Big Sky Airlines

The airline was established in 1978 and started operations on September 15, 1978, initially operating to a number of small cities in eastern and central Montana formerly served by the original Frontier Airlines. This remained the core of the company's business throughout its history, although the airline also expanded into a number of other geographic areas over the years. Most of the later expansions proved to be short-lived, however.

In 1987, Big Sky was operating code sharing service as Northwest Airlink on behalf of Northwest Airlines from a hub in Billings with British Aerospace BAe Jetstream 31 propjets.[2] The Jetstream turboprops were then replaced with Swearingen Metroliner propjets on the Northwest Airlink service.[3]

Big Sky took over Exec Express II d/b/a Lone Star Airlines/Aspen Mountain Air's EAS routes in October 1998, following the bankruptcy of this Texas-based commuter air carrier. Transfer of services was completed in December 1998. These routes included: Dallas/Ft. Worth-Brownwood, TX; Dallas/Ft. Worth-Enid/Ponca City, OK; Dallas/Ft. Worth-Hot Springs-Harrison-Mountain Home, AR-St. Louis, MO; and Dallas/Ft. Worth-El Dorado-Jonesboro, AR.

On October 21, 2000, Big Sky began new service between Montana and north Texas via southeastern New Mexico with a Dallas/Ft. Worth-Hobbs-Carlsbad-Roswell-Denver-Billings route. This service was later modified to Dallas/Ft. Worth-Carlsbad-Roswell and Dallas/Ft. Worth-Brownwood-Hobbs routes. All New Mexico service ended in 2001.[4]

In late 2002, Big Sky Airlines was operating nonstop flights between Idaho Falls, Idaho and Denver, Colorado but then cancelled this service three months afterward, declaring it unprofitable.[5]

In early 2005, Big Sky announced several changes concerning its service including the termination of flights to North Dakota as well as the replacement of its Fairchild Metroliner propjets with Beechcraft 1900D turboprops with the latter being leased from Mesa Air Group subsidiary Air Midwest. Service from Sheridan, Wyoming to both Denver and Billings began by the end of 2005 but was then terminated in January 2008.

In February 2006 Big Sky began daily service between Walla Walla Regional Airport and Boise (BOI). Service ceased with the airline's bankruptcy in 2007.

In July 2006, Big Sky announced that the airline would discontinue service to Great Falls, Montana; Kalispell, Montana; and Spokane, Washington. The airline also announced that one of their Beechcraft 1900D's would be leased to Chalk's International Airlines in Florida.

On September 1, 2006, Big Sky discontinued service to Moses Lake, Washington.

On December 21, 2006, a press release announced that Big Sky would become a Delta Connection carrier via a code share agreement with Delta Air Lines using eight Beechcraft 1900D turboprops operated from Boston's Logan International Airport (BOS).[6] The airline's east coast operations ended on January 7, 2008.[7]

Big Sky served the following destinations at different times during its existence. Destination information is taken from various Big Sky Airlines route maps:[13]

In January 2000, the Big Sky Airlines fleet consisted of 14 Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner Metro III and Metro 23 aircraft.

However, the air carrier then removed the Metro propjets from its fleet and in January 2008 was operating Beechcraft 1900D turboprops with 10 aircraft in the fleet:

Big Sky previously operated Handley Page Jetstream propjets as well as Cessna prop aircraft during the late 1970s.[15] By 1987, the airline was operating British Aerospace BAe Jetstream 31 propjets on its flights as a Northwest Airlink air carrier.[16]

Big Sky had code share agreements with the following airlines. The code share agreements allowed these larger mainline air carriers to place their airline codes on Big Sky flights, but not vice versa.

• Alaska Airlines
• Delta Air Lines (as Delta Connection)
• Northwest Airlines (as Northwest Airlink)
• US Airways

• Big Sky Airlines (Archive)