What are the least known airlines you have flown on ?

Obviously subjective. What is well known in one area may be unknown in other parts of the world.

Ditto over time. Many British travelers in 2022 may have never heard of Dan Air London.

So I’ll go with that.

Similar with me, the first airline I've ever flown was Air Holland. They're long gone now and to by far most people the name means nothing, they weren't even that big back in the day.

All other airlines I've flown are still around and therefor much better known. Although it depends on where in the world you're asking of course, for example the name Transavia is rather well-known in Europe certainly among aviation enthusiasts however I can fully imagine someone outside Europe has never heard of Transavia. I've flown them quite a number of times.

Florida Airlines from FMY to both TPA and MIA back in the early 70's......DC3's.

Most people who are under 30 outside the USA and not a.netters have never heard of Pan Am. Would that count ?

Capital, West Coast, Transocean (TALOA) and Flying Tiger Line

davidjohnson6 wrote:

Most people who are under 30 outside the USA and not a.netters have never heard of Pan Am. Would that count ?

Likely it does, although the name Pan Am is still relatively well-known.

I remember hearing a story once about a teenager hearing about an airline named Allegheny, which left him puzzled. Allegheny? Never heard of. Did you mean Allegiant? After all that sounds similar and he did know Allegiant as an airline. And that was an American teenager! To elders it might be hard to comprehend an American never heard of Allegheny, but that's how things go. The youth simply didn't grow up with it, it was before their time.

Probably Avanti Air, Yeti Airlines or Wideroe.

It is a bit too easy to name long gone airlines. I have a candidate that I used 3 times (always the same route, which is one of their very few), still operates today and is probably rather unknown outside of Chile: Aerovias DAP between PUQ (Punta Arenas, Southern Chile) and WPU (Puerto Williams on Isla Navarino across the Beagle Strait from Ushuaia).


Gruß, masi1157

Mann yadanarpon in Burma
Flightlink in Tanzania
Delta Air in Botswana

Bahamasair.

Probably the smallest airline I've flown too but as someone stated already, it will likely vary depending on location and era. I'd wage that more people in Nassau, Andros island, and a.net have heard of it than in my current city.

A bit subjective to know what qualifies but some smaller airlines I've flown.

Aeropelican (Australia)
Air National (New Zealand)
Brindabella Airlines (Australia)
Norlandair (Iceland)

All but the last one are no longer flying.

But then there's airlines I've flown like Widerøe and Norwegian, which are generally known in avgeek circles, but I doubt the average Australian would have heard of them.

Air Flamenco (Puerto Rico)
Binter Canarias
Volotea (not as big in EU as Ryanair/Easyjet, unknown in USA)

I have flown on a good few obscure or unknown airlines. I'll go with this one for the purpose of the question since I think it is one of the smallest I flew.


Longjiang Airlines which operates 4 A320 series aircraft (only had two when I flew with them). Took them from Zhuhai to Hefei in 2017.

I think among all the airlines I flew, those were the least know when I flew then in the early 20's

Germania Trisila Air F27, DPS-LBJ-DSP
Pelangi Air, Dornier 228, XSP-TOD-XSP
Buddha Air, Beef 1900, PKR-KTM

HiFly. It was wetleased to ANZ AKL-SYD.

Royal West… BAE146… LAS-BUR

I always book airlines, most of you may never heard of - like:

AirScotland op. by GREECE AIRWAYS A320
FlyMe op. by map executive flightservice MD83
Manx2.com op. by. Lineas Aereas de Andalucia S.A. Metro III
Trigana Air Service ATR42
Turkuaz Airlines A320
Sky Middle East op. By BH Air A320
blu-express.com op. By Ten Airways MD82Q
RAK AIRWAYS op. by EASTERN SKY B737-400
Melilla Airlines ATR 42
Voyage Air B737-500

This is very subjective, but I'd suggest it would be the various ACMI carriers, where the public usually don't even realise that aren't being flown by the company they booked with. Especially if it's a damp lease, as the cabin crew are 'on brand'. Often the only distinction is a small logo by the door or some branding on the safety card:

Danu Oro Transportas
CityJet
RegionalJet
White Airways
Swiftair
MedAvia
NAYSA
VanAir
GIRJet
EuroAtlantic

And many more...

Tikal Jets from Guatemala City to Flores.
Ross Air Service from Albuquerque to Los Alamos

DesertAir wrote:

Tikal Jets from Guatemala City to Flores.

Oh yes, and they operated with a BAC 1-11, when I flew with them. But that airline is also long gone.


Gruß, masi1157

classicjets wrote:

I have flown on a good few obscure or unknown airlines. I'll go with this one for the purpose of the question since I think it is one of the smallest I flew.

Longjiang Airlines which operates 4 A320 series aircraft (only had two when I flew with them). Took them from Zhuhai to Hefei in 2017.

When in ZUH, did you check out the Zhuhai Airshow?

İndeed, a subjective topic, but İ will chuck Adam Air (İndonesia), Via Air and Sun Air Express (US), Air Sahara (İndia), and Juneyao (China) into the mix.

SI ... LGB-ORD-DTW.

Probably Stewart Island Flights. BN2s between IVC and the island.

Pretty sure the average American traveller has never heard of City Jet. I flew an ARJ of theirs on behalf of Aer Lingus.

TWA772LR wrote:

Pretty sure the average American traveller has never heard of City Jet. I flew an ARJ of theirs on behalf of Aer Lingus.

Believe it or not, there are still a few non-american users here. For a German like me CityJet is quite well known, just like Juneyao (they have almost daily flights between my home airport and Shanghai), NAYSA, BinterCanarias, Volotea, HiFly, Air Berlin, Edelweiss, Widerøe and a few others already mentioned here.


Gruß, masi1157

masi1157 wrote:

TWA772LR wrote:

Pretty sure the average American traveller has never heard of City Jet. I flew an ARJ of theirs on behalf of Aer Lingus.

Believe it or not, there are still a few non-american users here. For a German like me CityJet is quite well known, just like Juneyao (they have almost daily flights between my home airport and Shanghai), NAYSA, BinterCanarias, Volotea, HiFly, Air Berlin, Edelweiss, Widerøe and a few others already mentioned here.


Gruß, masi1157

I understand that. But I'm USA-based and while my compatriots have heard of the likes of US regionals like Mesa, Envoy, Skywest, and the EU3 and FR, the EU regionals they more than likely don't know of.

McCain Airlines 727-100 ORD-RFD-ORD twice back November 90's.

Q

Excluding larger airlines who are now defunct/merged and whose names have faded with time I have only a couple of airlines I flew that are probably not very well known:

Aerogaviota, which operates primarily domestic flights within Cuba from a very small partly military airport near Havana; and
Lloyd Aviation which operated within the state of South Australia, primarily between Adelaide and Kingscote on Kangaroo Island.

Maybe worth a mention are Cambodia Angkor Air and Aeroperú

I flew Daallo Airlines of Somalia from Jeddah to Hargeisa. It was operated by an ex Aeromexico A320 by an outfit called SkyBosnia, with a Kam Air of Afghanistan tail from a recent lease. Captain was Ukrainian. Cabin crew all Moldovan. That only went as far as Djibouti where everyone got off and took an Il-18 to Somalia. The Il-18 was a Kazakh/Russian operation belonging to Victor Boot. Although the Il-18 was more exotic — a four-engined turboprop half a century old — it was more properly a Daallo bird who are somewhat known eg regular flights through Dubai, Nairobi, certainly the name is recognised in the biz, so I’d say by the strict criteria of this thread, the most obscure airline I’ve ever flown on was the SkyBosnia A320. That is a name I have not heard before or since the night I flew on one of their planes.

davidjohnson6 wrote:

Most people who are under 30 outside the USA and not a.netters have never heard of Pan Am. Would that count ?

That’s crazy talk. Doesn’t count at all. You see bootleg Pan Am t-shirts and messenger bags etc in the markets from St Marks Pl in NY, to Camden Town in London, to MBK Mall in Bangkok. The brand is as big as ever, especially with young people.

cedarjet wrote:

I flew Daallo Airlines of Somalia from Jeddah to Hargeisa. It was operated by an ex Aeromexico A320 by an outfit called SkyBosnia, with a Kam Air of Afghanistan tail from a recent lease. Captain was Ukrainian. Cabin crew all Moldovan. That only went as far as Djibouti where everyone got off and took an Il-18 to Somalia. The Il-18 was a Kazakh/Russian operation belonging to Victor Boot. Although the Il-18 was more exotic — a four-engined turboprop half a century old — it was more properly a Daallo bird who are somewhat known eg regular flights through Dubai, Nairobi, certainly the name is recognised in the biz, so I’d say by the strict criteria of this thread, the most obscure airline I’ve ever flown on was the SkyBosnia A320. That is a name I have not heard before or since the night I flew on one of their planes.

davidjohnson6 wrote:

Most people who are under 30 outside the USA and not a.netters have never heard of Pan Am. Would that count ?

That’s crazy talk. Doesn’t count at all. You see bootleg Pan Am t-shirts and messenger bags etc in the markets from St Marks Pl in NY, to Camden Town in London, to MBK Mall in Bangkok. The brand is as big as ever, especially with young people.

The point was that an airline which may be adored by a.netters almost as if it was holy, can be unknown to other people. The concept of "least known airline" is a highly subjective concept that depends very heavily on the background of the person involved. FWIW, I flew in January 2010 on Daallo Air from Hargeisa to Djibouti on a knackered IL-18 with a Kyrgyz flight crew, so what you consider obscure is something well known to me. Conversely, there's a bunch of former US airlines that flew in the 1970s and 1980s that would be well known to many a US-based a.netter aged 50+ but who I've probably never heard of.

bfitzflyer wrote:

Flightlink in Tanzania

Agree, among the 5/6 airlines plying the dar-znz route it was the definitely most unknown operator... Kind of exoctic tbh

davidjohnson6 wrote:

cedarjet wrote:

I flew Daallo Airlines of Somalia from Jeddah to Hargeisa. It was operated by an ex Aeromexico A320 by an outfit called SkyBosnia, with a Kam Air of Afghanistan tail from a recent lease. Captain was Ukrainian. Cabin crew all Moldovan. That only went as far as Djibouti where everyone got off and took an Il-18 to Somalia. The Il-18 was a Kazakh/Russian operation belonging to Victor Boot. Although the Il-18 was more exotic — a four-engined turboprop half a century old — it was more properly a Daallo bird who are somewhat known eg regular flights through Dubai, Nairobi, certainly the name is recognised in the biz, so I’d say by the strict criteria of this thread, the most obscure airline I’ve ever flown on was the SkyBosnia A320. That is a name I have not heard before or since the night I flew on one of their planes.

davidjohnson6 wrote:

Most people who are under 30 outside the USA and not a.netters have never heard of Pan Am. Would that count ?

That’s crazy talk. Doesn’t count at all. You see bootleg Pan Am t-shirts and messenger bags etc in the markets from St Marks Pl in NY, to Camden Town in London, to MBK Mall in Bangkok. The brand is as big as ever, especially with young people.

The point was that an airline which may be adored by a.netters almost as if it was holy, can be unknown to other people. The concept of "least known airline" is a highly subjective concept that depends very heavily on the background of the person involved. FWIW, I flew in January 2010 on Daallo Air from Hargeisa to Djibouti on a knackered IL-18 with a Kyrgyz flight crew, so what you consider obscure is something well known to me. Conversely, there's a bunch of former US airlines that flew in the 1970s and 1980s that would be well known to many a US-based a.netter aged 50+ but who I've probably never heard of.

I don’t think you read my post. I said Daallo are pretty well known, the “least known” in my post was SkyBosnia

BuildingMyBento wrote:

When in ZUH, did you check out the Zhuhai Airshow?

Unfortunately not. The Zhuhai Airshow has never managed to align with my schedule. Even I was in Zhuhai 2 weeks prior to the start of last year's show but couldn't stick around to attend - maybe next time. Kind of a shame since I am really keen on Chinese-built aircraft.

cedarjet wrote:

I flew Daallo Airlines of Somalia from Jeddah to Hargeisa. It was operated by an ex Aeromexico A320 by an outfit called SkyBosnia, with a Kam Air of Afghanistan tail from a recent lease. Captain was Ukrainian. Cabin crew all Moldovan. That only went as far as Djibouti where everyone got off and took an Il-18 to Somalia. The Il-18 was a Kazakh/Russian operation belonging to Victor Boot. Although the Il-18 was more exotic — a four-engined turboprop half a century old — it was more properly a Daallo bird who are somewhat known eg regular flights through Dubai, Nairobi, certainly the name is recognised in the biz, so I’d say by the strict criteria of this thread, the most obscure airline I’ve ever flown on was the SkyBosnia A320. That is a name I have not heard before or since the night I flew on one of their planes.

Was it ex-Mexicana? I didn't think Aeromexico ever operated any Airbus.

Probably Estonian Air for me. I flew TLL-CPH on one of their E170s back in 2014. I actually don't think I'd even heard of them before I booked my flight.

TWA772LR wrote:

But I'm USA-based and while my compatriots have heard of the likes of US regionals like Mesa, Envoy, Skywest...

Speaking of them, while I'm sure everyone here has heard of all the American regionals, I doubt the average American traveler has heard of Skywest, Mesa, etc. They probably think they're flying on United, or American, or whatever brand they're flying under.

Most obscure was probably TED, if we're even counting that as its own airline. Other than that I have largely stuck to major carriers.

EAS, Air Charter, Istanbul airlines, Sun d’or

Quite a few over the years that I guess you could consider lesser known...

Aurigny
European Aviation Air Charter
Travel City Direct / Air Atlanta Icelandic
Astraeus
Peach Air
Privatair (for Lufthansa)
British Island Airways

Great to see some rarer and forgotten brands in this thread.

Probably either Aurigny or Blue Islands

Assuming I'd probably forget the *actual* least known for being so obscure and such a distant memory, especially if it was EAS flying

But out of the memorable ones, take a pick: TAG, SeaPort, Southern Airways Express / Mokulele, Grand Canyon Airlines, Harbour Air, Insel Air, Blue1, Hapag-Lloyd, Interflug, Onur...

And if we're somehow adding larger airlines unknown from personal experience to Gen Z: Taca, PanAm, Swissair, Sabena...

cedarjet wrote:

I flew Daallo Airlines of Somalia from Jeddah to Hargeisa. It was operated by an ex Aeromexico A320 by an outfit called SkyBosnia, with a Kam Air of Afghanistan tail from a recent lease. Captain was Ukrainian. Cabin crew all Moldovan. That only went as far as Djibouti where everyone got off and took an Il-18 to Somalia. The Il-18 was a Kazakh/Russian operation belonging to Victor Boot..

I think you're taking the cake so far in spite of the implausible AM part.

Aero Taxco (Mexico) BNI Islander from Taxco Monte Taxco airfield to Atizapan Airport near Mexico City.
Puebla Air Lines (PAL) (Mexico) Boeing 727-100 MEX-PBC
Aerolineas Regionales (RegionalCargo) (Mexico) Boeing 737-200F more than 50 flights.
Allegheny Commuter (USA) BE-99 Airliners VRB-MCO
New York Air (USA) Douglas DC-9-30 DCA-LGA
New York Airways (USA) S-58 helicopter from JFK to an East River Heliport.

Airline now gone: Champion Air. Flew them MSP-MCO-MSP on a 727-200 in 2001. They operated charter flights and were based at MSP. Sadly they were one of many victims of the 2007 spike in oil prices and Great Recession.

Airline still active: Sun Country Airlines. I've flown on them several times since my first trip with them in 2007. They've expanded a lot in the U.S. in recent years, so they're probably more well known now, but still a lessor known airline in the U.S. and hardly known anywhere else.

SANSA flew them all around Costa Rica.

eastafspot wrote:

bfitzflyer wrote:

Flightlink in Tanzania

Agree, among the 5/6 airlines plying the dar-znz route it was the definitely most unknown operator... Kind of exoctic tbh

Actually flew them from ARK(Arusha) to ZNZ as well.

Far Eastern Air Transport (charmingly abbreviated as FAT) from Taipei Songshan to Hualien, on a Viscount

For me it would have to be Carnival Airlines on a B727 from ISP heading to Florida.

Has anyone ever flown Great Plains airlines?