History
The airline was established in January 1996 and named Pace Airlines after Piedmont Aviation Services, Inc was granted Federal Aviation Administration and United States Department of Transportation approval on March 26, 1996.
The first General Manager of Pace was Jerry Angel, formerly of Piedmont Airlines (1948–1989) and later Leisure Air. The first aircraft on its Air Carrier Certificate was N487GS, a Boeing 737-200 previously of Western Airlines and Viscount, owned by the NBA Charlotte Hornets. The initial business model for the company was as an executive charter service for sports teams, entertainers, and corporations in an all first-class configuration (44 seats). Quickly 3 more aircraft were added to the certificate, N9075U, N159PL, and N37NY .
Piedmont Aviation Services merged with Hawthorne Aviation in July 1998 and became Piedmont Hawthorne Aviation. PHA was owned by the Carlyle Group located in Washington, DC. In January 2000 Mr. Darrell Richardson was recruited as the new President of Pace Airlines. Mr. Richardson had been Chief Operating Officer of Mesaba Airlines since 1995. Immediately, Mr. Richardson began to grow the airline. This saw the first major contract for the company, with Vacation Express out of Atlanta, GA. The agreement called for Pace to operate six Boeing 737-300s on a 'scheduled charter' operation for leisure and vacation travelers. Flights operated out of Baltimore/Washington (BWI), Washington Dulles (IAD), Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky (CVG), Indianapolis (IND), Louisville (SDF), Charlotte/Douglas (CLT) and Atlanta/Hartsfield (ATL) to a hub in Orlando/Sanford (SFB), where they continued on to Saint Marteen (SXM), Punta Cana (PUJ), Cancun (CUN), Liberia Costa Rica (LIR), and Montego Bay (MBJ). These flights operated every day except Tuesday and Wednesday. The first flights for Vacation Express by Pace were launched on Thanksgiving Day, 2001. Pace Airlines, Inc. was sold to Pace Airlines, LLC & Pace Airlines II, LLC in December 2002, which became the parent company of Pace Airlines, Inc.
Additional aircraft were added over time, mainly Boeing 737-200s and a handful of 757-200s. At one time Pace operated 21 aircraft. Contracts came for such city pairs as JFK-POS (752) and MBS-LBX (732). In late December 2002, the owner of Hooters, Robert H. Brooks, agreed to become the owner of Pace Airlines. Hooters Air was born.
Read more about this topic: Pace Airlines
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I assure you that in our next class we will concern ourselves solely with the history of Egypt, and not with the more lurid and non-curricular subject of living mummies.”
—Griffin Jay, and Reginald LeBorg. Prof. Norman (Frank Reicher)
“What is most interesting and valuable in it, however, is not the materials for the history of Pontiac, or Braddock, or the Northwest, which it furnishes; not the annals of the country, but the natural facts, or perennials, which are ever without date. When out of history the truth shall be extracted, it will have shed its dates like withered leaves.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“If you look at the 150 years of modern China’s history since the Opium Wars, then you can’t avoid the conclusion that the last 15 years are the best 15 years in China’s modern history.”
—J. Stapleton Roy (b. 1935)