Ata airlines were established in August of 1973 to provide aircraft for the ambassadair travel club. Boeing 720 was its first aircraft , 2nd Boeing 720 was added in 1978. ata airlines received its common air carrier certificate in March of 1981. Company started its operations in 1981 at indianapolis,Indiana with a fleet of eight Boeing 707s. ata airlines introduced their first DC-10 and it was followed by series – 40 in 1984. Rolls-Royce was also added in the assests of the firm in the same year. Company started their scheduled flights in 1986 between FortMyers,Florida-Southwest Florida Intl Airport and Indianapolis,Indiana-Indianapolis Intl Airport.
Chicago express and ata airlines launched their ATA connection in 2000, it was a regional affiliate of ATA airlines which would serve to link ATA’s hub at Chicago with mid-westren cities and Indianapolis. On June 1,1999 Chicago Express was sold for $1.9 million and started working as a separate subsidiary.
In late 2004, ATA eneterd bankcruptcy which resulted in the end of ATA regional airline services and also termination of connection between Chicago Express and ATA. The entire staff was laid off permanently. All assets of Chicago Express were auctioned off. ATA terminated their connection and turbopop service, all operations were ceased by Chicago Express on March 28,2005.
There was great confusion among people due to the similarity between names of American Trans Air and Air Tran Airways. Ata airlines have started as ATA from very beginning, they were advertised with name from mid 1990’s onwards. The name of the company was changed to ATA Holding Corp. in 2002. The name of the company was changed to ata airlines in 2003. In 2007 again they changed their name to Global Aero Logistics,Inc.
ATA and it’s subsidiaries filed for bankcuptcy on 26 October,2004. All share holders of ATA lost their money in stock and got no shares. ATA ceased all its operations on 2 April,2008 as company declared bankcruptcy. It was third airline company out of 4 who shutdown in this vary week. Others airlines which had shutdown include Aloha Airlines, Champion Airlines and Skybus Airlines. The announcement of shutdown of ATA was made on April 3,2008. It effected many people including passengers and employees of the company. Flights which were airborne continued their journey towards their destinations.
ATA had 2,300 employees at the time of shutdown and all of them were permanently laid off. Almost 10,000 passengers were effected by this sudden announcement. Now some other airlines are showing interest in purchasing the remaining assests of ATA which include their LaGuardia Airport and trademarks,logos etc.
