Texas International Airlines


Texas International Airlines Inc. was a United States airline, known from 1940 until 1947 as Aviation Enterprises, until 1969 as Trans-Texas Airways, and as Texas International Airlines until 1982 when it merged with Continental Airlines. It was headquartered near William P. Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas.
Trans-Texas Airways was a "local service" airline as designated by the federal Civil Aeronautics Board in Texas and surrounding states. In August 1953 it scheduled flights to 36 airports from El Paso to Memphis; in May 1968 TTa flew to 48 U.S. airports plus Monterrey, Tampico and Veracruz in Mexico. The airline changed its name to Texas International and continued to grow.
When Texas International was merged into Continental Airlines in 1982 it had grown to reach Baltimore, Colorado Springs, Denver, Fort Lauderdale, Hartford, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Milwaukee, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Omaha, Phoenix, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Tucson and Washington D.C. and had an all DC-9 jet fleet. In 2010 Continental merged into United Airlines.

History

In 1949 all Trans-Texas Airways flights were in Texas with Douglas DC-3s that the airline called "Starliners". In November 1949 it served Alpine, Beaumont/Port Arthur, Beeville, Brownsville, Brownwood, Carrizo Springs/Crystal City, Coleman, Dallas, Del Rio, Eagle Pass, El Paso, Fort Stockton, Fort Worth, Galveston, Harlingen, Houston, Laredo, Lufkin, Marfa, McAllen, Palestine, San Angelo, San Antonio, Uvalde, Van Horn and Victoria.
The network expanded to Memphis in 1953, Lafayette in 1956, New Orleans and Jackson in 1959, Santa Fe and Albuquerque in 1963, into Mexico in 1967 and to Denver in 1969.
About April 1961 Convair 240s formerly operated by American Airlines began carrying Trans-Texas passengers; the airline later converted them to Convair 600s, replacing the piston engines with Rolls-Royce Dart turboprop engines. First scheduled CV600 flights were in March 1966. Small Beechcraft C99 commuter turboprops were later added to serve the smaller cities of Longview, Lufkin, Galveston, Tyler and Victoria.
In October 1966 Trans-Texas Airways introduced the Douglas DC-9-10 ; the DC-9 fleet expanded to nineteen DC-9-10s and seven McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30s. By 1968 TTa was flying DC-9s to Beaumont/Port Arthur, Texas; Harlingen, Texas; Hot Springs, Arkansas, Lake Charles, Louisiana; Roswell, New Mexico and Santa Fe, New Mexico in addition to larger cities in its route system. DC-9's briefly flew to Clovis, New Mexico, Carlsbad, New Mexico, and Hobbs, New Mexico in 1977.
Trans-Texas was derisively called "Tree Top Airlines," "Tinker Toy Airlines" and "Teeter-Totter Airlines" by competitors and cynical customers. When it changed its name to Texas International Airlines in April 1969, the company ran newspaper ads showing a Tinker Toy airplane flying along treetops. The copy read "No More Tinker Toys. No More Treetops. We are now Texas International Airlines." As Texas International, the airline standardized on the DC-9 and Convair 600. The last Convair 600 flights were in 1979 and Texas International became all-jet with DC-9-10s and DC-9-30s.
In 1970 Texas International served the following cities in Texas: Abilene, Amarillo, Austin, Beaumont/Port Arthur, Big Spring, Brownwood, Bryan/College Station, Corpus Christi, Dallas/Ft. Worth, El Paso, Galveston, Harlingen, Houston, Laredo, Longview, Lubbock, Lufkin, McAllen, Midland/Odessa, San Angelo, San Antonio, Temple, Tyler, Victoria, Waco and Wichita Falls.
Outside of Texas, in 1970 Texas International flew to Arkansas ; California ; Colorado, ; Louisiana ; Mississippi ; New Mexico ; Tennessee ; and Utah. In Mexico flights reached Monterrey, Tampico, Mérida and Veracruz. The airline had several "milk run" flights like flight 904, a DC-9-10 that left Los Angeles at 11:00am and stopped in Albuquerque, Roswell, Midland/Odessa, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston and Beaumont/Port Arthur before arriving Lafayette at 8:34pm.
After suffering annual losses of up to $3 million, Texas International was acquired in 1972 by Jet Capital Corporation headed by 32-year-old Frank Lorenzo. The airline quickly realized a $6 million profit, largely due to wage cuts spearheaded by Lorenzo and sharp marketing efforts.
In the mid-1970s, in response to competition from Southwest Airlines, Texas International successfully petitioned the Civil Aeronautics Board to allow discounted fares. These fares become a staple of the airline and were advertised as "Peanuts Fares". In spring 1978 the airline was flying nonstop between Dallas/Ft. Worth and both Houston Intercontinental Airport and Houston Hobby Airport, up to eighteen round trip DC-9 flights a day, all with "Peanut Fares". The Texas International March 15, 1978 timetable advertised "Peanut Fares" in other markets as well.
The first modern frequent flyer program was created at Texas International Airlines in 1979. Lacking the computer resources of their larger competitors, Texas International was overtaken by American's introduction of AAdvantage in May, 1981.
On June 11, 1980 Lorenzo established a holding company, Texas Air Corporation, for Texas International. Texas Air then acquired Continental Airlines in 1982 and merged Continental and Texas International on October 31, 1982 with TI assuming the former's name. The last Texas International aircraft were seen in 1983.
Today's successor to Trans-Texas Airways and Texas International is United Airlines, which merged with Continental in 2010. The airline has a large hub at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, a former hub for Texas International. Dallas/Fort Worth Airport was a hub for Texas International before its merger with Continental.

Fleet

Destinations

Destination information includes Trans-Texas Airways and Texas International scheduled passenger service from 1949 to 1982.

Accidents