Thomasphoto60 From United States of America, joined Jan 2000, 3723 posts, RR: 25 Posted (7 years 8 months 3 weeks 1 day 7 hours ago) and read 1516 times:
Looking at some pics taken from MSY, I came across this oddball carrier, Northeastern International Airways. From the pics that I have seen in the DB, they were a shortlived carrier, that despite their name, seemed to be a much more common site on the SAN/MSY/MIA-MCO sector.
727LOVER From United States of America, joined Oct 2001, 5722 posts, RR: 20 Reply 1, posted (7 years 8 months 3 weeks 1 day 7 hours ago) and read 1501 times:
Viasa From Switzerland, joined Jun 2005, 1813 posts, RR: 7 Reply 2, posted (7 years 8 months 3 weeks 15 hours ago) and read 1423 times:
Northeastern International Airways was founded by Northeastern Travel back in 1979, but it was a "paper airline".
On February 11, 1982, NIA began glying between Islip and Fort Lauderdale with 2 DC-8-50s (leased from Evergreen). Very fast they introduced service to Hartford, Baltimore, Miami, Orlando and St Petersburg. After the purchise of four ex Pan Am B727-100s in 1983 they started service to New Orleans Kansas City, Las Vegas and San Diego.
NIA was at that time the fastest growing start-up-carrier.
In 1984 they swiched the DC-8-50s to serveral DC-8-62s and they adding two B727-200 and a pair of leased (LH) A300 B4s (used on the routes out of New York to Florida).
With the DC-8 they also fly to Europe.
After Sir Freddie Laker join NIA they also want to take over Air Florida... and they want also lease ten Braniff B727s for the wintersaison.
NIA filed for Chapter 11 on January 8, 1985 and they stopped all flights on March 4, 1985. Only for a short time the resumed flights (Islip-Philadelphia-Fort Lauderdale) on June 21, 1985 with a leased United B727-200 and later with leased All Star DC-9s. Service were suspended for a second time on November 5, 1985.
LGA777 From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 1101 posts, RR: 22 Reply 3, posted (7 years 8 months 3 weeks 14 hours ago) and read 1392 times:
To add to Viasa's very good description (except there was never service to Europe) at it's peak in 1984 this was the QS Fleet
4 A-300-B2 1C all ex LH
3 DC-8-62 1 ex UAL, 1 ex JAL, 1 ex SAS
4 727-200 2 ex Vasp, 1 ex MX, 1 ex Western
5 727-100 4 ex Pan Am and 1 ex NAL/Pan AM
At the peak in 1984 QS served the following cities
BOS, BDL, JFK, ISP, MIA, FLL, PBI, MCO, PIE, MSY. LIT, MCI. TUL, OKC, LAS, LAX, SAN.
PHL was served briefly in 1985 as Viasa stated earlier.
The main downfall of this carrier was a combination of trying to compete in to many markets against the majors after starting out in just underserved markets like ISP. Also the founder Stephen Quinto, (hence the airline code QS) was CEO, President, Owner, Primary Stockholder did not want to take the airline public and also refused outside investment. Many $millions of dollars where availbable but S.Q. did want others telling him how to run his airline, he preferred failure which was a shame for the very dedicated work force my self included.
I hope this helps a little, I believe there are photo's of every aircraft QS operated on this db
many of which where in hybrid schemes, it was a very colorful airline.
Jetpixx From United States of America, joined Jul 2004, 811 posts, RR: 2 Reply 4, posted (7 years 8 months 3 weeks 13 hours ago) and read 1366 times:
I flew on Northeastern before - from FLL-ISP-BOS - and back. They also flew out of PBI briefly, from the terminal on the SE side of the airport - away from the main terminal - which now is near where Trump parks his 727. I also flew the DC-8 from ISP-FLL once and the air conditioning was not working, so the plane was sweltering.
They were a decent airline - with service to SAN, MSY, BOS, ISP, FLL and PBI, as well as MIA.
I remember the blue/clouds 727 had a landing gear malfunction at MIA one time.
I just picked up one of their timetables off of EBay - but it is at home. I'll add more information later if you'd like.
Capitol8s From United States of America, joined Apr 2004, 93 posts, RR: 1 Reply 5, posted (7 years 8 months 3 weeks 13 hours ago) and read 1338 times:
Hi All:
I was a load planner/Ops agent at LAX in 1984 for QS, Our station saw mainly the A300, D-AIAD and F-ODRD for the LAX-MSY-FLL legs.....D-AIAD was still painted in LH livery with a Northeastern Sticker on either side of the fuselage, the interior still had LH seats with the QS high density confiruration.
Every now and then we did get the DC-8, OY-KTE and on a rare occasion we saw PUFF and/or ROSIE which are the 2 727s painted with clouds on them.
LAX was a fun place to work, the airline itself had a great product but I think we tried to expand too fast in markets that were already saturated.
Cody From United States of America, joined May 1999, 1918 posts, RR: 10 Reply 6, posted (7 years 8 months 3 weeks 11 hours ago) and read 1287 times:
I read somewhere that the A300 fligths to LAX had good food. Big salads with turkey and ham and chocolate pudding. Does that ring-a-bell LGA777 and Capitol8s? Also, did QS ever serve MDW and HOU? Were they MSY's dominant carrier?
Capitol8s From United States of America, joined Apr 2004, 93 posts, RR: 1 Reply 8, posted (7 years 8 months 3 weeks 10 hours ago) and read 1252 times:
There were no flights to/from MDW unless there was a charter which would have been on a 727 as the DC8 and the A300 were too large for MDW.
I know there was no scheduled service into MDW.
As far as the meal service goes I do remember a basket with cold chicken which alternated with a large salad.
LGA777 From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 1101 posts, RR: 22 Reply 9, posted (7 years 8 months 3 weeks 9 hours ago) and read 1226 times:
Actually I do remember brief service to MDW with the 72S I believe to FLL and PIE. I remember because of the bad weight restrictions, the 72S's had different capacities, the two former Vasp birds, PP-SNE and SNF, (nicknamed Snee and Sniff) held 172, and I can remember weight restrictions of 172 pax and zero bags.
And I agree with Capitiol8's on the food service, it was cold and in a basket and quite tasty, a big improvement over what today's LCC's serve. There was always some kind of mint, often a Butterscotch handed to each passenger as they deplaned
Capitol8s From United States of America, joined Apr 2004, 93 posts, RR: 1 Reply 10, posted (7 years 8 months 3 weeks 9 hours ago) and read 1220 times:
ok, I admit it, we were somewhat isolated at LAX and probably clueless as to the goings on with the rest of the company. if LGA777 says we had service then we had service.
I think we had somewhat of National Airlines kind of route system with a hub at MSY instead of IAH.
Cody From United States of America, joined May 1999, 1918 posts, RR: 10 Reply 11, posted (7 years 8 months 3 weeks 9 hours ago) and read 1209 times:
I agree I always thought it looked like National's route structure too. I wonder what the reasoning was for MCI, TUL, and LIT to MSY though? What kind of loads did those flights get? Were most of the LAX flights full? Does anyone have a list of the fleet with the nicknames to coincide?
LGA777 From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 1101 posts, RR: 22 Reply 12, posted (7 years 8 months 3 weeks 8 hours ago) and read 1190 times:
There was a big reason the QS route map resembled National's. The Mgr of Schedule Planning at QS had held the same job at NAL. Since NAL was based at MIA and was merged into Pan Am in 1980 and QS was formed in 1982 and the HDQ was in FLL we where fortunate to get lots of former National talent no longer needed by Pan Am who had their own HDQ staff in New York. Also NAL had their own little mini terminal (only three gates, though two where wide-body and the third could accommodate the DC-8-62) and QS acquired this and was just the perfect size for our operation. It was located at about the site of the current DL terminal
To answer Cody's question MCI/LIT/OKC and TUL had good loads because like NAL these station had multi leg flights. For example Flts 145-146 operated PBI-MCO-MSY-OKC-TUL and return. When I was in OKC we might of had trouble filling a 727 to MSY. But since about half the plane boarded in TUL, and the flight went to MSY and onto MCO and PBI plus in MSY it connected with another 727 operating MCI-LIT-MSY-PIE-FLL and guess what, we where almost always full out of OKC and sometimes we even got a DC-8-62 and guess what, we filled that as well. If QS had stuck to this formula and not attacked the majors between MIA-FLL-PBI-MCO and JFK with our 314 seat A-300's and 89$ fares then QS would have probably lasted a lot longer !
LGA777 From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 1101 posts, RR: 22 Reply 13, posted (7 years 8 months 3 weeks 8 hours ago) and read 1175 times:
Cody, I do not have time tonite, but I will post sometime tomorrow a fleet list with the nicknames. Not the entire fleet had nicknames, though many did and they where cool. and a few varied by who you talked to, LGA777 is signing off for tonite, to be continued.
Thomasphoto60 From United States of America, joined Jan 2000, 3723 posts, RR: 25 Reply 14, posted (7 years 8 months 3 weeks 7 hours ago) and read 1148 times:
Thanks for the QS history lesson guys. Too bad these guys did not survive, it would have been a treat to spot those unique cloud liveried a/c at various US airports. Before the collapse, were there plans to paint the remaining fleet in that style?
Jetdeltamsy From United States of America, joined Nov 2000, 2984 posts, RR: 8 Reply 15, posted (7 years 8 months 3 weeks 6 hours ago) and read 1132 times:
Northeastern International was a flash in the pan.
From New Orleans they flew to Florida and New York.
They paid about $6 an hour to their ground personnel. It showed.
And they flew some VERY old aircraft.
Worked for too many airlines to list. Banktupcy after bankruptcy after bankruptcy.
LGA777 From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 1101 posts, RR: 22 Reply 16, posted (7 years 8 months 2 weeks 6 days 9 hours ago) and read 1006 times:
Thomasphoto60, glad you started this thread. The two 727's with the cloud liveries where two of a kind, there where no plans to add more, in fact the scheme the last two A-300's where in, shown here
was to be the new standard scheme for the entire fleet.
727-21's N329QS and N355QS where actually repainted
in that scheme but there are no photo's on here of that, they looked
great and 727-247 N2808W got the new tail logo but that is as far as it got before the end.
Cody From United States of America, joined May 1999, 1918 posts, RR: 10 Reply 17, posted (7 years 8 months 2 weeks 4 days 5 hours ago) and read 918 times:
There is a photo of one ofthe 727-100's painted in the new "Airbus" scheme at www.auctiontransportation.com. Search under "northeastern."
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