Mackey Airlines - Misplaced Pages

Not to be confused with the later Mackey International of the same founder, that operated from 1968 to 1981 under the names Mackey International Air Taxi, Mackey International Air Commuter and Mackey International Airlines, mostly to the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, and Haiti US international airline (1953–1967) that merged into Eastern

Mackey Airlines

IATA	ICAO	Call sign
MK	MK	—

Founded

September 30, 1946;
78 years ago (1946-09-30)
incorporated in Florida as Mackey Air Transport

Commenced operations

January 2, 1953;
71 years ago (1953-01-02)

Ceased operations

January 8, 1967;
57 years ago (1967-01-08)

Fleet size

See Fleet below

Destinations

See Destinations below

Headquarters

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States

Founder

Joseph C. Mackey

Employees

230

Notes

(1) IATA, ICAO codes were the same until the 1980s

Mackey Airlines (until 1953 Mackey Air Transport) was a small United States scheduled international airline flying from Florida to the Bahamas certificated in 1952 by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), the now defunct Federal agency that, at the time, tightly regulated almost all US commercial air transport. The airline was founded by Joseph C. Mackey. Mackey also flew to Cuba prior to the Cuban Revolution. In 1956, Mackey absorbed Midet Aviation, an even smaller CAB-certificated airline also flying between Florida and the Bahamas. Mackey merged into Eastern Air Lines in 1967.

Joseph C. Mackey

Joseph C. Mackey learned to fly as a teenager in Cleveland, flew liquor across Lake Erie during Prohibition and partnered with Roscoe Turner in air races in the 1930s. In 1940, delivering aircraft to the UK for the Royal Air Force, engine trouble forced his aircraft down in Newfoundland. Mackey, the only survivor, was left with a scarred depression in his forehead. Two others died on impact, a third, Canadian Nobel Prize winner (for co-discovery of insulin) Frederick Banting, died of injuries and exposure later. Mackey flew for the United States Army Air Force Air Transport Command during World War II and emerged a colonel. Mackey died February 1982, age 72, only a few months after his second eponymous carrier, Mackey International, ceased operations.

In 1965, the airline had 230 employees.

History

Mackey Air Transport was incorporated in Florida 30 September 1946. The airline's first flight was 2 January 1953. In June, the airline changed its name to Mackey Airlines, the CAB reissued the certificate in that name in October. Flights flew primarily out of its Fort Lauderdale base and from West Palm Beach and Miami. On 3 December 1956, Mackey acquired Midet Aviation, another CAB-certificated scheduled airline flying from Florida to Bahamas. The original Mackey Airlines certificate was transferred to Eastern Air Lines on 8 January 1967.