Air21 Airlines was a short-lived United States airline based in

Fresno, California Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...

, led by Mark Morro, founded by David Miller and co-founded by David J. VanderLugt. The airline operated five

Fokker F28 Fellowship The Fokker F28 Fellowship is a twin-engined, short-range jet airliner designed and built by Netherlands, Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker. Following the Fokker F27 Friendship, an early and commercially successful turboprop-powered regional air ...

64-passenger twin engine jet aircraft.

History

Air21, named through its slogan "Your Low-Cost Carrier and Low-Cost Airline for the Twenty-First Century", was founded by David Miller in January 1994. Miller, a management pilot and executive, partnered with David J. VanderLugt, treasurer of a small startup airline in

Visalia, California Visalia ( ) is a city in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley of California. The population was 141,384 as per the 2020 census. Visalia is the fifth-most populous city in the San Joaquin Valley, the 38th most populous in California, and 183 ...

. In October 1994, Miller and VanderLugt filed necessary paperwork for the certification of operations with the United States Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C. The next year, in March 1995, Miller and VanderLugt along with Mark Morro and Joe Levy, CEO of

Gottschalks Gottschalks (former NYSE ticker symbol GOT) was a middle-tier American department store that operated 58 department stores and three specialty apparel stores in six western states (California, Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Nevada); some ...

Department Stores, released their

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

prospectus for the airline. Air21 commenced passenger operations in December 1995. The crash of

ValuJet Airlines Flight 592 ValuJet Airlines Flight 592 was a regularly scheduled flight from Miami to Atlanta in the United States. On May 11, 1996, the ValuJet Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-9 operating the route crashed into the Florida Everglades about ten minutes afte ...

in 1996 refocused public attention on the operations of low-cost carriers. With a negative public perception increasing, passenger numbers declined. Air21 ceased operations in January 1997, whereupon it entered

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...

. Two months later in March 1997 a buyout of the company by investment banker David Walsh converted the airline's filing to a

Chapter 7 Chapter Seven refers to a seventh Chapter (books), chapter in a book. Chapter Seven, Chapter 7, or Chapter VII may also refer to: Albums * Chapter Seven (album), ''Chapter Seven'' (album), a 2013 album by Damien Leith. * Chapter VII (album), ''Ch ...

status.

Destinations

According to the Air21 March 1996 system timetable and route map, the airline operated

Fokker F28 The Fokker F28 Fellowship is a twin-engined, short-range jet airliner designed and built by Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker. Following the Fokker F27 Friendship, an early and commercially successful turboprop-powered regional airliner, Fokk ...

jet service into the following destinations:

References

{{US-airline-stub Defunct airlines of the United States Airlines established in 1995 Airlines disestablished in 1997 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1997 Airlines based in California

History

Destinations

See also

References