Air New Orleans

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Air New Orleans, Inc. began scheduled commuter service on August 10, 1981. Despite the name on the fuselage, its original headquarters was in Panama City, Florida, while New Orleans served as the center of much of its flying and held executive offices. Early Piper Navajo routes linked New Orleans with Mobile and Pensacola: small airplanes, short hops, and Gulf Coast weather with opinions.

By the mid-1980s, the airline had spread across Florida and the Southeast, adding Beech 99s, Piper T-1020s, and later BAe Jetstream 31 turboprops. In 1986, Air New Orleans moved its headquarters to Birmingham, Alabama, and joined Continental Airlines as a Continental Express code-share carrier. Its planes fed passengers into New Orleans and connected communities in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.

The expansion could not outrun the balance sheet. Air New Orleans filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 1988. Continental later ended the code-share relationship, and the carrier stopped operating in June 1988. Its timetable run—independent issues followed by Continental Express editions—now reads like a compact record of regional aviation’s scrappy, deregulated era.

Our Air New Orleans collection celebrates the Gulf Coast upstart that promised a little airline with a big-name destination, a pocketful of turboprops, and just enough 1980s regional-airline swagger to make every gate announcement feel important.