Universal Airlines (United States)
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| Commenced operations | 29 December 1966 name change from Zantop Air Transport | ||||||
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| Ceased operations | 4 May 1972 | ||||||
| Operating bases | Willow Run Airport Oakland International Airport | ||||||
| Fleet size | see Fleet below | ||||||
| Key people | Lamar Muse Glenn L. Hickerson | ||||||
| Notes | |||||||
(1) IATA, ICAO codes were the same until the 1980s | |||||||
Universal Airlines was a United States supplemental air carrier that operated from 1966 to 1972, based initially at Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti, Michigan and later at Oakland International Airport in California. Universal was a re-naming of Zantop Air Transport. At the time, supplemental air carrier was the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) term for charter airline, the CAB being the Federal agency that tightly regulated US carriers in that era. Universal was one of the largest such carriers, but only briefly profitable and did not survive 1972 bankruptcy.
From September 1957 to September 1959, an unrelated supplemental air carrier called S.S.W. operated under the dba of Universal Airlines.
A Houston-based commuter air carrier used the Universal Airways name in the late 1970s.
Another unconnected Universal Airlines based at Detroit City Airport operated air freight during the 1980s and 1990s with DC-6s.