Wikipedia

Trans Caribbean Airways

Trans Caribbean Airways (TCA) was an irregular air carrier (United States charter airline) until 1957, when it was certificated by the Civil Aeronautics Board as an international air carrier to fly from New York City to San Juan, Puerto Rico. TCA thereafter operated as a small scheduled airline specializing in flying from New York (and later Washington, DC) to the Caribbean, adding a small number of additional routes over time until it was purchased by American Airlines in 1971.

Trans Caribbean Airways
IATA ICAO Callsign
TR - -
FoundedMay 18, 1945 (as Trans Caribbean Air Cargo Lines)
Commenced operationsDecember 1945
Ceased operationsMarch 3, 1971 (Purchased by American Airlines)
HubsLuis Muñoz Marín International Airport
Fleet size9
Destinations9 (by July 7, 1969)
HeadquartersNew York, New York
Key peopleO. Roy Chalk
TCA Boeing 727-200 in 1970

TCA was founded and, for its entire existence controlled, by businessman O. Roy Chalk.

Name edit

TCA was originally organized under the name "Trans Caribbean Air Cargo Lines, Inc.",[1] which continued to be its legal name through 1952, when it became "Trans Caribbean Airlines, Inc.".[2] However, the name "Trans Caribbean Airways" was in use as early as 1946.[3] In 1959 TCA once again changed its legal name, this time to "Transportation Corporation of America dba Trans Caribbean Airways" until 1964, when it reverted to "Trans Caribbean Airlines, Inc.".[4][5]

History edit

Irregular carrier edit

TCA was organized May 18, 1945, acquired two C-47s in June and started operations in December, initially between Miami, New York, Havana and other Caribbean and Latin American points. TCA acquired Douglas DC-4s in April 1946, with DC-4 operations starting in August. The company went public in April 1946 (99,000 shares at $3/share, or about $4.8mm in gross proceeds in 2024 dollars).[6] TCA did well as an irregular carrier, its CAB application for Puerto Rico service noting a history of profitability and of significant charter service to San Juan.[7] However, the airline also functioned as a vehicle for Roy Chalk's wider ambitions. In 1956, Chalk bought D.C. Transit, the pre-Washington Metro Washington, DC streetcar/bus service,[8] and did so through TCA. In 1959, TCA owned 85% of the stock of D.C. Transit.[9]

At the time of its 1957 CAB scheduled certificate award, TCA’s fleet comprised four DC-4s, a DC-6 and two C-46s, with four more DC-6s on order. TCA’s certification was the result of a CAB case adding a new carrier to the New York to San Juan route where the CAB atypically sought to add a carrier (to the two carriers already present – Eastern and Pan Am) that would concentrate on low-priced travel.[7] At the time, Puerto Rican migration to the US mainland was a big deal and New York City was the singular focus of this migration, with 70% of all stateside-Puerto Ricans resident in New York City in 1960 (and even higher levels earlier).[10] The CAB saw low fares between New York City and Puerto Rico as essential for the further development of Puerto Rico and to allow Puerto Rican migrants to the mainland US to easily visit their homeland and with that in mind, certified TCA for an initial period of five years on New York, NY/Newark, NJ-San Juan.[7] The Puerto Rico case therefore was remarkable in having as its results (i) that a supplemental air carrier achieved the status of being a certificated carrier (the only time this ever happened) [11] and (ii) where the CAB explicitly sought to reduce fares.

Certificated success edit

 
May 2012 picture of now-destroyed mosaic at former TCA ticket office at 1022 Ashford Ave, San Juan

TCA was initially successful as a certificated carrier, starting San Juan scheduled service in March 1958. In 1960, the CAB gave it approval to extend the San Juan flight to Aruba.[12] In December 1961 it introduced jet service to San Juan with DC-8-50s.[13][14] It was also successful in suppressing fares – in 1960, Pan Am and Eastern complained of losing $1.7mm and $1mm respectively on New York-San Juan, a year in which TCA broke even on the route.[15] Chalk did not lack for ambition: in 1961 alone he had TCA bid for Northeast Airlines[16] and asked the CAB to serve New York to a number of Midwest cities.[17]

The CAB did not formally review TCA’s certification until September 1966, when it granted TCA permanent authority, viewing it as having made a success of the route. TCA’s typical market share of New York-San Juan was about 25%, though lower in 1966 because it was left short of life after Eastern torched a TCA DC-8 while performing heavy maintenance on it in Miami in November 1965.[18][19] New York-San Juan expanded from being the 11th largest domestic route to the 6th largest by passengers. 1965 passengers on the route were over 2.5 times those of 1955, far above the increase in overall domestic traffic in the same period. This was driven by a dramatic shift in passengers traveling on "thrift" fares, an early form of discount air fare, not generally available elsewhere. In 1958, substantially fewer than 50% of passengers used such fares on New York-San Juan, but by the last 12 months of data available to the CAB at the time (YE Sep 30 1964), almost 92% of all passengers (and 98% of TCA passengers) were using such fares, an early look at the stimulative effect of low-fares in a longer-haul scheduled market (as opposed to the short-haul markets of Pacific Southwest Airlines in California in the same timeframe or Southwest Airlines in Texas in the 1970s). This was well before Laker Airways’ Skytrain in 1977. Fares were as low as $45 (over $450 in 2024 dollars) and the CAB noted the route had some of the lowest yields (revenue per passenger per mile) in the world. Yet TCA continued to make money.[20]

TCA’s fleet at the time comprised three 177-seat DC-8-50s, plus a fourth aircraft leased from another airline one a per-trip basis. Three "stretched-out" (as the CAB put it) DC-8-61 series aircraft were due for delivery in 1967.[20]

Destinations edit

According to the Trans Caribbean system timetable dated July 7, 1969, the following destinations were served on the east coast of the U.S. and the Caribbean:[21]

Fleet edit

 
A Trans Caribbean Douglas DC-8-61CF at Frankfurt Airport in 1970

Trans Caribbean operated the following aircraft types during its existence:[22][23]

Trans Caribbean Airways fleet
Aircraft Total Introduced Retired Notes
Boeing 707-320C 1 1967 1968 Leased from Aer Lingus
Boeing 720 1
Boeing 727-100 3 1967 1971
Boeing 727-200 2 1969
Curtiss C-46 Commando 2 1948 1956
Douglas C-47 Skytrain 2 1945 Un­known
Douglas C-54 Skymaster 7 1946 1962
Douglas DC-6 2 1955 1957
Douglas DC-6B 2 1960 1964
Douglas DC-8-51 2 1961
Douglas DC-8-54CF 3 1963 1971
Douglas DC-8-55CF 1 1970
Douglas DC-8-61CF 3 1967

Accidents and incidents edit

  • On December 28, 1970, Trans Caribbean Airways Flight 505, a Boeing 727-200 (registered N8790R) made a hard landing and ran off the side of the runway of Cyril E. King Airport. Two of the 48 passengers onboard died in a subsequent fire, and the aircraft was then destroyed by the ensuing conflagration.[24][25]

See also edit

External sources edit

  • "Trans Caribbean Airways Flight 505 Aftermath Footage" (video). youtube.com. Air Crash Daily. December 28, 2022.

References edit

  1. ^ "Transatlantic Cargo Case". Civil Aeronautics Board Reports. 21: 712. 1955. hdl:2027/osu.32435022360531.
  2. ^ "ARRETE". Le Moniteur; Journal Officiel de la République d’Haiti. 124 (65). 7 July 1969.
  3. ^ Airways Plans Debut, Miami Herald, June 11, 1946
  4. ^ "Docket 10776 Transportation Corporation of America (Formerly Trans Caribbean Airlines, Inc.), Reissuance of Certificate—order E-14592 adopted October 29, 1959". Civil Aeronautics Board Reports. 30: 1506–1507. 1959. hdl:2027/uc1.b2938521.
  5. ^ "Docket 15364 Trans Caribbean Airways, Inc., Name Change—order E-21119 adopted July 27, 1964". Civil Aeronautics Board Reports. 40: 864. 1964. hdl:2027/uc1.b2939172.
  6. ^ IPO tombstone in Philadelphia Inquirer, April 25, 1946
  7. ^ a b c "Service to Puerto Rico Case". Civil Aeronautics Board Reports. 26. Civil Aeronautics Board: 72–164. October 1957 – June 1958. hdl:2027/uc1.b2938517.
  8. ^ D.C. Transit Firm Being Sold To Airline Man, Washington Evening Sun, August 3, 1956
  9. ^ Regulation of D.C. Transit System, Inc.: hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, House of Representatives, Eighty-sixth Congress, first session, on H.R. 2316, H.R. 4163, and H.R. 4815, bills to insure effective regulation of D.C. Transit System, Inc., and fair and equal competition between D.C. Transit System, Inc., and its competitors (Report). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1959. p. 346. hdl:2027/ien.35556021313861.
  10. ^ "1960 Census: Population, Puerto Ricans in the United States" (PDF). Census.gov. February 14, 2019. p. 7. Retrieved June 10, 2023.
  11. ^ Burkhardt, Robert (1974). CAB--The Civil Aeronautics Board. Dulles Intl Airport, Virginia: The Green Hills Publishing Company. p. 116. LCCN 74082194.
  12. ^ Antilles Route Approved. Buffalo News, January 22, 1960
  13. ^ Puerto Rico Ports Authority (1961). Annual Report 1960/61 (Report). p. 5. hdl:2027/ien.35556038792172.
  14. ^ Trans Caribbean To Purchase Jets, Oakland Tribune, June 5, 1961
  15. ^ San Juan Air Fares 'Too Low' , Atlanta Constitution, August 18, 1961
  16. ^ Matchmaker Air Lines Ask Northeast's Route, Miami Herald, September 20, 1961
  17. ^ Air Line Seeks To Fill ‘Gap’ in Eastern U.S., Chicago Tribune, August 29, 1961
  18. ^ 3 Burned In Jetliner Fire, Miami News, November 26, 1965
  19. ^ "Douglas DC-8-54F N8784R Miami International (MIA)". Aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved May 8, 2024.
  20. ^ a b "United States-Caribbean-South America Route Investigation (Trans Caribbean Airways, Inc., New York-San Juan Renewal)". Civil Aeronautics Board Reports. 45. Civil Aeronautics Board: 622–636. July–November 1966. hdl:2027/uc1.b3534402.
  21. ^ "Airline Timetable Images". Timetableimages.com. Retrieved 2016-09-10.
  22. ^ "Trans Caribbean Airways Fleet Details and History". Planespotters.net. Retrieved August 23, 2023.
  23. ^ "Trans Caribbean Airways". Aerobernie.bplaced.net. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
  24. ^ "Boeing 727-2A7 N8790R Saint Thomas-Harry S.Truman Airport (STT)". Aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved May 8, 2024.
  25. ^ Robert Lindsey (December 29, 1970). "2 Die and 51 Hurt in Virgin Islands Jet Crash". Nytimes.com.
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