Responding to a thought in another thread (regarding an old AA timetable) inspired another question:

Looking at AA's 1976 map, and a CO map from the same era, I'm wondering what other type of service ELP had in the mid 70's.

AA served TUS, PHX, ORD, DFW, IAH, and SAT at the time. CO was serving TUS, PHX, ABQ, MAF, and, if I squint my eyes at the map, possibly LBB and SAT.

What other service was ELP getting at the time? DL wasn't there yet, and TI had even pulled out for a time.

Tom at MSY

Southwest began service to El Paso in 1977 with six daily flights. By 1980 they were flying from ELP to ABQ, LBB, MAF, and DAL. Today WN still serves those same cities non-stop and since added PHX, LAX, SAN, LAS, AUS, SAT, and HOU. There used to be an ELP-SFO non-stop but that ended in the early 90s.

Frontier flew ELP-ABQ in the 70s and added non-stops to DEN, Guadalajara, and Mazatlan at the end of the decade. I have a MZT luggage tag that was used on an ELP-MZT flight when they had the service. They stayed in ELP until the bankruptcy in 1986.

I grew up in El Paso but wasn't born until 1982 so my earliest memories are from the mid to late 80s. Some items of interest:

- United flew 727s into ELP before pulling out in the late 80s. UA returned in 2002 with three or four RJs to DEN.

- AA had DC10s on ELP-DFW. Surprisingly ELP does not have Eagle and remains an all AA mainline operation to both DFW and ORD.

- HP has had a presence since the mid 80s with service to both PHX and LAS.

- TWA came and went in the late 90s and NW has never served ELP.

- Frontier returned to ELP in 1994 when they flew to small communities like Minot, Bismarck, Fargo, and Billings. They have stuck around all these years and fly ELP-DEN with RJs.

- DL began service to ELP in 1983 and has cut service dramatically in recent years. For the longest time they flew five daily mainlines to DFW and one daily 727 to ABQ that departed each morning at 7:30. They tried ELP-ATL in 1993 and recently ELP-SLC but each did not last long. They also had ELP-TUS on an MD88 which was a continuation of a DFW-ELP segment. Today, DL has four RJs to DFW and one mainline to ATL.

ELP is a great little airport with about 15 gates and lots of west texas charm. The original stone airport structure is still visible as they built the new modern airport around it. There is a new viewing area that opened over the last month or so that offers sweeping views of the runway.

I apologize for going off topic but it's such a great airport and I have many childhood memories there.

AATripleseven

I know American use to fly a DC10 from DFW daily as late as the early 90s I believe.

Ah, Ol' El Paso.

Continental operated a daily early morning LAX-ELP-SAT-IAH-MIA DC-10 throughout the 70s. At one CO operated as many 30+ 727 a day from El Paso.

American also flew nonstop ELP-LGA (hard to believe, say '70 or '71) but not a return nonstop. They also operated nonstop ELP-JFK-ELP via 707s as well.

Eastern also served from IAH and for a time with a 757 from Atlanta (if I recall my OAGs correctly)

ELP information that I can drum up:

American ran an early morning DC10 between ELP and Dallas Love Field in the early 1970s... sounds like they continued it after DFW opened in '74.

Continental was the big dog at ELP - in the late 1970s/early 1980s, they actually considered ELP a "hub." I have the 1981 Continental/TI merger timetable, and it lists hubs as Denver, Houston, Los Angeles and El Paso.
In the early 1970s Continental flew 727s and DC9s from El Paso to LAX, TUS, PHX, ABQ, MAF, LBB, DAL, IAH and SAT. After Deregulation, service was added to DEN, SAN, SFO and ORD.

Texas International served ELP in the 1970s with a single CV600 flight from Carlsbad, New Mexico. Frontier ran flights up into New Mexico as well.

Some information on the terminal - until 1970, El Paso operated flights out of its original adobe pueblo style terminal. A major reconstruction in 1970-71 built a the present-day facility around the original terminal. The East Concourse was used by American and Frontier (not much different from today, eh?) and the West Concourse was for Continental and TI. The four jetway gates in the rotunda were all used by CO.

Well, it just so happens that I am out in the west Texas town of El Paso and I just put mom and daughter on WN's 2:15 pm to Love Field. The WN gates were jam packed if that is any indication of the sort of business they were doing today.

At any rate it is funny to note that El Paso experienced about the slowest growth of any Southwest station in the 1977-78 intra-Texas expansion. Harlingen, for example, was profitable from day one. El Paso didn't do much at first...it took quite a while for the loads to build.

One can compare the cities of El Paso and Albuquerque in many respects...but ABQ gets a whole lot better service from WN in terms of nonstop destinations.

And that is because a prior mayor of El Paso would not believe WN when they said "don't raise the landing fees and terminal rents to obscene levels...take an ivrease if you must...but if you jack them up to the proposed "oh my God" levels we will not add the service to El Paso we have planned.

The city fathers wouldn't listen and now ABQ has nonstops to SLC, PDS, SEA, MDW, STL, MDW, BWI, TPA, OAK, and MCO that El Paso coulda woulda shoulda.

Anyone remember any of the smaller commuter carriers that used to fly in and out of ELP? Like Airways of New Mexico, Bison Airlines, Zia, or any of those???

Tom: I can remember in the early seventies, CO had a pretty good presence at ELP. On that same site of the other timetables, check out CO'S timetable. The Golden Tail days!