Tower Air
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Tower Air was a low-fare and charter airline that operated from 1982 until 2000, when it declared bankruptcy and was liquidated. The airline initially competed with People Express in the high-density U.S. domestic market, but switched to international flights in the mid-1980s.
It was owned by an Israeli Jew of Iraqi ancestry who had moved to the United States.
The company won many contracts from the United States Department of Defense to transport U.S. armed personnel to overseas locations: it also flew refugees out of Kosovo in the 1990s, and was often chartered to fly groups of Muslim pilgrims to Mecca.
Tower Air's main base of scheduled operations was John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York. At one point it had built its own terminal which it departed from at JFK. Its main focus was its many flights to Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, and was a major competitor of El Al and British Airways in the US-Israel market. It also flew to France, Greece, Puerto Rico, and Brazil as well as domestic flights. It used Boeing 747 aircraft exclusively, but they were all -100 and -200 series planes.
Other facts of interest
- Tower Air was prominently featured in the Ray Liotta movie Turbulence.
- Many former Tower Air airplanes have been stored in Marana, Arizona.
- Major artifacts from the World Trade Center are housed for safekeeping in the former Tower Air Hanger 17 at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
External links
- 1997 interview with co-founder (http://www.twst.com/notes/articles/gax626.html)
- Jerusalem Post article on bankruptcy (http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/03/01/News/News.3384.html)
- Essay on the Tower Air bankruptcy (http://www.weil.com/wgm/cWGMPubs.nsf/0/ab0e35b237df5d5185256b730064baf9?OpenDocument)
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