Trans International Airlines
A Douglas DC-8-61CF in April 1974. | |||||||
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| Founded | 20 December 1948 incorporated in California | ||||||
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| Commenced operations | January 1946 as Los Angeles Air Service 18 July 1960 as Trans International Airlines 1 October 1979 as Transamerica Airlines | ||||||
| Ceased operations | 30 September 1986 | ||||||
| Operating bases | Oakland, California | ||||||
| Fleet size | See Fleet below | ||||||
| Destinations | See Destinations below | ||||||
| Parent company | Studebaker (1962–1964) Transamerica Corporation (1968–1986) | ||||||
| Headquarters | Oakland, California Las Vegas, Nevada | ||||||
| Key people | Kirk Kerkorian Lee Taylor James Porter | ||||||
| Notes | |||||||
(1) IATA, ICAO codes were the same until the 1980s | |||||||
Trans International Airlines (TIA), later Transamerica Airlines, was a United States airline. Regulated as a supplemental air carrier, it offered a hybrid of chartered and scheduled services. TIA was founded as Los Angeles Air Service (LAAS) in the 1940s and flew scheduled service to Hawaii as late as 1961.
Businessman Kirk Kerkorian owned the airline from 1948 to 1962 and again from 1964 to 1968, when he sold it to insurance company Transamerica Corporation. After buying Saturn Airways in 1976 TIA became the largest USA supplemental carrier. After the Airline Deregulation Act of 1979, the airline changed its name to Transamerica and added limited scheduled service. In 1986 Transamerica Corporation, reversing earlier diversification, tried to sell the airline, but liquidated it instead.
In 1984, while Transamerica Airlines was seeking wage cuts, Transamerica Corporation started a second Trans International Airlines, as a non-union subsidiary. Transamerica Corporation set a legal precedent for being allowed to own separate union and non-union airline subsidiaries.