Matt D From United States, joined Nov 1999, 9502 posts, RR: 52 Posted (3 years 3 months 1 week 6 days 11 hours ago) and read 1563 times:
Here is a scan of a Western Pacific Airlines ticket jacket and timetable from their last days, before they shut down. It shows a change of color scheme, logo, and livery from their original. The colors are a-la Northwest.
To my knowledge, no actual planes were painted in this "new" livery.
Or were there?
My questions are:
Why was this change proposed if the fleet was all LogoJet?
Was the LogoJet program about to be cancelled?
What was the first plane scheduled to be painted in this livery had they not shutdown?
The date on the timetable shows "effective June 29, 1997". WestPac did not actually cease ops until February 1998, allowing more than ample time to repaint a plane or 5. Look at ol' number "962" and how many times THAT plane had its livery changed. Why weren't any planes repainted?
Matt D From United States, joined Nov 1999, 9502 posts, RR: 52 Reply 2, posted (3 years 3 months 1 week 6 days 11 hours ago) and read 1545 times:
Well they filed for BK in or around October 1997. They were unable to extend their re-org plan and were forced to shutdown and liquidate.
WestPac had a great business plan initially, but early on, managed to botch it. They served too many cities with too few planes. Except for the large West Coast cities (LAX, SAN, PHX, LAS), and the hub of COS, most cities only had one flight a day. They then hatched a scheme to merge with Frontier (I'll see if I can dig that up to scan and post), which Frontier backed out of at the last minute. Finally, WestPac abandoned their COS hub and moved it to DEN. The existing hubs of United and Frontier finished them off.
They thought that moving from COS to DEN would allow for greater expansion oppurtunities. Instead, it just gave F9 and UA the excuse they needed to eat poor WesPac alive.
HZ747300 From Hong Kong SAR, PRC, joined Mar 2004, 1414 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (3 years 3 months 1 week 6 days 11 hours ago) and read 1506 times:
Their planes used to be flying billboards. One of the first flying billboards I believe. The executives came to ASU (Arizona State) to speak to students in the management classes before their demise, then less than a year later they filed for bankruptcy protection.
However, I did not think that a hub could work in Colorado Springs, and even after the move to Denver, they slowly wilted away like a flower in a cupboard.
Lindy Field From United States, joined Mar 2001, 2880 posts, RR: 4 Reply 8, posted (3 years 3 months 1 week 5 days 22 hours ago) and read 1166 times:
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I'd never seen that livery before, thanks for showing us all the scan. I have to say though, it looks really dull. Reminds me a bit of the Braniff "Reebok" livery but with less color.
Quickmover From United States, joined Mar 2004, 2203 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (3 years 3 months 1 week 5 days 22 hours ago) and read 1144 times:
If memory serves, seems like Westpac had some of those DEN East side A gates that Frontier could surely use today. Obviously merging with Westpac would not have been worth it, as both carriers would probably be gone today. Perhaps when UAL finally discloses their reorg. plan, they will either use all of their gates efficiently or let some go back to the city.
Matt D From United States, joined Nov 1999, 9502 posts, RR: 52 Reply 14, posted (3 years 3 months 1 week 5 days 17 hours ago) and read 770 times:
I doubt it. The Simpsons plane was their second plane in the LogoJet family (it never appeared in any "plain" WestPac livery), and so existed pretty much the whole time they were in business. Besides, FOX and the other sponsors were paying WestPac. Not the other way around. So I doubt that had anything to do with it.
Vegasplanes From United States, joined Jun 2005, 667 posts, RR: 2 Reply 15, posted (3 years 3 months 1 week 5 days 14 hours ago) and read 685 times:
Quoting Matt D (Reply 14): The Simpsons plane was their second plane in the LogoJet family (
In addition to the "Simpsons" plane they also had a "Sam's Town" logo jet for the casinos, no sure if it was advertising the Vegas or Riverboat casinos that Sam's Town operated at the time.
M404 From United States, joined Nov 2003, 1955 posts, RR: 4 Reply 16, posted (3 years 3 months 1 week 5 days 14 hours ago) and read 656 times:
I had heard from other West Pac employees on this site that the Billboard scheme had not "worked out" and was not "Financially beneficial" but do not remember any other sources and yes, they both said the plan was to be phased out.
I wonder if the grey on the scan was to be grey on the aircraft. Really different for the times. I've not seen that before.
Less sarcasm and more thought equal better understanding
Flashmeister From United States, joined Apr 2000, 2505 posts, RR: 17 Reply 17, posted (3 years 3 months 1 week 5 days 9 hours ago) and read 521 times:
I don't recall any planes in those colors, but all of the signage for WestPac at DEN (for the year or so that they existed there) was using the grey-and-red scheme.
What killed them, IMHO, was their initial decision to split the COS hub between DEN and COS. By the time they moved all ops to DEN, it was too late no matter what they did.
As I've posted here before, my Mom was actually on a WestPac flight EWR-DEN the morning that they announced they were ceasing ops. I dropped her off at EWR and heard about the shutdown on the way home later on. Her flight took off and went back to DEN with passengers onboard, and they announced enroute that no connecting flights would be departing from DEN. Upon arrival, it was basically a mess: no one to marshall the plane in, no one to deal with the bags, and no one to answer questions. She ended up getting back to PDX on a United flight a few days later and spent some time with family instead, no big deal at all.
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