![Gulf Air Transport Lockheed L-188C Electra Silagi-1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Gulf_Air_Transport_Lockheed_L-188C_Electra_Silagi-1.jpg)
Gulf Air Transport was a small charter
airline
An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in wh ...
headquartered at the
Acadiana Regional Airport
Acadiana Regional Airport is a public use airport in Iberia Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is owned by Iberia Parish, managed by the Iberia Parish Airport Authority and is located four nautical miles (7 km) northwest of the central b ...
(ARA), a former U.S. Navy military airbase located in
New Iberia, Louisiana
New Iberia (french: La Nouvelle-Ibérie; es, Nueva Iberia) is the largest city in and parish seat of Iberia Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The city of New Iberia is located approximately southeast of Lafayette, and forms part of the La ...
, United States. The company flew piston, turboprop and jet aircraft types, and conducted flight operations from 1979 until 1990.
History
Gulf Air Transport was founded in 1979. Initially, management planned to obtain their own operating certificate and purchase a single
Convair 440
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 inro ...
(N4815C) from Smyrna, TN-based Music City Airways. However, after an evaluation, it was then decided to buy Music City's FAA operating certificate along with their only other airplane, a
Convair 340
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 inr ...
(N3416). After changing Music City Airways name to Gulf Air Transport, management then initiated charter flight operations in support of the U.S. domestic oil and gas industry with two captains and two first officers flying the piston powered Convairs. Next, they added a former
North Central Airlines
North Central Airlines was a regional airline in the Midwestern United States. Founded as Wisconsin Central Airlines in 1944 in Clintonville, Wisconsin, the company moved to Madison in 1947. This is also when the "Herman the duck" logo was bo ...
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 ...
turboprop aircraft which they purchased in Bolivia (N511GA) which was then shortly followed by their final R2800 piston powered Convair 440 (N411GA). In 1981, a
Lockheed L-188 Electra
The Lockheed L-188 Electra is an American turboprop airliner built by Lockheed. First flown in 1957, it was the first large turboprop airliner built in the United States. Initial sales were good, but after two fatal crashes that led to expensiv ...
(N8355C) four engine turboprop was added to the fleet. The Electra was used for oil and gas industry charters flying offshore workers between the U.S. Gulf Coast and
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Co ...
, and also for gambling charters to and from
Lake Tahoe, California
Lake Tahoe (; was, Dáʔaw, meaning "the lake") is a freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the United States. Lying at , it straddles the state line between California and Nevada, west of Carson City. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake ...
. In addition, the company was purchasing
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 ...
Convair 580 turboprops as Republic retired these aircraft which had been previously operated by
North Central Airlines
North Central Airlines was a regional airline in the Midwestern United States. Founded as Wisconsin Central Airlines in 1944 in Clintonville, Wisconsin, the company moved to Madison in 1947. This is also when the "Herman the duck" logo was bo ...
as well. On April 24, 1984, Gulf Air purchased their first jet, a
Boeing 727-100 (N4620) from
Pan Am
Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States ...
, which included flight crew training at the Pan Am training center. This initial B727 was followed by the acquisition of
Boeing 727-200
The Boeing 727 is an American narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
After the heavy 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter flight lengths from smaller airpo ...
jetliners by Gulf Air.
The company added new contracts for the transportation of various college athletic teams as well as gambling junkets for the casino industry, especially to and from the
Lake Tahoe area in California, and pursued other new charter opportunities as the oil and gas industry started cutting back in the early 1980s. The company opened new flight crew bases in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
,
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
,
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, and
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
. Philadelphia was the largest base. The airline also flew numerous charters to such international destinations as
Port-au-Prince in
Haiti,
British Guiana (now known as
Guyana) in South America,
Nassau
Nassau may refer to:
Places Bahamas
*Nassau, Bahamas, capital city of the Bahamas, on the island of New Providence
Canada
*Nassau District, renamed Home District, regional division in Upper Canada from 1788 to 1792
*Nassau Street (Winnipeg), ...
and
Freeport in the
Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...
,
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the juri ...
,
St. Thomas,
St. Croix
Saint Croix; nl, Sint-Kruis; french: link=no, Sainte-Croix; Danish and no, Sankt Croix, Taino: ''Ay Ay'' ( ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincor ...
,
Aruba,
Bonaire and
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...
in the
Caribbean, and
Cancún
Cancún ( ), often Cancun in English (without the accent; or ) is a city in southeast Mexico on the northeast coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. It is a significant tourist destination in Mexico and the seat ...
and
Puerto Vallarta in
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. Domestic charter destinations included
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
,
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
,
Orlando
Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures re ...
,
Lake Tahoe and
Atlantic City as well as other destinations. Other domestic cities were served by short-term contracts or as the first stop on outbound flights including
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, and
Newark
Newark most commonly refers to:
* Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States
* Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area
Newark may also refer to:
Places Canada
* Niagara-on-the ...
.
One-time charter flights were operated as well, including weekend sports charters, to many international destinations including
Rock Sound International Airport
Rock Sound International Airport is an airport in the South Eleuthera district of The Bahamas. Its name comes from the former district of Rock Sound.
Airlines and destinations
Historically, Rock Sound was served by Pan Am beginning the mi ...
in the
Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...
,
Curaçao,
Grenada and
Puerto Plata in the
Caribbean,
Bermuda
)
, anthem = "God Save the King"
, song_type = National song
, song = "Hail to Bermuda"
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, mapsize2 =
, map_caption2 =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name =
, es ...
and also to Europe including
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
,
Helsinki
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...
,
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
, and
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
. By the end of 1986, Gulf Air Transport had approximately 200 full-time
employees.
In 1988, Gulf Air sent several Boeing 727-200 jetliners to
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
in the Mediterranean for a six-month "sub-service contract" with
Air Malta
Air Malta plc (stylized as airmalta) is the flag carrier airline of Malta, with its headquarters in Luqa and its hub at Malta International Airport. It operates services to destinations in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
History ...
. The flight attendants and pursers were Air Malta employees while the flight crews and aircraft maintenance technicians were Gulf Air Transport employees. The 727s were used to operate scheduled passenger airline service for Air Malta.
TransOcean Airways
About 1986, the company changed its name from Gulf Air Transport to Gulf Air, Inc. However, when starting European service, and due to the similarity of this name with Bahrain-based
Gulf Air
Gulf Air ( ar, طيران الخليج ''Ṭayarān al-Khalīj'') is the state-owned airline and the flag carrier of Bahrain, which was founded in 1950 by British Pilot Freddie Bosworth as Gulf Aviation. Headquartered in Muharraq, the airli ...
, the airline changed its name to TransOcean Airways. During this period, the former Gulf Air Transport, which was now a successful, privately held company, decided to go public and thus offered stock in the firm which then subsequently led to loss of managerial control of the company. Reportedly, former
Capitol Air (not to be confused with Capital Airlines) and
Arrow Air
Arrow Air was a passenger and cargo airline based in Building 712 on the grounds of Miami International Airport (MIA) in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade County, Florida. At different times over the years, it operated over 90 weekly schedul ...
management personnel took the company in a different direction and added two stretched
Douglas Super DC-8-63 jetliner from
Scanair and one stretched Douglas Super DC-8-71 leased from
United Airlines
United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois. to the fleet. The Super DC-8-71 featured new high-bypass turbofan engines which enabled longer range operations and also produced less noise. These new managers also hired additional flight attendants to crew their new transatlantic services to Ireland, England, Italy, Finland and the Azores. However, the DC-8 jetliners were often grounded and experienced long, expensive maintenance delays that required more financial resources than TransOcean had access to. Along with a recession in the US economy in the 1980s, Trans Ocean began to lose money and by 1989 it had to seek protection from its creditors by entering
Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company subsequently failed to turn a profit and in March 1990 all flight operations ceased with the airline then going out of business.
Fleet details
![Boeing 727-232(Adv), Gulf Air Transport JP96763](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Boeing_727-232%28Adv%29%2C_Gulf_Air_Transport_JP96763.jpg)
Piston aircraft:
* 1
Convair 340
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 inr ...
(N3416)
* 1
Convair 440
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 inro ...
(N4816C)
Turboprop aircraft:
* 4
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 ...
(N4801C, N511CA, N7530U, N9067R)
[
* 1 ]Lockheed L-188 Electra
The Lockheed L-188 Electra is an American turboprop airliner built by Lockheed. First flown in 1957, it was the first large turboprop airliner built in the United States. Initial sales were good, but after two fatal crashes that led to expensiv ...
(N8355C)
Jet aircraft:
* 9 Boeing 727-100
* 3 Boeing 727-200
The Boeing 727 is an American narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
After the heavy 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter flight lengths from smaller airpo ...
[
* 1 ]Douglas DC-8-61
The Douglas DC-8 (sometimes McDonnell Douglas DC-8) is a long-range narrow-body airliner built by the American Douglas Aircraft Company.
After losing the May 1954 US Air Force tanker competition to the Boeing KC-135, Douglas announced in Ju ...
(stretched Super DC-8) (N29U)
* 2 Douglas DC-8-63
The Douglas DC-8 (sometimes McDonnell Douglas DC-8) is a long-range narrow-body airliner built by the American Douglas Aircraft Company.
After losing the May 1954 US Air Force tanker competition to the Boeing KC-135, Douglas announced in July ...
(stretched Super DC-8)[ (N791AL) (N792AL)
* 1 ]Douglas DC-8
The Douglas DC-8 (sometimes McDonnell Douglas DC-8) is a long-range narrow-body airliner built by the American Douglas Aircraft Company.
After losing the May 1954 US Air Force tanker competition to the Boeing KC-135, Douglas announced in July ...
-71 (stretched Super DC-8 re-engined with new high-bypass turbofan engines)[ (N8091U)
]
See also
* List of defunct airlines of the United States
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
References
{{US-airline-stub
Defunct companies based in Louisiana
Defunct airlines of the United States
Airlines established in 1979
Airlines disestablished in 1990
Companies based in New Orleans