Jet America Airlines (1987)

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Jet America Airlines, Inc. was founded on September 11, 1980, and based at 2895 Temple Avenue in Signal Hill, California, just beside Long Beach. Built by veterans of the deregulation-era airline business, it set out to give the big carriers a little sun-soaked California competition.

The airline began scheduled service on November 16, 1981, flying from Long Beach to Chicago O’Hare. Its IATA code was SI, its call sign was JET AMERICA, and its McDonnell Douglas MD-80 fleet linked Long Beach and other western cities with destinations including Dallas/Fort Worth, St. Louis, Detroit, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., and Chicago.

By the mid-1980s, Jet America had found itself in the classic deregulated-airline predicament: shiny jets, contested airport slots, big ambitions, and rivals with deeper pockets. Alaska Air Group acquired Jet America in late 1986 and initially kept it operating as a separate carrier.

That independent run ended on October 1, 1987, when Jet America merged into Alaska Airlines. The corporate ghost left behind a sharply of-its-moment identity: California confidence, MD-80 muscle, and a route map that believed Long Beach could take on the continent.

Our Jet America Airlinesb (1987) collection celebrates the short, loud life of a Signal Hill carrier that chased coast-to-coast relevance before getting folded into Alaska’s flight plan.