First ONA
ONA (IATA: OV) was founded in June 1950 as a charter airline and carried both freight and passengers. It was based in Idlewild Airport (now JFK) and had five Douglas DC-6 aircraft in the fleet. Its main function was to carry US military personnel to and from Europe from the east coast of the USA. ONA also had a dedicated Douglas DC-7F for freight operations.
For a brief period from 1964 to 1965, ONA went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy to reorganize and flights resumed in October 1965, this time operating Douglas DC-8 aircraft. Operations expanded to have flights to the Caribbean, Europe and even to India. In 1968 and the following years, ONA received a fleet of 11 Lockheed L-188 Electra used in freight operations. In the meantime, the DC-8s were servicing the trans Atlantic routes. The next aircraft to be put into operations was the Douglas DC-9, which replaced the Electras and then in 1973 two Douglas DC-10 were received.
In 1978 when airline deregulation went into effect, the board of directors of ONA decided to liquidate the airline which, due to the value of the company's DC-10 aircraft, was a successful liquidation. The board decided not to try to compete in the newly deregulated environment and as a result ONA ceased flying in October 1978.
Read more about this topic: Overseas National Airways, History