Small Cities 'to be Hurt Tremendously' by Airline Cuts"Airline Subsidy Cuts Leave Three Towns Flightless"No Convenient Route to Buffalo-actual newspaper headlines, 2007-08It wasn't always like this. At least, not during the era of the Local Service Airlines. From the 1950s through the mid-1980s, these feisty, colorful startups provided a level of service unheard of today, reaching small communities across America. They had to. Encouraged and supported by the Civil Aeronautics Board, these privately-owned companies were mandated to bring reliable scheduled airline transportation-plus airmail and small package service-to the citizens of places like Enid, Oklahoma; or Walla Walla, Washington; or Kokomo, Indiana-and other places ignored by the bigger and older airlines. The "locals" may have begun with second-hand propeller-driven equipment, like the legendary DC-3, but by the mid-60s they were operating turboprops and jets-just like the bigger airlines. And some of these Locals, especially Frontier and Ozark and Piedmont, eventually gave the big boys a run for their money. One Local, Allegheny, became today's US Airways. These truly were Airlines For the Rest of Us, and this is the story of how they began, how they grew, and why they disappeared.
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About the Author
A Contributing Editor for Airways magazine, New York City-based Stan Solomon has written about commercial aviation since 1990, producing many full-length features plus a monthly column. He spent several years on extensive research gathering information for this story of an important aspect of U.S. aviation history.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating But Presentation is a Little Clunky,
By Bluesky (Outside Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Airlines For the Rest Of Us: The Rise and Fall of America's Local Service Airlines (Paperback)
This is a very interesting and entertaining work, one any airline enthusiast will enjoy. The local service carriers were a special breed and sadly, we will never see their like again. I'd heard of these airlines but had no idea about their origins or backgrounds or the people who built them. The info isn't as deep as some might like because there are so many carriers covered, but IMO the book earns 4 stars for content. It's a good overview of the local service airlines that may leave some readers wanting more information.
So why is my rating 3 stars when I just said the book's content earns 4? The presentation is, well, not up to standard. All through the book are weird instances of spacing, like a word (usually an airline's name for whatever reason) that has 2 or 3 spaces before it instead of one. There are continuous parenthetical notes like (see Chapter Such-and-such) that are overused, as if the writer only expected a partial reading and was concerned someone would miss something. Such references are appropriate once or twice for critical points but it's overused here. It almost reads like a term paper as opposed to a book. These issues do not detract from the content but may annoy some readers. Overall, this is an excellent source on the local service carriers' fascinating stories. Highly recommended.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Anyone with airline history interest,
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This review is from: Airlines For the Rest Of Us: The Rise and Fall of America's Local Service Airlines (Paperback)
I'm a professional pilot and am greatly interested in airline history. This book is a must read for airline history buffs. It's a quick and easy book that discusses briefly how our airline transporation network of travel used to work. The local airlines are a much missed niche that used to grace our skies. I liked the way the book was written. It first introduces the local airlines to you and then chapter by chapter you learn their impact to the industry and what may have become of them. The author also includes foot notes throughout the book so you are able to look back for information you want to review. I only gave this book 4 out of 5 stars because I was hoping for just a bit more on each of the airline's history. Overall a great book and a must read.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Short History of U.S. Local Service Airlines!,
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This review is from: Airlines For the Rest Of Us: The Rise and Fall of America's Local Service Airlines (Paperback)
Just as the subtitle suggests, "Airlines for the Rest of Us" covers the rise and fall of the U.S. Local Service Airlines, covering the years 1944 to "the last man standing" (USAirways). The author has done an excellent job of presenting the story in a well-researched informative manner that is fun to read. Also included are serveral B&W photos of various planes flown by the Locals.
Highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a concise, sometimes anecdotal, history of the U.S. Locals that one will not want to put down once they start reading it.
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