Grand Canyon Airlines

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Grand Canyon Airlines
IATA YR	ICAO CVU	Callsign CANYON VIEW
Founded		1927
Hubs		Grand Canyon, Boulder City
Secondary hubs		Page, Monument Valley, Grand Canyon West
Fleet size		16
Destinations		Grand Canyon, Page, Boulder City, Monument Valley
Parent company		Grand Canyon Airlines
Company slogan		With Grand Canyon Airlines, Your Memories are Cleared for Takeoff!
Headquarters		Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA
Key people		John Dillon, President
Website: http://www.grandcanyonairlines.com/

Grand Canyon Airlines is an American airline based at Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA. It operates sightseeing tours over the Grand Canyon. Its main base is Grand Canyon National Park Airport.^[1]

1 History
2 Fleet
3 External links
4 References

[edit] History

GRAND CANYON AIRLINES – THE WORLD’S OLDEST, MOST EXPERIENCED AIR TOUR COMPANY SINCE 1927 - Just 23 years after the Wright Brothers broke the surly bands of earth's gravity at Kittyhawk, another visionary named J. Parker Van Zandt desired to further promote aviation and found what he thought was the perfect spot on earth to do just that - THE GRAND CANYON. Van Zandt, a former Army pilot in WWI was then the Chief Pilot for the Ford Motor Company’s airplane division, and discovered Grand Canyon by air while delivering a Ford Tri-Motor aircraft from Dearborn, Michigan to Los Angeles in 1926. He was awe-struck and stunned at what he saw. Unable to get the Ford Motor Company interested in his idea, Van Zandt left Ford on good terms and organized his new company in 1927 under the name Scenic Airways. Van Zandt set out to create a niche in aviation dedicated solely to promote man's ability to fly for sightseeing. Scenic Airways built the first Grand Canyon Airport (Near Red Butte) and the first commercial air tour departed on October 3, 1927 in a new Stinson Detroiter SM-1. Pioneering in more areas, Scenic Airways is also credited with providing the first commercial air tours and charters over Rainbow Natural Bridge, Monument Valley, and much more. Van Zandt thought the West was so beautiful that he named the flights "The Rainbow Route" (as depicted on the company logo and aircraft at that time). The company thrived and while expanding south looking for winter business opportunities, Van Zandt bought five cotton farms just outside of Phoenix, AZ where he built an airport and named it "Sky Harbor". The first flight from Sky Harbor was aboard one of the newly acquired Ford Tri-Motor airplanes on November 18, 1928 taking a fishing club to Rocky Point, Mexico. Shortly thereafter Van Zandt started a flight training aeronautic school in Phoenix. The following year brought more growth and success, but hard times fell on the airline in October 1929 when the stock market crashed and the Great Depression set in, causing Van Zandt to sell the company and assets to some local Arizona pilots. The new owners changed the company name to Grand Canyon Airlines (GCA) and the Thunderbird was introduced as the logo in 1930 and it is still used today. Service continued with expansion to Boulder City, NV where air tours were provided over the newly constructed Boulder Dam (now known as Hoover Dam) and Grand Canyon. Today, nearly eight decades later, GCA continues to pioneer the industry it invented with the development of the quiet technology VISTALINER aircraft, the most famous and successful air tour airplane in the world. GCA cares deeply for the environment, and continues lead the air tour industry in efforts to “fly friendly” and preserve our precious natural resources, especially the ‘natural quiet’ at Grand Canyon. GCA has provided millions of visitors from all over the world with memories and experiences of a lifetime and GCA continues to share the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Rainbow Bridge, Monument Valley, and more! “With Grand Canyon Airlines, Your Memories are Cleared For Takeoff!”

Today GCA is owned by the Halvoron family. In March 2007 GCA purchased Scenic Airlines in Las Vegas and now the combined operation is the largest fixed-wing air tour company in the world. The fleet consists of 16 deHavilland Twin Otter VISTALINERS, 2 Cessna 402B, 1 Cessna 208B Caravan.