Crownvic From United States of America, joined Oct 2004, 1595 posts, RR: 6 Reply 1, posted (7 years 11 months 6 days 13 hours ago) and read 1985 times:
From what I remember, during the winter months, they flew many inter-Florida routes all through out the state. In the summer, like many of PBA's aircraft, they would be repositioned for New England/Northeast flying.
John From United States of America, joined Sep 1999, 1366 posts, RR: 6 Reply 3, posted (7 years 11 months 6 days 4 hours ago) and read 1944 times:
I also remember PBA flying a bunch of vintage DC-3s. For some reason though, I don't ever remember seeing a YS-11. I know they had a fairly large operation out of BOS, Cape Cod and the islands. I've also seen them at West Palm Beach operating Eastern Express flights in the late '80s.
BostonBeau From United States of America, joined Sep 2000, 459 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (7 years 11 months 6 days 4 hours ago) and read 1938 times:
I remember seeing a YS-11 waiting to load for New York in Hyannis, while I was boarding the Boston DC-3.
Knope2001 From United States of America, joined May 2005, 2555 posts, RR: 31 Reply 5, posted (7 years 11 months 6 days 4 hours ago) and read 1934 times:
In addition to the YS-11s and DC3s they also used Martin 404s, Cessna 402s and...gasp...a contemporary aircraft for the time, the Embraer Banderante.
3201 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 7, posted (7 years 11 months 5 days 1 hour ago) and read 1853 times:
I don't have the definitive answer, but I had a vague memory of number being six, and some random site I found listed six reg numbers (N159P, N187P, N219P, N259P, N273P, N924).
The people who have been posting trivia from OAG's from the early/mid 80s should be able to answer where they were scheduled for. I'm pretty sure TPA-APF was a big one (along with the DC3's and 404's), and probably MIA-APF as well. (I only know about the southern network.)
I definitely remember when PBA introduced their first Bandierantes (which was their first turbine power), big deal about "Prop-Jets" (I think) and flew them TPA-EYW. My wife flew a Cessna 402 MIA-APF (or possibly MIA-FMY, which they added at some point as well) as a kid and her brother got to sit in the seat next to the pilot. Loved watching (and listening to!) those DC3's and 404's flying slowly over my house in Tampa having departing 18L.
Knope2001 From United States of America, joined May 2005, 2555 posts, RR: 31 Reply 8, posted (7 years 11 months 4 days 18 hours ago) and read 1819 times:
PBA had at least six YS-11's, although the 1985 Airline Handbook says that they have six plus were selling three additional ones. That of course means nine total, but I don't recall it being that many.
PBA, especially in some of their tourist markets, was very much the type of airline that would roll out to suit the load. The 5:00pm from Boston to Hyannis might have bee scheduled as a Martin 404, but some lighter days they'd just roll out a DC3 or even a Cessna 402, and other heavy days they might have rolled out a DC3 or even a second 404 in addition to the scheduled 404. For this reason, and the fact that they probably had a lot of regular mx work on the old airframes, I think PBA always had a lot more aircraft that their scheduled line of flying would indicate. So they may have had more YS-11's that one might think seeing the schedule.
Later in their life I think this type of swap-as-you-go flying was far less, and probably never happened in their less-seasonal Florida markets like Pensacola-Tallahassee-Jacksonville. But it was a regular seasonal feature in New England and probably also happened in markets like Naples and Key West.
As for YS-11 markets, the OAGs I have from the period show YS-11's linking Miami to Key West, Fort Myers and Sarasota in early spring of 1983. In summer of 1983 I find the YS-11's doing all the flying between LaGuardia and Nantucket, Marthas vineyard, Hyannis and New Bedford.
Those LaGuardia flights benefited from not only the capacity, but the speed o fthe YS-11 as well. The Martin 404 was also sometimes used on those flights from the islands to NYC. It's only a 200 mile hop to Nantucket, but the Martin's scheduled time was very slow in comparison
Martin 404
85 minutes
YS-11
70 minutes
D9S
55 minutes
BE1 (today)
70 minutes
By summer of 1986 the YS-11s were gone and PBA flew 404's to LGA. New York Air flew D9S, and so PBA was at a definite disadvantage time-wise.
If I find any other PBA YS-11 routes I'll post them.
As a side note, the only YS-11 operators in the United States I come up with are these:
Knope2001 From United States of America, joined May 2005, 2555 posts, RR: 31 Reply 10, posted (7 years 11 months 4 days 17 hours ago) and read 1808 times:
No problem! I don't have the best of resources from that period so I didn't post anything at first because I thought others would.
Regarding NY going to Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard and Hyannis, the 7/85 OAG I have only shows NY at ACK, not the other two.
LGA to Nantucket nonstop flights by day of week
1 Monday through Wednesday
3 Thursday & Friday
2 Saturday & Sunday (one on Saturday was an M80)
BOS to Nantucket nonstop flights by day of week
1 Monday through Saturday
2 Sunday
Most of the BOS-ACK flights originated in New York, too.
Is anyone more certain if NY did or did not fly to MVY or HYA? Thanks!
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From United States of America, joined Sep 1999, 1366 posts, 
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