Western Airlines

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Western Airlines began as Western Air Express, incorporated July 13, 1925. Its first airmail flight left Los Angeles for Salt Lake City via Las Vegas on April 17, 1926; passenger service followed that May. The early flyers sat on mail sacks, which is a wonderfully direct way to explain aviation’s glamorous beginnings.

After a circuitous 1930s corporate journey through General Air Lines and a revived Western Air Express Corporation, the company adopted the Western Airlines name in 1941. Operations moved from Burbank to general offices at the new Los Angeles International Airport in 1947, anchoring the carrier’s long association with Los Angeles.

Western expanded through acquisitions including National Parks Airways in 1937, Inland Airlines in 1952, and Pacific Northern Airlines in 1967. It also cultivated an unusually cheerful personality: Champagne Service, Hunt Breakfasts, and the animated Very Important Bird made flying feel less like logistics and more like a slightly overcaffeinated party at 30,000 feet.

Our Western Airlines collection celebrates the red Flying W, the O-O-Only Way to Fly spirit, and a carrier that connected the West long before every trip involved a boarding group, an app, and a tiny bag of pretzels. Delta acquired Western in December 1986, and the airlines’ operations officially merged on April 1, 1987.