Tower Air - Definition

Tower Air was a low-fare and charter airline that operated from 1982 until 2000, when it declared bankruptcy and was liquidated. The airline initially competed with People Express in the high-density U.S. domestic market, but switched to international flights in the mid-1980s.

The company won many contracts from the United States Department of Defense to transport U.S. armed personnel to overseas locations: it also flew refugees out of Kosovo in the 1990s, and was often chartered to fly groups of Muslim pilgrims to Mecca.

Tower Air's main base of scheduled operations was John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, New York: it also had many flights to Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, and was a major competitor of El Al and British Airways in the US-Israel market. It used Boeing 747 aircraft exclusively.

Other facts of interest

• Tower Air was prominently featured in the Ray Liotta movie, Turbulence
• Many former Tower Air airplanes have been stored in Marana, Arizona.

External links

• 1997 interview with co-founder (http://www.twst.com/notes/articles/gax626.html)
• Jerusalem Post article on bankruptcy (http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/03/01/News/News.3384.html)
• Essay on the Tower Air bankruptcy (http://www.weil.com/wgm/cWGMPubs.nsf/0/ab0e35b237df5d5185256b730064baf9?OpenDocument)