Anyone here fly Convair 440 Metropolitans?

What a great era that was -- imagine, catching an airliner at a handy
airport, and being provided with great customer service!

And paying a fortune for the ticket.

True, you didn't have the "super-saver" ticket options. But you DID have
many more options, for a price.

Nowadays, you can't have that -- for ANY price. The service just doesn't
exist.

(Unless you charter, of course, which is still unaffordable for most.)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:

Nowadays, you can't have that -- for ANY price. The service just doesn't
exist.

The service only existed at that time because the government forced airlines to
provide service on some legs at a loss in order to obtain the rights to the more
profitable portions of a route. The service doesn't exist now because nobody can
break even, much less make a profit on those legs.

George Patterson
If a man gets into a fight 3,000 miles away from home, he *had* to have
been looking for it.

The service only existed at that time because the government forced
airlines to
provide service on some legs at a loss in order to obtain the rights to
the more
profitable portions of a route. The service doesn't exist now because
nobody can
break even, much less make a profit on those legs.

Actually, a little-known reason for the loss of airline service to
medium-sized cities (like Iowa City) was the drive to make the Post Office
more efficient.

One main reason Ozark was able to provide passenger service into Iowa City
was the rather lucrative air mail contract. The Post Office subsidized air
mail into Iowa City from 1924 until 1972, when they built a big mail
processing facility in Cedar Rapids, 30 miles to our north..

As soon as the Post Office consolidated mail processing in Cedar Rapids, in
1972 -- *poof* -- the air mail contracts -- and Ozark -- were GONE.

The same thing happened to dozens of otherwise unprofitable Midwestern
airports.

The whole thing is a damned shame -- although the fact that airline service
is so terrible now is really a potential opportunity for general aviation to
grow.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:

One main reason Ozark was able to provide passenger service into Iowa City
was the rather lucrative air mail contract.

And the mail contracts were originally intended to subsidize growth of the air
transport system. Once the airlines were big enough, they were supposed to be
"weaned" of this sort of subsidy, and, in fact, that's what Congress did.

George Patterson
If a man gets into a fight 3,000 miles away from home, he *had* to have
been looking for it.