Topic summary
ATA Airlines
incorporated in Indiana
first airline operation
- ATA Connection(1993–2008)
- Chicago Express Airlines(1993–2005)
ATA Airlines, Inc., formerly known as American Trans Air and commonly referred to as ATA, was an American low-cost and charter airline based in Indianapolis, Indiana. ATA operated scheduled passenger flights throughout the U.S. mainland and Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Portugal as well as military and commercial charter flights around the world.
American Trans Air was founded by J. George Mikelsons in 1973 as a profit-making corporation providing the employees and aircraft for Ambassadair, a simultaneously-established non-profit air travel club. Air travel clubs were a form of low-cost air transport that avoided regulation by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), a now-defunct Federal agency that, at the time, provided tight economic regulation of almost all US air transport. Ambassadair partially backfilled for Voyager 1000, a large Indianapolis air travel club that operated from 1965 to 1973 and had been shut by the CAB for effectively being an airline; Mikelsons had been chief pilot. Ambassadair's first flight was December 1973. In March 1981, American Trans Air become a charter airline in its own right, with Ambassadair simultaneously returning its air travel club operating authority to the Federal Aviation Administration. Ambassadair was a separately-certificated entity from American Trans Air.
In its early days, the airline flew charters on a worldwide basis and had bases in Chicago, Detroit, New York, Indianapolis, Oakland, and Milwaukee. Later, when it entered scheduled service, the airline maintained focus cities at Chicago Midway International Airport, Honolulu International Airport, and Oakland International Airport.
The airline's parent company – New ATA Holdings, Inc. (the successor to ATA Holdings Inc., which was originally known as Amtran) – later changed its name to Global Aero Logistics, Inc. and purchased World Air Holdings, Inc. for $315 million in an all-cash transaction with the financial backing of the investment firm MatlinPatterson. World Air Holdings, Inc. owned and operated North American Airlines and World Airways as two separate US-certified air carriers. ATA was North America's largest charter airline, and until its shutdown, it transported more troops for the United States military than any other commercial airline.
On April 2, 2008, ATA filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. ATA then announced it was ceasing all services, effective 4:00am EDT on Thursday, April 3, 2008, citing the unexpected loss of a major contract for its military charter business, as a subcontractor of FedEx Express, along with recent increases in jet fuel prices. Red-eye flights in the air at the time of the announcement proceeded to their destinations. Flight 4586 from Honolulu to Phoenix was the last ATA flight, departing almost two hours late at 12:10am (HST) arriving April 3, 2008, at 8:48am (MST).
Southwest Airlines owns and retains the operating certificate and all assets previously held by ATA Airlines including trademarks, logos, etc. These were purchased for $7.5 million by Southwest while ATA was operating under bankruptcy protection.