Air Midwest Pilot Wing 2nd Issue

Wichita, KS 1965-2008

Started in May 1965 by Gary Adamson as Aviation Services, Inc. and in 1969, it changed its name to Air Midwest. Besides initially flying as an independent air carrier, it later operated code sharing feeder flights on behalf of Eastern Air Lines as Eastern Air Midwest Express, on behalf of as Trans World Express and on behalf of US Airways as US Airways Express. It also operated feeder flights on behalf of Braniff and Ozark Airlines in addition to flying for Mesa Airlines. By June 1988, Air Midwest had built up the Kansas City hub with 89 flights per day to 20 cities. Eastern then abruptly pulled out of Kansas City thus leaving Air Midwest with no one to connect passenger traffic to. Air Midwest quickly negotiated a codeshare agreement with the second incarnation of Braniff as Braniff was now building up Kansas City as a hub. However, this development occurred just before Braniff once again went into bankruptcy. After the collapse of Braniff in 1990, Air Midwest negotiated yet another new codeshare agreement, this time with USAir to feed the Kansas City hub. Air Midwest was shut down by its parent company Mesa Airlines in June 2008. On July 12, 1991, the St. Louis hub was sold to TransStates, all else to Mesa.