Pacific Wings

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Pacific Wings was the island-hopping identity of a small American commuter carrier whose roots reached back to Las Vegas. The business began in July 1974 as Air Nevada, an on-demand charter operator, then started scheduled Cessna 402 service between Las Vegas and Grand Canyon National Park Airport in 1978.

In January 1998, Eagle Canyon Airlines acquired Air Nevada’s Nevada and Arizona tour-operation network. The surviving carrier shifted its focus to Hawaii, adopted the Pacific Wings name, and became closely associated with Kahului, Maui. Its little Cessnas and later Cessna Grand Caravans served the kind of runways and routes that made bigger airline timetables look downright lazy.

Pacific Wings connected Honolulu, Kahului, Molokai, Lanai, Hana, Kalaupapa, Kamuela and other smaller markets at various times. In 2007 it briefly marketed low-fare interisland service as PW Express, while the broader operation also used names including New Mexico Airlines, GeorgiaSkies, TennesseeSkies and KentuckySkies. Corporate headquarters later moved from Kahului to Mesa, Arizona.

Hawaii flights ended on June 15, 2013. The remaining affiliated operations were grounded in December 2014; limited flying resumed in early 2015 before the carrier shut down completely by May 2015. A long, oddly durable commuter-airline saga finally taxied into the corporate mist.

Our Pacific Wings collection celebrates the scrappy short-haul airline that made a Pacific archipelago feel a little smaller—one tiny turboprop, one improbable schedule, and one perfectly ghostly boarding call at a time.