The year 2020 is turning out to be a horrible year for aviation worldwide due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has been affecting everyday life and routines around the world. Aviation was one of the industries that have been hit the hardest due to significant decrease in demand for air travel and the number of airlines ceasing operations have only increased just recently, continuing the trend from 2019 where several European carriers have since folded. Now, two regional airlines here in the United States has ceased operations just within days of each other; Trans States Airlines officially ceased operations on April 1, 2020 and Compass Airlines operated their last revenue flight today, April 5, 2020. Both regional carriers were a part of the parent company, Trans States Holdings, Inc., which still remains in business and operating one surviving regional carrier, GoJet Airlines.
Trans States Airlines
Trans States has roots going back to 1982, when it was operating as an independent commuter air carrier known as Resort Air. The airline's "Waterski" call-sign and the ICAO 3-letter identifier "LOF," (which stands for '
Lodge of the
Four
Seasons'), stayed with Trans States all the way until shutdown and is from the early days when the company and took visitors to the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri as Resort Air. Historically, Resort Air and later Trans States Airlines operated on the behalf of the following carriers:
- Starting in 1985, Resort Air entered into an agreement with Trans World Airlines (TWA) to operate as Trans World Express serving six cities in Missouri and Illinois. After TWA and American Airlines merged, Trans States continued flying under the American Connection banner.
- In 1989, Resort Air was renamed to Trans States Airlines; they also began operations on the west coast out of Los Angeles for intra-state service to several California cities on the behalf of USAir (later US Airways) under the USAir Express (later US Airways Express) banner. Trans States continued this partnership under the American Eagle banner after US Airways and American Airlines merged. Trans States and American ended their partnership in 2019.
- In 1995, Trans States Airlines began operating on the behalf of United Airlines under the United Express banner into New York-JFK as a codeshare feeder carrier.
- In 1999, the regional carrier began Delta Connection operations for Delta Air Lines also out of New York-JFK and flew to several destinations along the east coast.
Trans States Airlines started becoming a victim to an emerging trend in 2019, where major mainline airlines began streamlining and reducing the number of regional partners flying the respective express or connection brands; 2019 was also a difficult financial year for the airline. And in February 2020, it was announced that Trans States Airlines would gradually cease operations through 2020 and transfer their what was left of their fleet to ExpressJet Airlines per an agreement with United Airlines, as United decided not to renew it's contract with Trans States in an effort to consolidate regional flying to just a handful of operators. However, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant impact on demand in air travel, it was announced on March 17, 2020 that Trans States Airlines would cease operations much earlier than expected. The final Trans States Airlines flight was on April 1, 2020, from Springfield, Missouri to Denver, Colorado operating as United Express Flight 4695. The cessation of Trans States Airlines marks the end of a nearly 40-year history that included partnerships with storied names like Trans World Airlines (TWA), and USAir/US Airways.
Compass Airlines
The formation of Compass Airlines in 2006 was the result of a contract dispute between Northwest Airlines and its pilots' union, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) regarding scope clause (a contract between a major airline and the trade union of its pilots that limit the number and size of aircraft that may be flown by the airline's regional airline affiliate). After coming to a series of agreements from the dispute, Northwest purchased the operating certificate of Independence Air on March 10, 2006; Independence Air was an east coast-based low-cost airline that went bankrupt and out of business in January 2006. Compass Airlines began operations on May 2, 2007 with a single CRJ-200 under the Northwest Airlink banner as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northwest Airlines. The airline has been an all-E-170/175 operator since August 21, 2007. Following the merger between Delta Air Lines and Northwest in 2009/2010, Compass Airlines became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delta and flew under the Delta Connection banner. Delta would later sell Compass Airlines to Trans States Holdings, Inc. in July 2010.
In March 2015, Compass Airlines began flying E-175s on the behalf of American Airlines under the American Eagle banner out of Los Angeles and Houston. Much of the Compass-operated American Eagle flights focused on the west coast.
In August 2019, Delta Air Lines made the decided to reduce the number of regional airline partners that fly under the Delta Connection brand and terminated it's agreement with Compass Airlines. All the E-175s that flew as Delta Connection were owned by Delta Air Lines, and the majority of the fleet (26 to be exact) was to be transferred to Republic Airways while ten of them to be sold to SkyWest. Originally to be completed by June 2020, Compass agreed to accelerate the removal of all Delta-owned E-175s to April 1, 2020 due to the COVID-19 crisis.
Sadly, in March 2020, Compass Airlines announced that it would cease operations after it's remaining mainline partner American Airlines began cutting and consolidating the majority of its contract flying as a result of the decline in air travel demand stemming from the COVID-19 crisis. The loss of American Airlines left Compass with no partner or affiliate to fly for. Like with Delta, the 20 American Eagle-branded E-175s were owned by American Airlines and will be later placed with Envoy Air (a wholly-owned subsidiary of American Airlines). Compass Airlines operated their final flight today as American Eagle 6047 from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Los Angeles, California. The cessation of Compass Airlines marks the end of the last surviving entity of Northwest Airlines, storied airline that dates back to 1926.
Here's a photo montage of all the Compass Airlines E-175s as well as the single ERJ-145 of Trans States Airlines I managed to photograph:
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Times are sure to be tough for the employees of both Trans States and Compass Airlines, especially during this time where COVID-19 has put a hurt on the industry. Best of luck to the employees of Trans States Airlines and Compass Airlines.
