Timetables – Simmons

Simmons Airlines started in 1978 as a niche intrastate carrier from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan flying Piper Navajos, but as Republic started to pull out of smaller markets in that state and Wisconsin, MQ picked up routes out of Chicago, Milwaukee, and Detroit. Their fleet grew with Embraer Bandeirantes, Shorts 360s, and eventually NAMC YS-11 and ATR-42 turboprops. MQ was part of Republic’s “One Ticket Way” in the early 1980s and became a contract Republic Express carrier from April 28, 1985 out of DTW and MSP. This contract continued through the merger with Northwest, also feeding MKE, and some Simmons aircraft wore the NWA colors.

Simmons flew its ORD services under the American Eagle banner from October 1985, and eventually sold the whole company to AMR in August 1987. Northwest terminated its Airlink contract with MQ at that time, giving Mesaba the full Detroit operation. Meanwhile, through acquisitions and alignments, the core operation of Simmons eventually became American Eagle’s key feederline for the central U.S., Envoy.

MQ did not issue any timetables of its own after the RC/NW merger or as American Eagle, and only four issues are known to have been issued with Republic Express branding. (We are still searching for one!) We will also present as many pre-Express schedules as we can find here to show the carrier’s evolution.

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