Flagship Airlines was an American

regional airline A regional airline is a general classification of airline which typically operates scheduled passenger air service, using regional aircraft, between communities lacking sufficient demand or infrastructure to attract mainline flights. In North ...

headquartered on the grounds of

Nashville International Airport Nashville International Airport is a public/military airport in the southeastern section of Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Established in 1937, its original name was Berry Field, from which its ICAO and IATA identi ...

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

, United States.

History

Flagship Airlines traced its origins to

Air Virginia An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosphere ...

, a commuter and regional feeder air carrier, which later changed names to AVAir. AVAir had rapidly declined into bankruptcy following the AVAir Flight 3378 tragedy. AMR Corporation founded Nashville Eagle out of the assets of AVAir and Air Midwest. Flagship Airlines was formed by the merger of Command Airways into Nashville Eagle on June 1, 1991. Flagship operated

code sharing A codeshare agreement, also known simply as codeshare, is a business arrangement, common in the aviation industry, in which two or more airlines publish and market the same flight under their own airline designator and flight number (the "airli ...

flights for

American Airlines American Airlines, Inc. is a major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the ...

under the American Eagle brand name. The airline served the East Coast and the Bahamas from hubs at Miami, Nashville, New York-JFK, and Raleigh/Durham. The Raleigh/Durham based closed on December 28, 1994."World Airline Directory." ''

Flight International ''Flight International'', formerly ''Flight'', is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace. Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", i ...

''. March 19–25, 1997
67
Ultimately, Flagship Airlines merged with Simmons Airlines and Wings West Airlines to form American Eagle Airlines in 1998. The former Simmons IATA two letter code of MQ became the surviving identifier for the unified airlines. In 2014, the airline was renamed

Envoy Air Envoy Air Inc. is an American regional airline headquartered in Irving, Texas, in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Airlines Group and it is paid by fellow group member American Airlines to sta ...

Fleet

Accident

On 13 December 1994, Flagship Airlines Flight 3379, operating for American Eagle, entered an aerodynamic stall and crashed into a wooded area during a missed approach to Raleigh–Durham International Airport in

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

. The two pilots and 13 of the 18 passengers were killed.

References

{{Portal bar, United States, Companies, Aviation Companies based in Nashville, Tennessee Defunct airlines of the United States

History

Fleet

Accident

See also

References