Are very old airlines still flying?

Real World Aviation
1

are old airlines like Pan Am still flying
because it would be amazing to know
about, grateful about
just tell whether or not

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2

Airlines like Pan Am are not flying. We do still have old airlines today, though. An example is KLM who just celebrated their 100tg birthday, and SAS who is turning 80 next year, and i’m sure there’s a lot of other old airlines still flying.

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Avianca is turning 100 in about a month

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Avianca is the second oldest. Many of the big airlines are really older than you may think.

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Qantas, the Flag Carrier of Australia, founded in November 1920 and began international passenger flights in May 1935, are well, what you would call; Relatively Old… And they are still flying to multiple destinations around the world till this day.

Then you have…:

  • Finnair since 1923
  • Tajik Air since 1924
  • Air Serbia since 1927
  • LOT Polish Airlines since 1929
  • EgyptAir since 1933
  • South African Airways since 1934
  • Air India since 1932
  • … And many more
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6

Delta Airlines was founded back in 1924 or 1925 and began passenger service in 1929

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7

British Airways is still flying too, and they are already turned 100

8

I read that like a poem.

9

image

There is that one Eastern Airlines reboot which applied for JFK-Guayaquil and JFK to ANC to Jinan.

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10

Well no thats not true depending on how you look at it, the BA we know today was formed in 1974 with the merger of multiple airlines and they rebranded their name so…

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11

BA’s history goes back to pre merger airlines. So no, it’s not 1974.

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12

KLM is 100 years old. Still flying.

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And BA proper started ops in 1974, that’s like saying I was not born in 2003 because my parents were born in the 70s.

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14

Some of the great legends of aviation are gone. Aviation giants like TWA, Pan-Am, and Eastern, Gone.

But there are American, Delta, and United. They are just as old, and still going strong.

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15

BA is only 45 years old and not one airline that merged to form BA was formed in 1919

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Ok the BA story goes like this.
1919: There was a small airline called Aircraft Transport and Travel they flew the first scheduled flight between London and Paris.
1920: Aircraft Transport and Travel goes bankrupt and mergers into Daimler Airway
1924: Daimler Airway mergers with 3 other airlines to create Imperial Airways.
1939: Imperial Airways was incorporated into the British Overseas Airways Corporation.
1974: British Overseas Airways Corporation mergers with British European Airways to create British Airways.

Simple 😳

I think. KLM is the oldest airline which has kept the same name since the beginning.

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17

Those were all a bunch of different companies with different brands, the BA we know today came about in 1974.

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That’s true. But from BAs point of view they can trace their heritage back through the companies the mergers and whatever else to 1919.
It’s a bit like tracing your family tree.

KLM just have to trace KLM back making them truly 100

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19

There are also tiny and unheard-of regional airlines flying around today. Norwegian regional airline Widerøe celebrated their 80th birthday this year!

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Actually, no. British airways was a merger between BOAC and BEA which happened in the mid 70s I think.

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