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Lake Central Airlines
Commenced operations	1950; 74 years ago
Ceased operations	June 1, 1968;; 56 years ago
Operating bases	Weir Cook Airport (now Indianapolis International Airport)
Fleet size	Douglas DC-3,; Convair 340,; Convair 580,; Beechcraft Bonanza,; Nord 262.
Parent company	Employee owned
Headquarters	Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
Notes
	(1) IATA, ICAO codes were the same until the 1980s

Lake Central Airlines was a local service carrier and scheduled airline that served multiple locations throughout the midwestern and eastern United States from 1950 to 1968, when it then merged into Allegheny Airlines. In 1979 Allegheny became USAir, and in 1997, USAir became US Airways. In 2015, US Airways was acquired by American Airlines through a merging of the two companies.

History

The airline was founded as Turner Airlines in 1948; it was based at Weir Cook Airport (now Indianapolis International Airport) in Indianapolis, Indiana. Lake Central's network in the 1950s extended from Chicago to Pittsburgh; in August 1953 it had scheduled flights to 21 airports, and in May 1968, this number increased to 39.

Like other local service airlines regulated by the federal Civil Aeronautics Board, Lake Central was subsidized; in 1962 its revenue of $10.8 million included $4.2 million of "pub. serv. rev.".^[2]

In February 1955 Lake Central Airlines became the first employee-owned scheduled airline in the history of the air transport industry.^[3] 162 employees (65% of the total) bought 97.5% of the outstanding stock, 25% outright, and the rest financed over 24 months.

Effective July 1, 1968, the airline was acquired by and merged into Allegheny Airlines. Allegheny later closed the Indianapolis base and sold the Nord 262s, which had proven unreliable.^[4] Lake Central had planned on acquiring new Boeing 737-200s, but the order was cancelled.

Fleet

Lake Central flew Douglas DC-3s, Convair 340s, Convair 580s, Beechcraft Bonanzas, and Nord 262s. DC-3 flights ended in 1967, and by spring of 1968 Lake Central had an all-turboprop fleet of Convair 580s and Nord 262s.^[5]

Historical fleet

Lake Central Airlines previously operated the following aircraft:^[6]

Destinations in 1968

Shortly before the merger into Allegheny Airlines, Lake Central was serving the following cities with an all-turboprop fleet, mainly consisting of Convair 580 and Nord 262 aircraft, according to its April 28, 1968 timetable:^[7]

Akron/Canton, Ohio
Baltimore, Maryland
Bloomington, Indiana
Buffalo, New York
Charleston, West Virginia
Chicago, Illinois (Chicago O'Hare Airport)
Cincinnati, Ohio - hub
Clarksburg, West Virginia
Cleveland, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio - hub
Danville, Illinois
Dayton, Ohio
Detroit, Michigan
Elkins, West Virginia
Erie, Pennsylvania
Evansville, Indiana
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Indianapolis, Indiana - hub & airline headquarters
Kalamazoo, Michigan
Kokomo, Indiana
Lafayette, Indiana
Lima, Ohio
Louisville, Kentucky
Mansfield, Ohio
Marion, Indiana
Martinsburg, West Virginia
Morgantown, West Virginia
Muncie, Indiana
Parkersburg, West Virginia
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Portsmouth, Ohio
St. Louis, Missouri
South Bend, Indiana
Terre Haute, Indiana
Toledo, Ohio
Washington, D.C. (Washington National Airport)
Wheeling, West Virginia
Youngstown, Ohio
Zanesville, Ohio

Accidents and incidents

On March 5, 1967, Lake Central Flight 527, a Convair 580, crashed near Marseilles, Ohio, with the loss of all 38 passengers and crew.^[8]

References

^ ^a ^b Airport Activity Statistics of Certificated Route Carriers (Report). Air Transport Association of America. 31 December 1959. p. iv.
^ Moody's Transportation Manual 1964
^ Aviation Week 21 Feb 1955 p111
^ Furlong, Patrick J. (1994). "Lake Central Airlines". In Bodenhamer, David J.; Barrows, Robert G. (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. pp. 891–892. ISBN 0-253-31222-1.
^ http://www.timetableimages.com, April 28, 1968 Lake Central timetable
^ "Lake Central Airlines". rzjets. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
^ "April 28, 1968 Lake Central timetable". Retrieved January 16, 2018.
^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original on 2012-10-04. Retrieved 2013-09-16.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)