Business Express Airlines - Purchase By AMR

Purchase By AMR

In December 1998, Business Express Airlines announced that AMR Eagle Holding Corp., a unit of AMR Corporation and parent of American Eagle Airlines and Executive Airlines would purchase the airline. Business Express had been operating as an American affiliate under the branding of American Connection at Boston Logan International Airport for only sixteen months prior to this announcement. All privately held Business Express stock was acquired by AMR Eagle Holding from several shareholders including the Philadelphia-based investment firm Dimeling, Schreiber & Park. Specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The agreement was a lucrative move for American Airlines which like AMR Eagle Holdings was also a subsidiary of AMR Corporation, by offering the mainline carrier prime gate opportunities and landing slots at Boston Logan, New York LaGuardia, and Washington National airports, plus acquisition of an outstanding order of Embraer ERJ 135 jets. The airline held twenty firm orders and forty options for Embraer equipment with first deliveries scheduled in August 1999. By late 1999, Business Express began returning its forty-three Saab 340 aircraft, including (twenty-three A models, twenty B models) to their lessor. In late 2000, the airline ceased independent existence when operations were transferred to American Eagle. One of the final flights was a run from the Boston Logan hub to the maintenance base in Bangor, Maine.

• Founded as Atlantic Air in 1982.
• Acquired Pilgrim Airlines in February 1986. (Pilgrim Airlines had, about a year prior, acquired New Haven Airways (dba NewAir).
• Acquired Mall Airways in September 1989.
• Acquired B1900 and Saab340 Fleet of Brockway Air in December 1989.
• Acquired five BAe-146 jet aircraft in 1993 (former Discovery Airways Aircraft). These distinctive four-jet aircraft operated in the following city pairs:

New York JFK-Cleveland, New York JFK-Detroit, Boston-Milwaukee, Boston-Norfolk, Boston-Richmond, Boston-Baltimore, Boston-Bangor, Boston-Portland, Boston-Nantucket (seasonal), Baltimore-Nantucket (seasonal)