Beginnings
On November 30, 1949, PBA was founded by John Van Arsdale in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and its first route was operated between Provincetown and Boston; hence its name. Van Arsdale learned how to fly from his father at a young age, and loved flying. He became the manager of the Provincetown Airport, and started giving local residents rides to Boston in his airplane. Soon, Van Arsdale learned that people liked the idea of taking a 20 minute flight across the bay, and started the airline. He did the flying, while his wife Betty worked at the airport taking reservations. The aircraft of choice to start operations was the Cessna Bobcat.
PBA's CEO ran foul of the FAA for multiple alleged violations of federal regulations, and in the 1980s the airline was effectively put out of business by the FAA, before being purchased by People Express.
Read more about this topic: Provincetown-Boston Airlines
Famous quotes containing the word beginnings:
“The frantic search of five-year-olds for friends can thus be seen to forecast the beginnings of a basic shift in the parent-child relationship, a shift which will occur gradually over many long years, and in which a child needs not only the support of child allies engaged in the same struggle but also the understanding of his parents.”
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“These beginnings of commerce on a lake in the wilderness are very interesting,—these larger white birds that come to keep company with the gulls.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)