MarkAir

MarkAir was an Alaska jet carrier operating from 1984 to 1995 that started after World War II as Interior Airways (later Alaska International Air (AIA)). Interior Airways grew from founder Jim Magoffin's bush pilot activities to pioneering flying freight to Alaska's North Slope (facing the Arctic Ocean), first in the 1950s for the military and then later, as an intrastate airline, playing a key role in supporting oil exploration in the 1960s (that resulted in the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field), including flying Lockheed L-100 Hercules aircraft into gravel strips laid down on tundra (or in the case of AIA, onto icebergs).

In the 1970s, after the airline was renamed AIA, leadership shifted to Neil Bergt, who ultimately ended up with complete ownership. Bergt oversaw AIA's support of the construction of the Alaska pipeline and engineered the abortive consolidation of AIA plus Wien Air Alaska with Western Airlines soon after US airline deregulation in the early 1980s. In 1984, Bergt changed AIA's identity again to MarkAir to pursue passenger service. MarkAir dominated much of the intra-Alaska market and demonstrated consistently high profitability, despite which the mercurial Bergt at one time said he hated the airline. In 1991, MarkAir shifted from cooperating to competing with Alaska Airlines, leading to two bankruptcies. By its 1995 demise, MarkAir service had shifted entirely to the Lower 48 in a failed attempt to be a low-cost carrier.