Commuter Airlines was a commuter airline based in Binghamton, New York from the 1960s to 1984.

Broome County Aviation

Commuter Airlines began as Broome County Aviation, Inc, owned by Jerry Winston. The airline's second highest ranking executive was Jerry's wife, Irene Winston. Jerry Winston was not only the owner, he was also one of the pilots. From the beginning in 1957 until the end in 1984 it was a family run airline, owned by Jerry Winston. Broome County Aviation, Inc. took over as the fixed-base operator (FBO) at the Broome County Airport in Binghamton, New York in 1957. Jerry Winston had negotiated an ironclad 25-year lease on the airport facilities. Initially, they sold fuel, operated a flight school and a charter service. In 1964, Jerry Winston began a scheduled part 135 commuter operation with a

Piper Aztec The Piper PA-23, named Apache and later Aztec, is an American four- to six-seat twin-engined light aircraft aimed at the general-aviation market. The United States Navy and military forces in other countries also used it in small numbers. Origin ...

between Binghamton, NY and Washington National Airport in Washington D.C. when

Eastern Airlines Eastern Air Lines, also colloquially known as Eastern, was a major United States airline from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution, it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade County, Florida. Ea ...

pulled out of that market. During the next two decades Commuter Airlines expanded to serve Washington D.C., White Plains, LaGuardia and JFK in New York City, Newark, New Jersey, Boston Logan, Massachusetts, Wilkes Barre/Scranton, and Allentown Pennsylvania and Ithaca and Elmira, New York.

Fleet

The company began with a single Piper Aztec and over the years added

de Havilland Dove The de Havilland DH.104 Dove is a British short-haul airliner developed and manufactured by de Havilland. The design, which was a monoplane successor to the pre-war Dragon Rapide biplane, came about from the Brabazon Committee report which, ...

s and

Beechcraft Model 18 The Beechcraft Model 18 (or "Twin Beech", as it is also known) is a 6- to 11-seat, twin-engined, low-wing, tailwheel light aircraft manufactured by the Beech Aircraft Corporation of Wichita, Kansas. Continuously produced from 1937 to Novem ...

s, (including a unique conversion of the Beechcraft Model 18 called the DuMod conversion. It had 15 seats, a nose wheel, and a triple tail similar to the

Lockheed Constellation The Lockheed Constellation ("Connie") is a propeller-driven, four-engined airliner built by Lockheed Corporation starting in 1943. The Constellation series was the first pressurized-cabin civil airliner series to go into widespread use. Its press ...

). Jerry Winston purchased the manufacturing rights to the DuMod conversion but only three Beech 18s were ever converted. Some of the Beech 18s were also used on night mail and freight runs, and the seats were put back in for the passenger flights during the day. Commuter Airlines also operated Piper PA-31 Navajos and Chieftains and operated the first passenger Fairchild Metros in 1972, eventually acquiring four of them. In 1978, with the advent of deregulation, Commuter purchased five

Convair 580 The Convair CV-240 is an American airliner that Convair manufactured from 1947 to 1954, initially as a possible replacement for the ubiquitous Douglas DC-3. Featuring a more modern design with cabin pressurization, the 240 series made some inroa ...

s from

USAir US Airways (formerly USAir) was a major United States airline that operated from 1937 until its merger with American Airlines in 2015. It was originally founded in Pittsburgh as a mail delivery airline called All American Aviation, which soon b ...

Overview

In 1980, Jerry Winston entered into an agreement with United Airlines to provide a commuter feeder service to United's Cleveland Hopkins Hub in Ohio. He decided to operate that under the newly formed corporate entity of Freedom Airlines. The five Convairs were repainted with the Freedom Airlines name and flew from Flint, Saginaw, Grand Rapids, and Lansing Michigan to Cleveland, Ohio.

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

terminated the feeder agreement after about a year, but Freedom continued to operate those routes on its own, adding flights from those same Michigan cities to Chicago, O'Hare. Over the next two years a Cleveland, Ohio to Harrisburg and Allentown, Pennsylvania flight was added. In 1982, Jerry Winston pulled out of Binghamton, NY, moved the company headquarters to Cleveland, OH, completely, sold off the Piper Navajos, dropped the Commuter Airlines name and repainted the Metroliners in the Freedom Airlines colors. A route from Chicago O'Hare to Escanaba, Iron Mountain, and Ironwood, Michigan was added in 1983 when those cities were dropped by

Republic Airlines Republic Airlines was an American airline formed by the merger of North Central Airlines and Southern Airways on July 1, 1979. Their headquarters were at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, in what is now Fort Snelling, Minnesota, Fort ...

. In the summer of 1984, Jerry Winston died of cancer and the airline was put up for sale. Air Ontario purchased the Convair 580s in October 1984 and the airline ceased operations and the assets were sold off. Freedom Airlines and Commuter Airlines impacted aviation in various ways. As recognized by a proclamation signed by Cleveland's Mayor, Justin Bibb, on November 18, 2022, Jerry Winston "foresaw what the jet age would mean to smaller cities." In addition, Irene Winston specifically was recognized in that proclamation for her role as a "Cleveland Trailblazing Aviator....having played a senior executive role at CLE-based Freedom Airlines, a pioneering air carrier...."

Destinations

*Michigan **Flint **Grand Rapids **Lansing **Saginaw *

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

** Newark (

Newark International Airport Newark Liberty International Airport , originally Newark Metropolitan Airport and later Newark International Airport, is an international airport straddling the boundary between the cities of Newark in Essex County and Elizabeth in Union Cou ...

) * New York **

Binghamton Binghamton () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the conflue ...

( Binghamton Regional Airport) - hub ** New York (

LaGuardia Airport LaGuardia Airport is a civil airport in East Elmhurst, Queens, New York City. Covering , the facility was established in 1929 and began operating as a public airport in 1939. It is named after former New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia ...

) ** White Plains (

Westchester County Airport Westchester County Airport is a county-owned airport in Westchester County, New York, three miles (6 km) northeast of downtown White Plains, with territory in the towns of North Castle and Harrison, New York, and village of Rye Brook, N ...

) *

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

(

Cleveland Hopkins International Airport Cleveland Hopkins International Airport is an international airport in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is the primary airport serving Greater Cleveland and Northeast Ohio, the largest and busiest airport in the state, and the 43rd busiest ...

) *

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

(

Reagan National Airport Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport , sometimes referred to colloquially as National Airport, Washington National, Reagan National Airport, DCA, Reagan, or simply National, is an international airport in Arlington County, Virginia, across ...

)

References

{{US-airline-stub Defunct regional airlines of the United States Defunct companies based in New York (state) Binghamton, New York Companies based in Binghamton, New York Airlines based in New York (state) Airlines established in 1964 Airlines disestablished in 1984

Broome County Aviation

Fleet

Overview

Destinations

See also

References