Simmons Airlines

Simmons Airlines
IATA ICAO Callsign
MQ SYM SIMMONS
Founded 1978
Commenced operations 1978
Ceased operations May 15, 1998
Hubs
Parent company AMR Corporation
Headquarters Marquette, Michigan (later Chicago, Illinois)

Simmons Airlines was a United States airline. It was the predecessor to American Eagle Airlines. Its headquarters were originally near Marquette, Michigan, at the Marquette County Airport in Negaunee,[1] and were eventually moved to the Near North Side of Chicago, Illinois.[2]

History

Simmons Airlines, Inc. began operations in 1978 between Marquette and Lansing using a Piper Navajo. Operations expanded in the 1980s to link multiple points in Michigan to Chicago and Detroit, and its fleet expanded with Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante, Shorts 360s, and YS-11s. It began operating as a Republic Express branded carrier on April 28, 1985 (later Northwest Airlink) serving markets from Detroit, and as an American Eagle branded carrier on October 1, 1985 serving markets from Chicago.[3]

Simmons was acquired by AMR Corp. on August 1, 1987 and ended Northwest Airlink flights soon after. On May 28, 1993, it acquired certain assets of the holdings of Metro Airlines. Metro Airlines and its holdings Metro Airlines Leasing d/b/a Metroflight, operated American Eagle flights from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and had recently acquired Chaparral Airlines just prior the asset acquisition by AMR Simmons.

In 1998 the remaining certificated regional airline carriers Wings West Airlines and Flagship Airlines, which were both wholly owned by the AMR Corporation and operating under the American Eagle banner and brand, were merged under the surviving Simmons Airlines IATA designator 'MQ', thus forming a certificated airline named American Eagle Airlines (rather than just an Airlink, Connect, Connection, Eagle, or Express airline codeshare brand).

Incidents/accidents

References

  1. The Mining Journal obituary for Simmons executive Joel Murray, November 11, 2009
  2. "World Airline Directory." Flight International. March 14–20, 1990. 127.
  3. "Simmons To Serve 11 Cities As American Airlines Link", The Chicago Tribune, August 15, 1985 .
  4. "CHI79FA025, 14 CFR Part 135 Scheduled operation of L.J.SIMMONS". Retrieved 8 Apr 2013.
  5. NTSB Aircraft Accident Report (AAR) number AAR-87/02 .
  6. Archived November 28, 2005, at the Wayback Machine.
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