History
As a flight school and charter service in Las Vegas, Bonanza started in June 1945 with a collection of Cessna single- and double-engine light aircraft, and incorporated in December of that year with Edmund Converse as president. As World War II-related business started to dry up, Converse noted the preponderance of charter work went back and forth to Reno, Nevada – a very long drive that was not effectively covered by the trunk airlines. Converse put a ticket counter in the lobby of the Hotel El Rancho and started three roundtrip flights per week in August 1946 as an uncertified intra-state carrier. Despite a slow winter, traffic had improved notably by summer 1947. Operations were moved in early 1948 from a small strip on the north side of Las Vegas to Alamo Field on the south side, which is now Harry Reid International Airport.
Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) route certification was granted in December 1949 for a route between Reno and Las Vegas with stops in Carson City, Hawthorne, and Tonopah, Nevada. Shortly afterward, Bonanza was allowed to purchase the local route from Trans World Airlines between Las Vegas and Phoenix, with stops in Boulder City, Kingman, and Prescott. Douglas DC-3 equipment was acquired to keep up with growing demand and to provide consistent airline-quality service.
In July 1952 Bonanza picked up a local service route between Phoenix and Los Angeles via San Diego, and in January 1955 gained another Phoenix – Los Angeles routing via Ontario/Riverside. This period also saw an acquisition offer from Southwest Airways of San Francisco (later Pacific Air Lines) but Converse was not interested in combining at that time.
Further growth was approved in July 1957 for the important Las Vegas – Los Angeles market (via Apple Valley and Riverside/Ontario). Ten Douglas DC-3s with 24 seats each were flying the airline’s routes at this time. Palm Springs joined the network in January 1958, and a massive Phoenix – Salt Lake City connection started early in 1959.
With major traffic corridors established and longer routes being operated, the DC-3s were starting to show their age, and slow speeds limited how many flights could be run each day. The Fairchild F-27 40-passenger twin turboprop offered speeds up to 300 miles per hour, a higher cruising altitude with weather radar, pressurization and air conditioning, and easier maintenance. Six aircraft were ordered in 1956.
Investments in the company’s future were met with investor and lender enthusiasm, with a public stock offering taking place in June 1958, and a new headquarters opened in Las Vegas in December of that year. The first three F-27s were delivered in winter 1959 with first scheduled service on March 29; and the second batch of three entering service in October. Two more F-27s were ordered and brought online in June 1960. Eventually a total of 13 of this type would be operating by 1963, allowing the DC-3s to be retired.
F-27s had the range, speed, and comfort to allow nonstop service between Phoenix and Salt Lake City, and found great success on nonstops between Los Angeles and Las Vegas with up to 12 daily roundtrips offered by 1962! In fact, that year Bonanza enjoyed the highest passenger load factor of all scheduled U.S. airlines, whether Local Service or the big trunk carriers.
The success of shuttle flights into LAX airport led to the introduction of Las Vegas – Santa Ana nonstops and upgrades to the Las Vegas – Ontario route in 1965.
With such high load factors, bringing in larger jet equipment was the next logical step. After an attempt to order the British BAC -111 fell through, Bonanza became the second carrier (after Delta) to order the Douglas DC-9, with three examples entering service in 1966 and three more in 1967. The productivity of these 64-passenger “Funjets” allowed Bonanza to offer very attractive fares on the LAX-Vegas shuttle and helped cross-subsidize propeller equipment service into the smaller stations on the system.
A favorable land offer was made by the management of Phoenix’ Sky Harbor Airport to attract Bonanza away from Las Vegas, and a new headquarters and maintenance facility was opened there in June 1966.
Through the 1960s the company had submitted many ambitious route applications to the CAB, which would have stretched the network as far east as Denver, Albuquerque, and El Paso; west to San Francisco; and north to Boise. If they had been granted, both Phoenix and Las Vegas would have operated more like modern hub-and-spoke terminals covering much of the Desert and Pacific Southwest – but such developments would have to wait another twenty years. However, in the southern direction, Bonanza found the CAB ready to deal and would be granted route authorities to Tucson, Arizona, as well as multiple destinations along the Pacific coast of Mexico.
In April 1968, Tucson, La Paz, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta service was started with DC-9 equipment. These would be the final new routes for Bonanza as Ed Converse had come around to agreeing with the leaders at Pacific and West Coast on the need to combine companies. The new Air West officially started business on July 1, 1968, with headquarters in San Francisco but its primary maintenance base at Bonanza’s complex in Phoenix.
View our extensive slide Bonanza slide collection from the early 1960s featuring many staff and both main-office as well as engineering operations!
Route Maps
Timetables
Aircraft
Starting small with the Cessna T-50, growing traffic and customer expectations soon demanded the capacity of the Douglas DC-3, which served with elan up to 1960. However, with longer routes being awarded – and the distances and heat involved with flying over the Desert Southwest – turboprop equipment made a lot of sense. Bonanza jumped in with both feet as an early operator of the Fairchild F-27, and proclaimed themselves “the first all-jet airline in America”.
Actual jet equipment was the next logical step, with an order for the BAC One-Eleven placed in 1962. However, U.S. government regulators disagreed and forced the company to cancel its order. Eventually Bonanza ordered the Douglas DC-9 and became a familiar sight on billboards in Southern California and Las Vegas, advertising the many jet flights available between the two regions. DC-9s also opened Bonanza’s routes into Mexico just as the airline merged into Air West.
