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California Central Airlines
California Central Airlines (CCA) was a post-war American scheduled price-focused intrastate airline based at Burbank, California, the most prominent airline associated with Charles C. Sherman. CCA slightly preceded, and during its existence was bigger than, its contemporary and competitor, Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA). The core route of both airlines was from Los Angeles to the San Francisco Bay Area.
After the collapse of the original CCA, its owners created another airline, California Coastal Airlines, which did business as California Central Airlines. This second California Central lasted until 1957.
Charles C. Sherman was an Air Transport Command pilot in World War II. He was initially the partner of Stanley D. Weiss at Fireball Air Express, the original name of Standard Air Lines, another irregular air carrier, before founding Airline Transport Carriers (ATC) with his wife, Edna K. Sherman, which was incorporated in California on 30 October 1946. In 1948, ATC was one of the top four leading irregular airlines offering scheduled service from New York to Los Angeles, which drew a September 1949 order from the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) to stop telling the public it was offering scheduled service. ATC had also applied for official approval to fly scheduled service on that route from the CAB, which was denied in October 1948. The CAB was the now defunct federal agency that, at the time, tightly regulated almost all US commercial air transportation. In August 1948, the CAB intensified its actions against the irregular airlines, like ATC, including attempting to suspend Standard's right to operate (Standard would fight this off in the courts until July 1949). ATC would continue to operate through 1962, as described further below.
In 2 April 1947, the Shermans incorporated California Central Airlines, a separate company, to offer intrastate air travel within California, initially on the Burbank airport (then known as Lockheed Air Terminal) to San Francisco Airport route, with the first flight on January 2, 1949 and equipment provided by ATC. CCA was the first of eight California intrastate carriers that started operations within a 13 month period (among them California Arrow Airlines), of which only PSA and CCA continued in operation for more than a year. As intrastate carriers, none of these new entrants was subject to regulation by the CAB. The intrastates initially charged $9.95 or $9.99 from Los Angeles to the Bay Area, less than half of the CAB-standard fare. By comparison, the Southern Pacific Railroad cost $7.50 and took 10 hours.
CCA started with four Douglas DC-3s and by January 1951, CCA/ATC had eight DC-3s and two DC-4s, one of which was contracted to the government supporting the Korean War. The airline upgraded to five Martin 2-0-2s (billed as "Martinliners") in 1951, sourced from Northwest Airlines. The 2-0-2s had tricycle landing gear and were significantly faster than DC-3s. An Aviation Week article says CCA sold four DC-3s to local service carrier Parks Air Lines immediately before Parks finally started service in 1950.
CCA ultimately extended the Burbank-San Francisco route to San Diego in the south and Sacramento in the north. It added Oakland and smaller points in California such as Salinas, Inyokern and Muroc (today's Edwards Air Force Base).
CCA was credited with having changed the transportation market between Los Angeles and San Francisco. In 1953, the US Senate Committee on Small Business noted that CCA had helped shift 65% of transport between the two cities to air, and asked the CAB to foster the same thing on the east coast.
In 1952, ATC started flying to Hawaii under the name California Hawaiian Airlines (CHA) using a Lockheed Constellation, with a similar livery to CCA, described as "the plane with the candy-striped tail".
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California Central Airlines
California Central Airlines (CCA) was a post-war American scheduled price-focused intrastate airline based at Burbank, California, the most prominent airline associated with Charles C. Sherman. CCA slightly preceded, and during its existence was bigger than, its contemporary and competitor, Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA). The core route of both airlines was from Los Angeles to the San Francisco Bay Area.
After the collapse of the original CCA, its owners created another airline, California Coastal Airlines, which did business as California Central Airlines. This second California Central lasted until 1957.
Charles C. Sherman was an Air Transport Command pilot in World War II. He was initially the partner of Stanley D. Weiss at Fireball Air Express, the original name of Standard Air Lines, another irregular air carrier, before founding Airline Transport Carriers (ATC) with his wife, Edna K. Sherman, which was incorporated in California on 30 October 1946. In 1948, ATC was one of the top four leading irregular airlines offering scheduled service from New York to Los Angeles, which drew a September 1949 order from the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) to stop telling the public it was offering scheduled service. ATC had also applied for official approval to fly scheduled service on that route from the CAB, which was denied in October 1948. The CAB was the now defunct federal agency that, at the time, tightly regulated almost all US commercial air transportation. In August 1948, the CAB intensified its actions against the irregular airlines, like ATC, including attempting to suspend Standard's right to operate (Standard would fight this off in the courts until July 1949). ATC would continue to operate through 1962, as described further below.
In 2 April 1947, the Shermans incorporated California Central Airlines, a separate company, to offer intrastate air travel within California, initially on the Burbank airport (then known as Lockheed Air Terminal) to San Francisco Airport route, with the first flight on January 2, 1949 and equipment provided by ATC. CCA was the first of eight California intrastate carriers that started operations within a 13 month period (among them California Arrow Airlines), of which only PSA and CCA continued in operation for more than a year. As intrastate carriers, none of these new entrants was subject to regulation by the CAB. The intrastates initially charged $9.95 or $9.99 from Los Angeles to the Bay Area, less than half of the CAB-standard fare. By comparison, the Southern Pacific Railroad cost $7.50 and took 10 hours.
CCA started with four Douglas DC-3s and by January 1951, CCA/ATC had eight DC-3s and two DC-4s, one of which was contracted to the government supporting the Korean War. The airline upgraded to five Martin 2-0-2s (billed as "Martinliners") in 1951, sourced from Northwest Airlines. The 2-0-2s had tricycle landing gear and were significantly faster than DC-3s. An Aviation Week article says CCA sold four DC-3s to local service carrier Parks Air Lines immediately before Parks finally started service in 1950.
CCA ultimately extended the Burbank-San Francisco route to San Diego in the south and Sacramento in the north. It added Oakland and smaller points in California such as Salinas, Inyokern and Muroc (today's Edwards Air Force Base).
CCA was credited with having changed the transportation market between Los Angeles and San Francisco. In 1953, the US Senate Committee on Small Business noted that CCA had helped shift 65% of transport between the two cities to air, and asked the CAB to foster the same thing on the east coast.
In 1952, ATC started flying to Hawaii under the name California Hawaiian Airlines (CHA) using a Lockheed Constellation, with a similar livery to CCA, described as "the plane with the candy-striped tail".