world airline famous for the China Clippers the first 707 and 747 commercial flights. Pan Am bought National in an effort to expand it's routes and then along came deregulation which made the purchase unnecessary. Pan-AM was promoting world travel while the industry was talking about flying on the cheap.

TWA was doing very well, had a dominant presence in the transatlantic market, and was one of the first to go all jet It was early on associated with Charles Lindbergh and later Howard Hughes. At one time the TWA corp. also owned the Hilton hotel chain. *The airline was aquired by corporate raider Carl Icahn in 1985. Under Icahn's direction, many of its most profitable assets were sold to competitors, much to the detriment of TWA. Icahn was eventually ousted in 1993, though not before the airline was forced to file for bankruptcy in 1992. Icahn emerged unscathed.*
TWA was eventually merged into AMERICAN AILINES.
Eastern was also an old established airline that was well known especially on the east coast, the Caribbean, and South America and it too has ceased to exist.

Answer 2

Airlines No Longer In Business

Answer 3

ANSETT was an Australian legacy airline that went bust a few years ago...as many have! It's hard to believe how many airlines have gone out of business. Here's a list of all well known (and some fairly unknown) airlines that no longer exist:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_airlines

(Swissair was officially liquidated in 2002. Crossair bought most of their assets and now do business under the name Swiss International Air Lines...but it has nothing to do with the old Swissair. It uses the old Crossair IATA code "LX" and is owned by Lufthansa...German Airlines.)

(BOAC is still flying...they changed their name to British Airways in 1974.)

Answer 4

there are many that have ceased operating. if you do a search online you'll find many sites dedicated to their memory..

also, an answer above mentioned that british midland ceased operating - this is not the case, they have rebranded and are now known as bmi (in some cases as british midland bmi) and are part of the star alliance network

Answer 5

a few come to mind such as:

Eastern
Western
TWA
Piedmont
Braniff
PeoplExpress
PanAm
Varig (almost gone)
BOAC
British Midland
British Caledonian
Canadian
Pacific Southwest
Swissair

Answer 6

Haven't thought about that

Answer 7

twa will be flying again in 2017

Answer 8

and if you want to go back a few years there is Mid-Continent

Answer 9

............ well someone wrote Swissair still around .......... No, it is not it called Swiss airlines., and is run by Lufthansa ........ which is not the same as Swissair ...............

Answer 10

I was wondering the same thing too yesterday