Muse Air, changed name to TranStar Airlines - merged & folded by Southwest
Air 1
Pride Air (based at New Orleans?)
UltrAir (based @ Houston IAH)
L’Express (Louisiana airline)
Emerald Airlines (Texas)
Metro Airlines and their twin otter planes (Texas)
Legend Airlines (based @ Dallas DAL)
Royale Airlines (based in Louisiana)
Rio Airlines (flew from DFW)
Austin Express (flew from Austin to Beaumont & Tyler, TX)
Conquest Airlines (hub from Austin, TX)
Chaparral Airlines
Houston Proud Express (IAH-HOU)
Tejas Airlines
Fort Worth Airlines (flew from FTW)
And there was another airline (can’t think of their name) that flew briefly from Houston Westside IWS to Ft. Worth FTW on Dash 7’s - maybe it was Fort Worth Airlines?
Chalk’s Seaplanes from Port of Miami to the Bahamas

Bonanza!
Just remembered Crown Air of Puerto Rico, which became Dorado Wings (after the city of Dorado, which was their hub) and then folded a few years later. According to their Wikipedia article, their workers were a big family, always having fun.
Peru's Faucett
Wasnt there a McRoberson Airlines in Australia?

mga707 wrote:

McClain Airlines (short-lived 1980s PHX-based 'luxury' operator, a la MGM Grand Air)

I always picture Bruce Willis (John McClain) as that airline's owner...

My first flight was on the original Frontier. I flew as an unaccompanied minor on a Convair 580 from Denver to Oklahoma City with stops at Pueblo, and Amarillo. I can recall being mad when I saw the plane I was about to fly on since I was hoping for a huge jumbo jet. I realize now how stupid that wish was at the time, but as a 10 year old kid, I was hoping to see a 747 sitting at the gate for my flight.

The funny part is, as the years went along, the Convair was to become my favorite plane of all time. It got me interested in aviation as a kid, and I went on to work at the old Frontier, and later on worked several years at Continental. Good times!

Altair and Mohawk in the northeast/mid-Atlantic USA, Northeast Airlines and their yellow planes (merged with Delta).

I found the airline that flew from Houston Westside IWS to Ft. Worth FTW -
“AirWest” was the airline and it provided eight non-stops a day using fifty passenger DeHaviland Dash 7 aircraft. From day one it looked like a success story, but by the mid 80's small regional airlines were going out of business as the oil and banking business tanked.

As a kid growing up in Colorado we use to fly Aspen Airways from Denver to Aspen. They were named for the Aspen tree and not the city of Aspen in case you were wondering. They flew the Convair 580 and later the BAE146. They use to have an Aspen leaf painted on the tail of their planes and had really good people working for them. They became the first airline to provide commercial jet service into Aspen back in 1986 when they starting flying the BAE146. In September 1986, Aspen Airways became a United Express affiliate carrier, providing passenger feed to and from the United Airlines hub in Denver (DEN). By 1986, Aspen Airways was providing seasonal BAe 146 jet service from Aspen nonstop to Dallas/Ft Worth (DFW), Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), Houston (IAH), Chicago (ORD) and Long Beach (LGB).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspen_Airways

Oh I love these types of threads well done to the OP for starting this one, Ok living in Tasmania in the 1970s I remember Hobart use yo get TAA Trans Australia Airlines and I am talking the iconic blue tail with the white Capital T on it, Hobart use to get the DC-9/s in on the Hobart to Melbourne service, also once in a while Ansett use to bring their 727-100's down, it was mostly their DC-9"s as well. Then there use to be Air Tasmania, it was a subsidiary of Ansett back in the day it was a DC 3 with the black and red cheat line with the Ansett red tail Delta logo and that use to run between Hobart and Launceston and King Island, My first trip to the USA and seeing Mexicana in that gold cheatline strip it was a DC-10, back home in Melbourne seeing JAT with their DC-10's at Melbourne, in the Cargo section seeing Flying Tigers, on a very rear accusation saw Airt Lanka at Melbourne with their L-1011 first and last time I ever saw a L-1011 at Melbourne, First time I went to London and Heathrow seeing a BWIA L-1011 taking of who remembers them? n the early 90's we had a new start up airline from Bulgaria run a service into Melbourne, called Jess Air they did not last to long, my first trip the the USA and seeing Northwest Orient 747 at Honolulu, Of cause there was Pan Am and I had a few flights with them in the later years, and also Air Pacific which would later turn into Fiji Airways. Great Thread.

AntonioMartin wrote:

Bonanza!
Just remembered Crown Air of Puerto Rico, which became Dorado Wings (after the city of Dorado, which was their hub) and then folded a few years later. According to their Wikipedia article, their workers were a big family, always having fun.
Peru's Faucett
Wasnt there a McRoberson Airlines in Australia?

Certainly was my friend, Perth base airline flying in the Ansett colours used to serve the mining centres of WA as well as the reginal centres up the North of Western Australa, they use to have the F28 in their fleets.

At LAX I saw a cargo airline called Zantop I am sure they used Electra's for freighters what ever happened to them, where were they based and where did they fly to?

Hey Flyingscottsman
(Great profile name by the way)
I remember JES AIR (single 'S') with their A310! How rare to see it! One of my favourite spotting moments ever, on a cold windy day in Melbourne! What a long flight from Bulgaria, and who would've travelled that exotic route?
Back then Tullamarine used to get some rarities that Sydney missed out on, making long days on the open air terraces of Tulla so exciting! All of those Kendall 340s and Metros that (pre Ansett) that were never seen in Sydney.... Southern Australia Dash 8s.... So much, so many gone!
I also remember the rare Tasmanian airlines... Par Avion and various attempts to establish viable Tasmanian based regionals. I flew on a seaplane from Strahan to the site of the Franklin River bit cannot remember the name of the company!
Take care mate, happy days down in Tasmania!
Bunumuring

bunumuring wrote:

Hey guys,
Downunder:
Butler's
Hazleton - a personal connection ...
East West
Ansett - the mightiest of them all ...
Take care
Bunumuring

Barrier Reef Airways, PBYs & Short Sandringhams, various routes from Sydney [Rose Bay] to Cains & various islands,
became Ansett Flying Boat Services which lasted until 1974 when an airstrip was opened on Lord Howe Island

Gemuser

If you are looking for actual research. I would checkout Departedflights.com
That is the most or one of the most of catalogued and scanned routes, schedules, etc.

In the 90''s My parents lived in Connecticut and South Florida, so I flew many carriers
TWA -LGA-FLL
Carnival from both SWF and HPN to FLL
A favorite was Carnival JFK-MIA on a LAN-Chile 767. Full meal service on that sector. I believe the infight crew was LAN-Chile but Carnival sold tickets MIA-JFK. Unlike an e ticket now that would almost guarantee say operated by .............. I was just surprised at t he airport that day.
I flew a Public Charter called Skybus operated by Private Jet. I believe it was a 727 that routed EWR-SFB-FLL.
Braniff 3.0 JFK-FLL at the height of JFK's decrepit looking terminals.

VARIG - RG
VASP - VP
TransBrasil - TR
Cruzeiro - SC

RG was the biggest airline in Brazil back in the day and among the best in the world for their inflight service. They operated quite a diverse jet fleet with the Caravelle, 707, 727, 737, 747, 767, Convair 990, DC10, MD11 and A300. RG was the 2nd largest MD11 operator behind Swissair.
Varig had an extensive domestic network and flew from GIG-GRU to Latin and North America, Europe and Japan via LAX and BKK/HKG via JNB.
VP and TR were competitors to RG on the domestic market then launched international services to well established markets such as MIA, MCO, JFK but also to AMS (TR), VIE (TR) and CMN, BCN, ATH, ICN, LAX (VP). TR had a fleet of 727, 737 and 767 and VP had 727, 737, A300, DC10 and MD11.

I know it doesn't meet the pre-21st century criteria, but we are coming up on a decade and a half without them. I sure miss Big Sky Airlines out of BIL. Lots of memories of those Metros and Beech 1900s (even Jetstreams way back when) buzzing around Montana and other western states. Then they decided to do the BOS DL Connection contract and it was the end of the road. They sure were convenient in a state with a lot of long distances and their pilots were always cool. I remember doing a job shadow with their COO, Craig Denney, and he would go over to the airport every morning for an hour during their busiest hour of operations and toss bags.

AntonioMartin wrote:

jodie wrote:

Air UK too. Loved their blue paint scheme. I remember Heralds, F27s and EMB110s. I think they served AMS from many regional UK airports

Totally! Air UK beautiful livery...and also I think they served the Channel Islands? And they had DC-9s towards the end. Shame it didn't last...

Hello.
Air UK operated a small number of BAC 1-11s, not DC-9s.
Yes, they operated many services to the Channel Islands from a number of UK airports.
Air UK became KLM UK.

MarkAir.
Great airline that excelled at connecting Alaska with Alaska. Yeah, Alaska also had/has Alaska Airlines, but they never operated in the state and connected the way MarkAir did.
Their downfall was deciding to compete outside of Alaska against Alaska Airlines. Should never have expanded outside of ANC/JNU-SEA/PDX.

Some Spanish wonders..
Hispania
Spantax
Centennial
LTE
Can Africa
BCM
Viva Air
Oasis

Lots of UK scheduled/holiday airlines over the years…

Air UK
Air UK Leisure
British Midland
Manx Air
Jersey European
Duo Airways
bmibaby
Dan Air
Orion
Britannia
Monarch
Thomas Cook Airlines
Air Europe
Ambassador Airlines
Air 2000
Flying Colours
Excalibur
Futura
AirTours
Caledonian
Sabre Airways
British World
JMC Air
My Travel
My Travel Lite

I miss flying on:

AeroContinente - destroyed under Shrub's administration due to claims (probably true) about being funded with drug money;

Muse Air - great livery, bought then dismantled by WN;

MGM Grand Air - mentioned already, but I remember how classy and upsale it was;

Ozark - the backbone of mid-west flying in the 60's;

Vanguard - run out of business by the 500 pound gorilla based in Dallas.

mga707 wrote:

Trk1 wrote:

Wright and Tag airlines. Burke Lakefront in Cleveland was a hub of activity in the 1960'a

Yes! Tag Airlines' shuttle-like service across Lake Erie between Burke Lakefront and Detroit City, with DeHavilland Doves.

Northcoast International tried to recreate that, and had some success with it, but it was a shoestring operation of ex-Jetstream employees, and couldn’t make the rest of it work.

Flyingsottsman wrote:

Oh I love these types of threads well done to the OP for starting this one, Ok living in Tasmania in the 1970s I remember Hobart use yo get TAA Trans Australia Airlines and I am talking the iconic blue tail with the white Capital T on it, Hobart use to get the DC-9/s in on the Hobart to Melbourne service, also once in a while Ansett use to bring their 727-100's down, it was mostly their DC-9"s as well. Then there use to be Air Tasmania, it was a subsidiary of Ansett back in the day it was a DC 3 with the black and red cheat line with the Ansett red tail Delta logo and that use to run between Hobart and Launceston and King Island, My first trip to the USA and seeing Mexicana in that gold cheatline strip it was a DC-10, back home in Melbourne seeing JAT with their DC-10's at Melbourne, in the Cargo section seeing Flying Tigers, on a very rear accusation saw Airt Lanka at Melbourne with their L-1011 first and last time I ever saw a L-1011 at Melbourne, First time I went to London and Heathrow seeing a BWIA L-1011 taking of who remembers them? n the early 90's we had a new start up airline from Bulgaria run a service into Melbourne, called Jess Air they did not last to long, my first trip the the USA and seeing Northwest Orient 747 at Honolulu, Of cause there was Pan Am and I had a few flights with them in the later years, and also Air Pacific which would later turn into Fiji Airways. Great Thread.

The Air Pacific YS-11’s eventually ended up in a West Lafayette/ Purdue-based cargo operation that failed.

The planes sat on the ramp for years until someone bought them, putting together two good planes from the six, and taking them to Sharjah to run a cargo op in the mid-90’s. Took them forever to get a ferry permit!

The rest were scrapped in place on the LAF ramp.

Besides my avatar, I really miss Air Sunshine and the DC-3! Not the newer one but the OLD one that served the Florida Keys from MIA, FLL and TPA. We used to fly STL-MIA on TW and then MIA-MTH on Air Sunshine until they were absorbed by Air Florida and then died out in 1979. PBA followed a bit later with their DC-3 service for a while.



More on Air Sunshine -> https://www.sunshineskies.com/airsunshine.html
More on PBA's Southern System -> https://www.sunshineskies.com/pba.html

TWA302 wrote:

Besides my avatar, I really miss Air Sunshine and the DC-3! Not the newer one but the OLD one that served the Florida Keys from MIA, FLL and TPA. We used to fly STL-MIA on TW and then MIA-MTH on Air Sunshine until they were absorbed by Air Florida and then died out in 1979. PBA followed a bit later with their DC-3 service for a while.

More on Air Sunshine -> https://www.sunshineskies.com/airsunshine.html
More on PBA's Southern System -> https://www.sunshineskies.com/pba.html

That reminds me: there was also a short-lived carrier out of Memphis named Sun Airlines in the late 60's. That was a heady time for start-ups... which made the early 70's a heady time for failures...

BealineV953 wrote:

AntonioMartin wrote:

jodie wrote:

Air UK too. Loved their blue paint scheme. I remember Heralds, F27s and EMB110s. I think they served AMS from many regional UK airports

Totally! Air UK beautiful livery...and also I think they served the Channel Islands? And they had DC-9s towards the end. Shame it didn't last...

Hello.
Air UK operated a small number of BAC 1-11s, not DC-9s.
Yes, they operated many services to the Channel Islands from a number of UK airports.
Air UK became KLM UK.

Oh yeah!
I was thinking about their Fokker-50s instead I guess but thought they were "three-holers"......

Thanks for that info!

USA3000!
Canada3000!

LACSA - Lineas Aereas de Costa Rica S.A (still in somewhat used still by Avianca Costa Rica). In their heyday they operated a wide variety of aircraft out the small country of Costa Rica.
TACA - Transportes Aereos Centro Americanos - (still in somewhat used by Avianca El Salvador) - they pretty much merged with every airline in Central America and came under TACA before they merged with AV.
Aero Costa Rica
Air Costa Rica


USA3000 - Real OG

And shout out to whoever mentioned Skybus - The original Spirit of today.

Redwood839 wrote:

LACSA - Lineas Aereas de Costa Rica S.A (still in somewhat used still by Avianca Costa Rica). In their heyday they operated a wide variety of aircraft out the small country of Costa Rica.
TACA - Transportes Aereos Centro Americanos - (still in somewhat used by Avianca El Salvador) - they pretty much merged with every airline in Central America and came under TACA before they merged with AV.
Aero Costa Rica
Air Costa Rica


USA3000 - Real OG

And shout out to whoever mentioned Skybus - The original Spirit of today.

And wasn't there a Maya Inter Air or something named like that out of Belize?

AeroCancun!!!

I used to love seeing the DC-10s of CalAir (then Novair) on approach over our house into MAN!

BealineV953 wrote:

AntonioMartin wrote:

jodie wrote:

Air UK too. Loved their blue paint scheme. I remember Heralds, F27s and EMB110s. I think they served AMS from many regional UK airports

Totally! Air UK beautiful livery...and also I think they served the Channel Islands? And they had DC-9s towards the end. Shame it didn't last...

Hello.
Air UK operated a small number of BAC 1-11s, not DC-9s.
Yes, they operated many services to the Channel Islands from a number of UK airports.
Air UK became KLM UK.

Not DC9's............ but Fokker F28 Fellowships

Odyssey
Fortunair
Air Club as some short lived Canadian transatlantic gems…
Brown Air and Capital as some UK regional carriers

Anybody remember Highland Express? They had one used and rather old 747 flying between Scotland and EWR. They didn't last long as it was always breaking down. I think they were created to bring back a Sottish flag carrier of sorts after British Caledonian disappeared. And I don't think anybody mentioned Laker Skytrain/Airways (UK). I remember they were using DC10s out of MAN to various US holiday spots.

LAXffDUB wrote:

Anybody remember Highland Express? They had one used and rather old 747 flying between Scotland and EWR. They didn't last long as it was always breaking down. I think they were created to bring back a Sottish flag carrier of sorts after British Caledonian disappeared. And I don't think anybody mentioned Laker Skytrain/Airways (UK). I remember they were using DC10s out of MAN to various US holiday spots.

I learnt about HE on my book, 1000 Airlines in Colour. Fantastic livery. And of course, Freddie Laker's airline! And there have been two Monarchs, one in the UK and the other one in the US!

Far West Airlines, short-lived based in Fresno, California with YS-11s aircraft.

Flyingsottsman wrote:

At LAX I saw a cargo airline called Zantop I am sure they used Electra's for freighters what ever happened to them, where were they based and where did they fly to?

Zantop was based out of YIP outside of Detroit, flew Electra and DC-8 freighters until they ceased operations in 2005. Mostly in support of the auto industry.



Reno Air -- nice focus cities in RNO, SJC, and LAS, always liked their livery. AA took over and dismantled a couple of years after.

Tristar Airlines, flew from LAS-SNA on BAe 146s, not sure what other routes they flew. Early/Mid 1990's.

Wright Airlines, in Michigan and Ohio, flew from DET to Burke in Cleveland, and Rickenbacker in Columbus, among other routes with Convair 440s in the '70's/'80's

Rich International, charters out of MIA back in the '80's/'90's with DC-8s and L1011s

Worked in SIN in the 80s and there were some memorable airlines.

1. Air Swazi Cargo. Basically an embargo busting airline using B707Fs.. Flight plan and cargo docs were issued for MTS (Manzini in Swaziland) but the aircraft would land in JNB. Spent a lot of time stacking VCRs
2. Air Hong Kong. (pre CX buyout). They also flew B707Fs, I believe there was a tie-up with Air Swazi but I could be mistaken.
3. Das Air.. flew DC-8Fs
4. Sabena.. gold ol' DC-10 combin with its mandeck cargo hold in between the cockpit and pax cabin!
5. Tradewinds .. CL44 swingtail.. used to carry a lot of oil-well parts to Indonesia.
6. Hang Khong Viet Nam.. they flew the TU-134 and once even an IL-18 freighter.. lovely girls in their native dress.. think its called an Ao Dai.

bug
5

LAXffDUB wrote:

Anybody remember Highland Express? They had one used and rather old 747 flying between Scotland and EWR. They didn't last long as it was always breaking down. I think they were created to bring back a Sottish flag carrier of sorts after British Caledonian disappeared. And I don't think anybody mentioned Laker Skytrain/Airways (UK). I remember they were using DC10s out of MAN to various US holiday spots.

Laker 2.0 was a Bahamas-based charter op that flew 727’s to the southeast and Midwest US. You could sometimes catch a round trip to Freeport from Cincinnati for $129.

That’s where I discovered Howard Hughes old Xanadu Resort. Incredible beach, insane views, cheap, and a free shuttle to Lucayan. I guess it did not survive a couple of hurricanes in the 2000’s, and was torn down around 2012?

Anyone remember an airline called Donaldson International (DIA).... They flew Boeing 707's and Britannia's?

Flyingsottsman wrote:

At LAX I saw a cargo airline called Zantop I am sure they used Electra's for freighters what ever happened to them, where were they based and where did they fly to?

DC-8’s too. Out of the Detroit area.

I may be the kiss of death for airlines. So many I enjoyed flying are gone. Trans-Texas Airlines flying DC-3's across the South, Reno Air up and down the west coast, Pan American everywhere where I first flew on a 707, Dan-Air and the BAC-111 up to Inverness in Scotland. Great times, great planes and great carriers.

CATIIIevery5yrs wrote:

Flyingsottsman wrote:

At LAX I saw a cargo airline called Zantop I am sure they used Electra's for freighters what ever happened to them, where were they based and where did they fly to?

DC-8’s too. Out of the Detroit area.

Yes--Willow Run (YIP), to be specific. Lots of parts freighting for the auto industry.

adv40624 wrote:

As a kid growing up in Colorado we use to fly Aspen Airways from Denver to Aspen. They were named for the Aspen tree and not the city of Aspen in case you were wondering. They flew the Convair 580 and later the BAE146. They use to have an Aspen leaf painted on the tail of their planes and had really good people working for them. They became the first airline to provide commercial jet service into Aspen back in 1986 when they starting flying the BAE146. In September 1986, Aspen Airways became a United Express affiliate carrier, providing passenger feed to and from the United Airlines hub in Denver (DEN). By 1986, Aspen Airways was providing seasonal BAe 146 jet service from Aspen nonstop to Dallas/Ft Worth (DFW), Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), Houston (IAH), Chicago (ORD) and Long Beach (LGB).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspen_Airways

Really good post, thank you.

I flew for Aspen's main mountain competitor, Rocky Mountain Airways (RMA)(JC was the 2 letter airline code). RMA grew from Twin Commanders to Vail as Vail Airways and then added DHC-6 Twin Otters and more mountain stations like ASE and SBS (the airport adjacent to downtown Steamboat Springs rather than Hayden/HDN). RMA was the launch customer for the Dash-7/DHC-7.

RMA and Aspen competed primarily between DEN and ASE. Aspen Airways had their own TACAN approach into ASE and RMA had a TALAR (microwave) approach with lower weather minimums that Aspen's TACAN. A few days every winter, the ASE weather would be below what Aspen Airways' minimums, but at or above RMA's, so at the A+ Concourse at Denver Stapleton, so each time Aspen cancelled a flight to ASE, you could watch the customers run across the lobby from Aspen Airways' counter to RMA's.

RMA's TALAR approach system was proprietary and had a 6 degree glideslope into ASE and SBS, but an 8 degree glideslope into VON. VON was the privately owned and operated airport in Avon, Colorado, just west of Vail and at the foot the Beaver Creek ski area. That airport is now largely occupied by a Walmart and a Home Depot.

The Dash-7 was an uniquely talented airplane, but I also envied the power of the Convair 580s. Also, I admired Aspen's paint scheme with the varying shades of color representing the seasons.

RMA was purchased by Texas Air in 1986 and Aspen was essentially split into two parts - the Convairs went away, replaced by Mesa Beech 1900s and the BAe 146 operation was purchased by Air Wisconsin.

After the purchase by Texas Air, RMA became a Continental Express carrier and added B1900s and ATRs. As I recall, the first ever GPS based approach every flown by a U.S. Part 121 airline was by a RMA/COEX ATR 72 from DEN to ASE.

And all of that was more than 30 years ago!

The Court Line. Remember them? I loved their L1011's and that funky livery. Anyone have a route map? (Please no responses that Google is my friend).

CDG777FAN wrote:

VARIG - RG
VASP - VP
TransBrasil - TR
Cruzeiro - SC

RG was the biggest airline in Brazil back in the day and among the best in the world for their inflight service. They operated quite a diverse jet fleet with the Caravelle, 707, 727, 737, 747, 767, Convair 990, DC10, MD11 and A300. RG was the 2nd largest MD11 operator behind Swissair.
Varig had an extensive domestic network and flew from GIG-GRU to Latin and North America, Europe and Japan via LAX and BKK/HKG via JNB.
VP and TR were competitors to RG on the domestic market then launched international services to well established markets such as MIA, MCO, JFK but also to AMS (TR), VIE (TR) and CMN, BCN, ATH, ICN, LAX (VP). TR had a fleet of 727, 737 and 767 and VP had 727, 737, A300, DC10 and MD11.

RG also operated the 772

Western Airlines, flew first class LAX-SFO in 1972, full breakfast in china plates - started my love affair with the Boeing 720B.
And the supplementals- Overseas National DC-8-63 LAX-Amsterdam 1971 and Balair LAX to Zurich on their only DC-8-63 in 1977.
Both flights every seat filled, no IFE, marginally edible meals but lots of fun for a teenager on students charters.
I can only smile when I read of people expressing shock at the thought of a narrow body over the pond today, or (gasp!) no in seat entertainment on a 1 hour 737 ride.
Great memories.

HowardDGA wrote:

Golden West has already been mentioned. I flew on one of their Shorts 330s once.

Imperial Airlines (Airways?) flew Bandeirantes and was based in El Centro, CA, I believe.

I only got to experience these airlines while PSA was on strike in the late 70s.

I was maybe 8...flew Golden West from Fullerton (KFUL) to LAX

seat1a wrote:

The Court Line. Remember them? I loved their L1011's and that funky livery. Anyone have a route map? (Please no responses that Google is my friend).

I saw their livery on the 1000 Airlines book, it was very nice. Which reminds me of the US' Capitol Air. Their airplanes had a huge C with the American flag in it, making it sort of like the "Western of the East"!

Capitol had cheap fares and one of their hubs was San Juan, which meant that I saw them a lot, including a seemingly close encounter with an American DC-10 I discussed in another thread.

CDG777FAN wrote:

VARIG - RG
VASP - VP
TransBrasil - TR
Cruzeiro - SC

RG was the biggest airline in Brazil back in the day and among the best in the world for their inflight service. They operated quite a diverse jet fleet with the Caravelle, 707, 727, 737, 747, 767, Convair 990, DC10, MD11 and A300. RG was the 2nd largest MD11 operator behind Swissair.
Varig had an extensive domestic network and flew from GIG-GRU to Latin and North America, Europe and Japan via LAX and BKK/HKG via JNB.
VP and TR were competitors to RG on the domestic market then launched international services to well established markets such as MIA, MCO, JFK but also to AMS (TR), VIE (TR) and CMN, BCN, ATH, ICN, LAX (VP). TR had a fleet of 727, 737 and 767 and VP had 727, 737, A300, DC10 and MD11.

RG Also operated to LOS at a point (Till the late 80s/early 90s)

I haven't seen anyone mention Viasa (Venezuela). I think they used DC10s and were a regular sight at JFK. In the day it, along with Varig (Venezuela), had the reputation in NY of being the preferred carriers to South America for the "well-heeled" (ie: wealthy) traveller. People described them as pure class.