World Airways

World Airways

IATA WO ICAO WOA Callsign WORLD
Founded	March 29, 1948
Fleet size	17
Destinations	Various
Parent company	MatlinPatterson Global Aviation Holdings
Headquarters	Peachtree City, Georgia
Key people	Charlie McDonald, COO
Website	www.worldair.com

World Airways, Inc. is an American non-scheduled airline headquartered at the HLH^[1] Building in Peachtree City, Georgia.^[2]

History

McDonnell Douglas MD-11 on the airfield of Leipzig/Halle Airport, Germany, which is a turnstile for transports to Afghanistan and Iraq

View from a seat on a World Airways MD-11 flight to Kyrgyzstan (October 2005).

World Airways was founded in 1948 by Benjamin Pepper with the introduction of ex-Pan American World Airways Boeing 314 flying boats. Edward Daly, however is thought of as World's founder. He bought the airline in 1950 for $50,000 and proceeded to acquire DC-4s.

World got its first government contract in 1951 and has had a substantial amount of government business since then.

Later, World acquired DC-6s and Lockheed Constellations. World entered the jet era in the late 1960s with Boeing 707s and 727s. In the early 1970s World acquired Douglas DC-8s.

World became a key military contractor during the Vietnam War, flying troops and equipment between the war zone and World's base at Oakland International Airport. On March 29, 1975, World operated the last airlift flight out of Da Nang, Vietnam. Two 727s were flown to Da Nang, one of which landed with Daly aboard. Thousands rushed the airplane and it took off on a taxiway under heavy fire. The aircraft with Daly aboard started its takeoff roll with the 727's back airstairs still down with Daly fending off additional people trying to leave due to over capacity (The film of this was later broadcast on the CBS Evening News on March 30, 1975). When the airplane landed at Saigon, there were 268 people in the cabin and possibly 60 or more in the cargo holds. World did not return to Da Nang until April 17, 2002, then with an MD-11 aircraft to pick up a team of people resolving Missing-In-Action cases from the Vietnam War.

Also, in the early 1970s, World operated three Boeing 747 aircraft and was the launch customer for the "flip nose" front-loading variant of the 747. Later, World acquired DC-10s some of which it still operates today. World experienced heavy losses in the 1980s as a result of an attempt at scheduled service. In the late 1980s, the company moved its headquarters from Oakland to Washington Dulles International Airport, acquired Key Airlines and established ties to Malaysian Airlines. World was burdened financially as its cash was siphoned off by parent WorldCorp to support a telecommunications venture in which the parent had invested. During the first Persian Gulf War, World did a substantial amount of profitable business for the military, enabling the addition of the MD-11 to the fleet. During the mid 1990s, World operated the military passenger trunk route from Osan Air Base, Korea and Kadena Air Base, Okinawa to Los Angeles, using MD-11 aircraft. World has been headquartered near Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport.

Today's World fleet consists of DC-10 aircraft in passenger configuration and MD-11 trijet aircraft both in freighter and passenger configurations. In early 2008, the company dispensing of economies of scale concerns, added two 747-400 freighters to its operating certificate.

World Airways does not currently have any scheduled passenger service. Instead, it provides airlift for customers who need long-haul widebody aircraft for passenger and cargo service.

In 2001 World Airways moved its headquarters to Peachtree City from Herndon, Virginia.^[3]

The airline still receives a substantial amount of its business from the military, especially in its role connecting American bases in the U.S. to the Middle East. It also thrives on passenger and freight contracts with private organizations, as well as wet leases to other airlines. With such "wet lease" arrangements (also known as "ACMI" standing for aircraft, crew, maintenance, and insurance provided by the airline and fuel and other fees paid by the chartering entity), World Airways essentially functions as a cargo airline arm or subsidiary, of another airline in which a separate division would not be an efficient use of an airlines resources. Among some of these agreements include Etihad Airways and Lufthansa's subsidiary, Lufthansa Cargo. These aircraft operate for Lufthansa wear the registrations D-ALCA to D-ALCS, instead of the traditional N - registrations of American operated aircraft.

In 2006, World Airways and North American Airlines became subsidiaries of World Air Holdings, Inc. North American had both charter and scheduled operations to Georgetown, Guyana in South America; Accra, Ghana; and Lagos, Nigeria in west Africa. North American discontinued this service in May 2008.

In 2006, for the third year in a row, World became the official air-travel provider of the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League.^[4]

On April 5, 2007, World Airways and their ensuing parent companies returned to their Oakland and Bay Area roots where they were headquartered from 1956 to 1987.^[5] It was later agreed that the airline would be acquired under the New ATA Holdings Inc. with the financial assistance of the Matlin Patterson Global Opportunities investment firm.^[6]

ATA Holdings renamed holding company, managerial structure now known as Global Aero Logistics Inc., concluded with a financial transaction valued at $315 million.^[7] With this, ATA's President, Subodh Karnik became the head of all three certificated airlines autonomous operations, namely: ATA Airlines, North American Airlines, and World Airways. In 2007 GAL moved its operation to the World Airways building in Peachtree City, Georgia. Robert Binns was named Chief Executive Officer of GAL in April 2008 and Charlie McDonald was named president. Larry Montford became COO of World Airways.

Film history

• A World Airways Boeing 707 (N374WA) was chartered for use in the 1972 film Skyjacked and was also used for one Episode of Charlie's Angels. It was Season 2, Episode 4, Title: Angel Flight, Original Air Date: 5 October 1977. The Aircraft wore the titles "Global Airways". This same aircraft was used in the Dirty Harry 1973 film Magnum Force under the "Sovereign Airways" titles.
• A World Airways Boeing 727 (N693WA) was chartered for use in the TV movie Mayday at 40,000 Feet wearing the titles "Transcon Airways".
• A World Airways DC-10 was spotted near the beginning of the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Commando (1985) during the era of World's scheduled service. The scene takes place in Los Angeles (LAX) with a Western Airlines DC-10 (N908) actually used for the movie. (At the time this movie was filmed, Western Airlines aircraft N904 and N905 were acquired by World Airways on lease due to World's need for additional capacity for its scheduled service.)

Incidents and accidents

• World Airways Flight 30: On January 23, 1982, a World Airways DC-10 landing at Boston's Logan International Airport under icy conditions and limited visibility slid off the end of the runway and plunged into Boston Harbor, separating the cockpit section from the rest of the aircraft. Two passengers were missing and were reported as fatalities. However, no bodies were found in the very shallow water. There is a yet to be substantiated story of the 2 supposedly dead passengers fleeing the scene in order to commit life insurance fraud.

The main cause of this accident was the Boston Port Authority's failure to provide adequate runway braking reports to the crew although previous aircraft had reported little to no braking action prior to World's landing...

• A notable in-flight accident took place on September 20, 1981 with the death of a World Airways flight attendant. Karen Williams was killed on a transatlantic flight from Baltimore to London when crushed to death in the lower galley elevator. An electrical malfunction and some human error were blamed as the cause. The rising DC-10 elevator trapped the Flight Attendant between a serving cart, that she was apparently trying to release from its locking device, and the top of the elevator opening of this double-deck aircraft.

• On April 17, 2009 an MD-11 operated by World Airways but chartered by fellow MatlinPatterson airline Arrow Air Cargo, lost part of the landing gear while flying over Batuco, Chile. A tire landed 70 meters from a house, but nobody was injured or killed in this incident.

• On May 6, 2009 yet another MatlinPatterson aircraft of World Airways had a very a hard landing [1]in Baltimore, sending 5 aircrew members to the hospital for observation. The aircraft which was on lease from VX Leasing[2] to the World Airways parent company and succesor company to ATA Airlines, was formerly known as "Freedom Bird" N701TZ. It was the first of the DC-10's attained as replacements for the L1011-500s by ATA Airlines and was reregisterd as N139WA after the MatlinPatterson decision to shutter the company in bankruptcy. The DC-10 aircraft made a "go-around" after touching down hard and bursting a nose wheel tire.

Fleet

Corporate headquarters

World Airways's corporate headquarters are in Peachtree City, Georgia. As of 2001 the CEO owned the headquarters and leased it to the airline.^[9]

References

External links

• World Airways home page
• CBS Evening News: Last flight from Da Nang

[[pt:World Airways]