WESTERN AIRLINES

HISTORY: WESTERN AIRLINES was a large airline based in California, with operations throughout the western United States including Alaska and Hawaii, and western Canada, as well as to New York City, Boston, Washington D.C. and Miami on the U.S. east coast and also into Mexico. In 1941 Western Air Express changed its name to Western Air Lines (WAL) and later to Western Airlines. The carrier also billed itself as Western Airlines International at one point. During the 1940s, Western acquired a controlling interest in Inland Air Lines, which operated as a subsidiary with this air carrier's schedules appearing in Western system timetables at the time before Inland was fully merged into Western during the early 1950s. In 1967 WAL acquired Pacific Northern Airlines, which served the state of Alaska from Anchorage and Seattle. On September 9, 1986 Western Airlines and Delta Air Lines entered into an agreement and plan of merger. The merger agreement was approved by the United States Department of Transportation on December 11, 1986. On December 16, 1986, shareholder approval of the merger was conferred and Western Airlines became a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta. The Western brand was discontinued and the employee workforces were fully merged on April 1, 1987.