Pacific Northern
Airline
Founded in January 1945 as Woodley Airlines, scheduled successor to preceding Woodley Airways, Arthur G. Woodley’s pioneer Alaskan carrier is renamed Pacific Northern Airways on August 23. Operations continue with 2 ex-USAAF C-73s (military Boeing 247Ds) obtained on June 20. During the first quarter of 1946, four new Douglas DC-3s are acquired, followed by as fifth from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation in May.
On June 20, the company, already certified for certain routes back in 1938, receives a CAB award of a route from Anchorage to Juneau, with intermediate stops. Two ex-military Douglas A-26B Invader bombers are received in October and will be employed for route survey work.
Subject ID: 17198
MoreFounded in January 1945 as Woodley Airlines, scheduled successor to preceding Woodley Airways, Arthur G. Woodley’s pioneer Alaskan carrier is renamed Pacific Northern Airways on August 23. Operations continue with 2 ex-USAAF C-73s (military Boeing 247Ds) obtained on June 20. During the first quarter of 1946, four new Douglas DC-3s are acquired, followed by as fifth from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation in May.
On June 20, the company, already certified for certain routes back in 1938, receives a CAB award of a route from Anchorage to Juneau, with intermediate stops. Two ex-military Douglas A-26B Invader bombers are received in October and will be employed for route survey work.
On August 1, 1947, Pacific Northern Airways is renamed Pacific Northern Airlines. Two more DC-3s are obtained in 1948-1949; the first is resold to All-American Aviation on May 19 of the former year, while the latter is used for spare parts. Pacific Northern becomes a trunk line at the dawn of the 1950s and adopts the subtitle “The Alaska Flag Line.”
An L-749A is destroyed in a bad landing at Kenai, Alaska, on June 6, 1966; there are no fatalities.
On June 20, a B-720-048, originally operated by Aer Lingus Irish Airlines, Ltd., is purchased from Braniff International Airways; 10
Days later, a seventh and final L-749A is acquired from Trans World Airlines (TWA). The airline is caught up in the “merger fever” sweeping the Alaskan airline industry in the middle part of the decade. Having lost several of his best routes and destinations, Arthur Woodley agrees to a merger with Western Airlines on October 31.
The company’s integration into the larger airline (a two-for-one stock transaction) is completed on October 1, 1967, at which time the PNA identity disappears.
Subject ID: 17198
Subject ID: 17198
