21 Comments:

• Ugly Yellow Planes! Hughes Airwest was the Top Banana in the west! PSA,AIRCAL and Hughes Airwest were great! Miss all of them..

  By  Anonymous, at April 06, 2005 12:36 PM  

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• You forgot Bonanza Airlines in the 50's and early 60's

  By  Anonymous, at April 20, 2005 2:41 AM  

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• Hey, does anyone remember the airline that had the commercial with the large bird drinking a martini? The bird used to lean up against the tail of the plane and say "The only way to fly"

  By  Anonymous, at August 17, 2005 8:47 PM  

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• Western Airlines....the only way to fly!

  By  Anonymous, at September 16, 2005 12:30 PM  

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• You listed Orange County International Airport before it was changed to John Wayne Airport. Orange County was never an international airport.

  By  Anonymous, at October 05, 2005 12:43 PM  

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• Yes, SNA was an internationl airport...Hughes AirWest flew to Mexico...

  By  Anonymous, at May 20, 2006 6:42 PM  

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• Air Cal was the BEST AIRLINE to work for....I now work for American and WOW...what a let down.

  By  Anonymous, at July 14, 2006 8:42 PM  

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• My husband flew for AirCal and is now retiring from American. Trying to find a model of a DC-9 of AirCal, to surprise him since it was his favorite airline. Seems impossible. Anybody know?

  By  Anonymous, at August 07, 2006 3:20 PM  

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• Western and the "old" Continental (before Lorenzo takeover) rule!

  By  Anonymous, at December 09, 2006 5:23 PM  

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• When I was attending college in San Francisco in the early seventies, I always flew AirCal. Great service and mighty fine looking flight attendents, too! The day after Christmas of 1972, I flew back to S.F. out of Orange County. AirCal had so many flights to handle the Holiday traffic that it pulled one of their Lookheed Electras out of mothballs and pressed it into service. I made sure to get an aisle seat which afforded me the opportunity to see all four of the turboprop engines cough and belch black smoke as they started up. They flight took little more than an hour. They gave the jets a good run for their money.

  By  Anonymous, at July 03, 2007 9:34 PM  

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• My family came to Costa Mesa, in 1958. My father was the first air traffic control tower chief at Santa Ana airport. He converted it from a landing strip/dragway into an international airport. John Wayne (and many other celebrities) flew in there regularly. When my father passed away, (1968) they petitioned the county board of supervisors, to rename the street going to the control tower, "Ike Jones Road", after my father Isaac.... Randy Jones Tucson, AZ

  By  Anonymous, at September 08, 2007 9:21 AM  

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• Many people may not know that Air California helped start Southwest Airlines. One of Air Cal's founders, J. Thomas Talbot, was a close friend of Herb Kelleher's and helped Southwest receive its certificate from the Texas Aeronautics Commission. Some of the staff at Air Cal helped Southwest with their exhibits that they presented to the TAC. After receiving its certificate to operate in Texas, Air Cal helped with the training of the Southwest Airlines flight operations management and staff. PSA also helped Southwest by training the reservations and ticketing management.

  By  Anonymous, at October 30, 2007 1:27 PM  

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• although PSA was a fierce competitor of Air Cal, it never flew out of Orange County Airport. Interestingly, it was offered 'slots' at the airport but PSA declined, not seeing a future in it.....So five orange county businessmen got together at started up 'Air California'...the rest is history.....wish it still operated... never remember orange county being "international"

  By  Anonymous, at December 06, 2007 2:07 AM  

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• i was with air cal for 13 years, now im one of those 10 numbers, even after 20 years wow what a let down

  By  Anonymous, at December 09, 2007 9:29 PM  

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• My mom was the head of payroll for Air California from the very start until she died in 1978. Her moniker was "Penny Payroll." When I spent time with her in the summer (I was 14) I'd ride with her to work, go across the street to the OC airport and go flying with some of the Air California crews. What a blast!!!

  By  rickmccusker@sbcglobal.net, at December 17, 2007 7:39 PM  

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• Does anyone have a complete list of the destinations served (with dates would be outstanding) by AirCal? I flew from ANC to SEA with them aboard an ex-Wien Air 737-200C which had pallets in the front end and pax in the back. They backed us into the gate at SEA, whereupon we deplaned via the rear air stair door, down to the ramp, and up the steps to the terminal. The first and last time I'll ever do that!
  
  Thanks!
  
  Butch

  By  Butch, at January 10, 2008 1:56 PM  

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• I worked for air cal for years, really a sad day when it disappeared,but if you go to airliners.net and click on take me to the photo search page then click on airline then scroll down to air cal and also air california you will find a treasure chest of photos dating from the late 60s on up,theres even some shots of the infamous "aloha convertable" N73711 in air cal trim (yes air cal did operate that plane on a lease from aloha)

  By  Anonymous, at January 13, 2008 11:19 PM  

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• To clarify for everyone, SNA is not and has never been an international airport. All commercial traffic there is domestic.

  By  Anonymous, at May 30, 2008 10:26 PM  

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• The airline with the commercial with bird drinking a martini was the former Western Airlines, now part of
  Delta.

  By  Anonymous, at June 01, 2008 10:35 PM  

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• I worked for Air California at the Oakland Maintenance base in 1977 & 1978 after being furloughed from UAL across the bay at SFO. I worked as an R&E mechanic. I remember the Electra's, they had three of them. I tried to avoid them! I liked the mechanic's I worked with though. Eventually worked my way into TV Broadcasting and spent 25 years in it.

  By  Anonymous, at July 02, 2008 3:18 AM  

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• John Wayne (Orange County) International Airport - SNA
  
  http://www.sidestep.com/airport-information-g001-SNA-John-Wayne
  
  I had always noticed International in their name.

  By  Anonymous, at July 04, 2008 7:05 AM  

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