Saturday, October 16, 2010

Texas International Airlines Beech 99's

In the spring of 1970, Texas International Airlines began operating a small fleet of Beech 99's from Dallas and Houston to some of the carrier's stations in Eastern Texas.  By the summer, it appears 3 aircraft were operating a schedule that included service to Galveston, Longview/Kilgore/Gladewater, Lufkin, Tyler, and Victoria.

Texas International July 1, 1970 timetable


Beech 99 service from Houston, July 1, 1970 timetable (click to enlarge)

The July 1, 1970 issue shows a dramatic increase in service between Houston and Galveston, with 9 daily flights, 8 utilizing the Beeches.  This compares to 3 Convair 600 frequencies the previous Summer.


This service was rather short-lived, and the last timetable to show Beech 99 service was the April 30, 1972 issue, by which time all such flights to Houston had been terminated.  (Galveston was only being served by a single daily Convair flight.)  Dallas was seeing the 99's being used to several new destinations, namely College Station and Waco.

April 30, 1972 Texas International timetable


Beech 99 service from Dallas April 30, 1972 (click to enlarge)

By August, the Beeches were gone from the timetable.  In most cases, the former Beech 99 routes were being served by Convair 600's on reduced frequencies.

2 comments:

  1. THANK YOU so much for posting this about Beech 99s and Texas International. I recall twice flying from Waco to DFW on TI back in 1971-72 timeframe as a student at Baylor, connecting at DAL Love Field to a Delta DC8 to New Orleans near my home. It is difficult to find the published route on historic timetable sites. It's like there is a void between late 60s to mid 70s. So now you have confirmed. Twice I was on stand-by to get out of Waco to meet the Delta flight. This was back when Texas International was in its purple decor mode before changing to the red white and blue with the Texas star mode. Twice I flew in the jump seat at the rear door...the last option. I suppose it would have been normally used for crew or flight attendant but then not on an aircraft of this size. Only the pilot and co-pilot were up front. I definitely recall I did NOT fly on any larger Convair out of Waco as later schedules show were the equipment used. So thanks for clearing my head.

    ReplyDelete