Reeve Aleutian Airways Pilot Hat Badge 1st Issue
Anchorage, AK
1947-2000
In February 1946, Bob Reeve received a call informing him that some ex military airplanes were for sale. Reeve bought them and that was the beginning of his airline at Merrill Field, Alaska located one mile east of downtown Anchorage. The airline started flying to Seattle, Juneau, Yakutat and Attu.
On March 24, 1947, Reeve Aleutian Airways was incorporated. The company was running scheduled and charter services all over Alaska, despite not having a formal CAA certificate. About this time, Reeve was ordered to get authorization which he did. In April 1948, Reeve Aleutian Airways was granted a temporary, five-year airline certificate. In 1950, Reeve bought Pacific Airmotive, who were doing his maintenance, and renamed it Reeve Airmotive. By the mid-1950s, it was apparent that the DC-3s were not big enough and the DC-4 was selected to supplement the DC-3s, eventually replacing them. Reeve's first DC-4 was purchased in March 1957. The first scheduled DC-4 flight was on March 12, 1957. The route was Anchorage-Kodiak-Cold Bay-Adak-Amchitka-Shemya-Attu. Umnak was served as required. Reeve moved to Anchorage International in 1958 and in 1962 a DC-6B was purchased in January 1962. The late 1960s saw the emergence of the L-188 Electra, which was to be backbone of Reeve Aleutian's business from then on. In August 1999, Reeve Aleutian entered into a code-share agreement with Alaska Air on the route between Seattle, Anchorage and Petrovpavlosk and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Reeve Aleutian eased operations on December 5, 2000, and about 250 people were declared redundant. Reasons given for the situation included increased competition and high fuel prices. At the end, only one Electra and a 727 were in service.
