Champion Air bites the dust...

wsuffa

wsuffa

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Bill S.
It appears that Champion Air has now flown its last flight.

I'm sitting in the D-terminal Admiral's Club at DFW and just watched two of their 727's taxi in - the second one was greeted with the traditional spray from the fire trucks. They were supposed to shut down end of May. Guess it's today.....

RIP, Champion Air.....
 
Someone must be enjoying these high gas prices. But it has been heck on aviation!
ApacheBob
 
Jeez, I rode the jumpseat on a Champion 727 a few years ago from KDEN - KLAS. Talk about an interesting (translated to scary) experience. Nice crew and all, but we had a few issues along the way. I certainly never base a full opinion on one experience, and I'm sure they were a fine/standardized airline.

Anyways, I hate to see another one go west...hopefully things get under control before too many more close their doors.
 
Well that sucks. I knew they were on the way out, but it's still sad that a few more 727s are going to the boneyard.
 
Heck, I've never even heard of them!
 
I know a couple of folks that think this is a good thing. They did the charters for the San Antonio Spurs - and left the team to sleep on the plane in NEw Orleans due to a mechanical. The team lost their playoff game a day later...
 
Champion is not a "failure" like many carriers lately; it is more like a planned shutdown. They were the last operator of 727s in passenger service, and had gotten what I think we can call the most possible utility out of them. Their decision not to update the fleet, made a while back, had to be part of a calculated model to run out for cash, suspend and liquidate.
 
SCCutler said:
Champion is not a "failure" like many carriers lately; it is more like a planned shutdown. They were the last operator of 727s in passenger service, and had gotten what I think we can call the most possible utility out of them. Their decision not to update the fleet, made a while back, had to be part of a calculated model to run out for cash, suspend and liquidate.
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Yes, but were the fuel still cheaper, I bet they'd still be running those old NW planes.... No question it was planned... but they had the sports contracts to fulfill, so I'm guessing that was part of the reason they waited.

MIght have gone sooner were Peter Holt & the Spurs not so cheap as to use them.... almost all the other teams had already moved elsewhere.
 
AdamZ said:
Nor have I
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Blue and white 727s with Champion Air emblazoned on the side?

1356051.jpg
 
One less post-AF job opportunity. Oh, well. Just more motivation to build PIC time to qualify for whatever is still out there in about 10 years.
 
I flew them a number of times; besides the sports charters Bill referenced, they specialized in flying vacation charters for MLT World vacations (once affiliated with NWA, still?), we flew them to Cancun from DFW at least four times. Flew on the last 727 built with them (it was pretty worn!). Also flew to Vegas, on the way to Hawaii. Weird deal.
 
We used to see them quite a bit at HOU for various sports charters.
 
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