Modern Air Transport
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Modern Air Transport, Inc. (operating as Modern Air) was a US supplemental carrier founded in 1946. It was headquartered in Miami, Florida. In addition to Miami, New York used to be a base for Modern Air. In 1968 the airline established an overseas base at Tegel Airport in what used to be West Berlin, in the days prior to Germany's [re-]unification. Berlin Tegel was the main operational base from 1968 until 1974. Modern Air ceased operations in 1975.
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[edit] History
Modern Air commenced commercial operations in 1946 with war-surplus Curtiss C-46 piston-engined airliners.
During the late 1960s Modern Air acquired a number of former American Airlines Convair CV-990A "Coronado" jetliners.[1] Modern Air's "Coronados" were configured in a spacious 139-seat, single-class seating arrangement.[1] Eventually, an eight-strong "Coronado" fleet replaced all of the older, piston-engined airliners. Throughout its entire existence, Modern Air owned and/or operated ten CV-990s in total.[2]
In April 1968 some of the newly acquired jets were stationed at West Berlin's Tegel Airport.[1] These aircraft were assigned to fulfill a new charter contract Modern Air had concluded with Berliner Flug Ring, at the time West Berlin's leading package tour operator, to undertake a series of short- to medium-haul IT charter flights to the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands.[3] The decision to supply whole-plane charter airline seats to West Berlin's foremost package tour operator enabled Modern Air to take advantage of the fact that all airlines other than those headquartered in the US, the UK and France - the airlines of the three Western victorious powers of World War II - were banned from operating at West Berlin.[4]
Modern Air's four-engined "Coronados" were the largest aircraft based at any Berlin airport at that time.[4]
As the company's flying programme from Berlin gradually expanded, additional aircraft joined the Berlin-based fleet. By the early 1970s five "Coronados" were permanently stationed at Tegel Airport.[4]
During that period Modern Air also began experimenting with scheduled services from its Berlin base.
A single 12-seater "Hansa Jet", which was acquired in 1970 as an air taxi to serve destinations not accessible by scheduled flights from West Berlin at the time, was also used on the Berlin Tegel - Saarbrücken route on a year-round, daily scheduled basis.[5][6]
In April 1971 Modern Air launched twice-daily Tegel-Saarbrücken flights with its "Hansa Jet".[6]
Passenger loads soon exceeded the small capacity of the "Hansa Jet", as a result of which Modern Air applied to the Allied Air Attachés in Bonn, the West German aviation authorities as well as the US CAB for permission to substitute "Coronados" on both daily rotations.[7] However, both the Allied Air Attachés as well as the CAB refused this.[7] They favoured a rival application Pan Am had submitted to take over Modern Air's Saarbrücken route and to serve it with Boeing 727-100s from Pan Am's base at the rival Tempelhof Airport because they considered that airline's 128-seat 727-100s more appropriate for this route than Modern Air's 139-seat "Coronados".[7] They also thought that most West Berliners preference for Tempelhof would make the proposed Pan Am operation from that airport more successful than the continuation of Modern Air's existing service from Tegel.[7]
When Pan Am unexpectedly announced its withdrawal from the Tempelhof-Saarbrücken route after less than a year's operation citing insufficient demand [8][9], Modern Air reapplied for permission to run twice-daily scheduled Tegel-Saarbrücken services with its "Coronados".[9] Permission for Modern Air to resume its scheduled Tegel-Saarbrücken route was granted in time for a summer re-launch.[10] As a result, the CV-990A "Coronado" became the largest contemporary aircraft type to operate a scheduled service into Saarbrücken's small airport.[10]
Several fare increases and the recession following in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis resulted in much reduced demand for air travel in the Berlin-Saarbrücken market.[11] This, in turn, necessitated a major reduction in frequency to just two round-trips per week from April 1974 onwards.[11]
These events as well as the fact that the "Coronado" was far too big and consumed too much fuel to serve a regional scheduled route economically ultimately put paid to the firm's scheduled ambitions.[4]
Steeply rising jet fuel prices in the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and Modern Air's reliance on the fuel-thirsty "Coronado" had caused a significant increase in its operating costs. This was of particular importance for its operations from and to West Berlin as under Allied air navigation rules aircraft were only permitted to fly at a height of 10,000 feet while passing through the Allied air corridors over East Germany, a sub-optimal, fuel-inefficient cruising altitude for modern jet aircraft.[4] To recoup its sharply higher fuel costs in the Berlin market, the airline imposed a fuel surcharge on all tour operators that had contracted their flying programme from Berlin to it. The operators passed on this fuel surcharge to their IT passengers. A major disagreement over the fuel surcharge between Modern Air's management and its counterpart at Berliner Flug Ring, its main overseas business partner, led to a reduction in the Berlin-based fleet from five to four aircraft for the 1974 summer season. There was a plan to replace the fuel-guzzling "Coronados" with more efficient, second-hand McDonnell-Douglas DC-9-30s in time for the 1975 summer season. However, an attempt on Modern Air's part to pass on a further increase in its fuel surcharge to Berliner Flug Ring for the planned 1974/'75 winter flying programme resulted in the tour operator's refusal to renew its long-standing charter contract with the airline.[3] This, in turn, resulted in the closure of Modern Air's Berlin Tegel base at the end of October 1974. The airline had carried over two million passengers during its seven-year presence at West Berlin, which roughly equated to the city's contemporary population.[4]
Modern Air ceased operations during 1975, as a consequence of having its operating permit revoked by the FAA.
[edit] Aircraft operated
Modern Air operated the following aircraft types throughout its 29-year existence:
- Curtiss C-46
- Convair CV-990A "Coronado"
- HFB-320 "Hansa Jet".
[edit] Accidents and incidents
On 8 August 1970 a Convair CV-990A-30A-8 (registration N5630) undershot the runway at Acapulco's Álvarez International Airport during a VOR/ILS approach at the end of a ferry/positioning flight that had originated in New York. The aircraft collided with the airport's approach lights and caught fire. Although the aircraft was a complete write-off, there were no fatalities or serious injuries among the eight crew members on board.[1]
During 1971 one of Modern Air's Berlin-based CV-990As en route from Berlin Tegel to Bulgaria was unexpectedly denied permission to enter Bulgarian airspace, as a result of a new policy adopted by that country's then communist government to deny any aircraft whose flight had originated or was going to terminate at a West Berlin airport the right to take off and land at any of its airports. This resulted in the aircraft having to turn back to Berlin, where it landed safely at the city's Tegel Airport.[12]
[edit] Code data
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c Another 990 for Modern, Flight International, 4 April 1968, p. 477
- ^ Aircraft Profile - Convair 990, Air International, May 2008, p.65
- ^ a b Modern Air Signs Up, flightglobal.com, Archives, 1969
- ^ a b c d e f Berlin Airport Company - Summary of 1974 Annual Report, February 1975 Monthly Timetable Booklet for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1975
- ^ Berlin Air Taxi Starts, Air Transport ... Light Commercial & Business, Flight International, 4 June 1970, p. 916
- ^ a b Berlin Airport Company, April 1971 Monthly Timetable Booklet for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1971
- ^ a b c d Berlin Airport Company, January 1972 Monthly Timetable Booklet for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1972
- ^ Berlin Airport Company, January 1973 Monthly Timetable Booklet for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1973
- ^ a b Berlin Airport Company, March 1973 Monthly Timetable Booklet for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1973
- ^ a b Berlin Airport Company, August 1973 Monthly Timetable Booklet for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1973
- ^ a b Berlin Airport Company, April 1974 Monthly Timetable Booklet for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1974
- ^ Berlin Airport Company - Special News Report on Bulgaria's denial of entry to an Allied aircraft operating a regular charter flight from West Berlin during September 1971, October 1971 Monthly Timetable Booklet for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1971
[edit] References
- Berlin Airport Company - October 1971 to February 1975, various monthly timetable booklets for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports (German language edition only), 1971 to 1975. Berlin Airport Company.
- "Flight International" . Reed Business Information. ISSN 0015-3710. (various backdated issues relating to Modern Air Transport, 1968-1975)
[edit] External links
Aviation Safety Network database - Modern Air Transport accidents/incidents
Modern Air Convair CV-990-30A-5 N5617 about to touch down at Berlin Tegel during August 1968
1:400 Gemini Jets model of Convair CV-990A "Coronado" in Modern Air colours
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