Jet America Airlines was a United States domestic airline that operated from 1981 to 1987 when it merged with Alaska Airlines after briefly operating as a separate carrier within Alaska Air Group. It was headquartered in Signal Hill, California, near Long Beach.^[2][3]

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Jet America Airlines

IATA ICAO Callsign SI — —
Founded	11 September 1980[1]
Commenced operations	16 November 1981 (1981-11-16)
Ceased operations	1 October 1987 (1987-10-01) (merged into Alaska Airlines)
Hubs	Long Beach
Focus cities	Las Vegas
Frequent-flyer program	Yes; later merged into Gold Coast Travel
Fleet size	8
Destinations	11
Parent company	Alaska Air Group
Headquarters	Signal Hill, California
Key people	J. Thomas Talbot Alan H. Kenison Ted Shown George Chelius Don Rhoads Tim Collins

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Jet America acquired its name from the existing Jet America, Inc., a charter operator of six LearJets based in Washington, D.C.^{[citation needed]} Headed by executives from AirCal and Air Florida, the airline began operating on November 16, 1981, with a flight from its home base at Long Beach Airport (LGB) to Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD).^[4] By July 1984 the airline had expanded service to Dallas/Fort Worth, St. Louis, and Oakland, and had launched its own frequent flyer program. Its fleet consisted of six McDonnell Douglas MD-82 aircraft, with a further four on order; a Boeing 707 was also leased in June 1984 for charter operations, which rapidly incurred significant losses and resulted in the early termination of the lease in January 1985.^[5]

Services to Detroit, Las Vegas, and Orange County, California were inaugurated in 1985.^[6] During that year, Jet America joined with Disney to advertise a direct route from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) to Long Beach Airport for people to visit Disneyland in its 30th anniversary year. Many of these ads were played during Texas Rangers baseball games or were placed in the team's programs and calendar.^{[citation needed]}

In the summer of 1986, Jet America was operating a small hub at the Las Vegas McCarran International Airport (LAS) with nonstop jet service to Burbank (BUR), Chicago (ORD), Dallas/Ft. Worth (DFW), Long Beach (LGB), Milwaukee (MKE), Ontario (ONT), Orange County (SNA) and St. Louis (STL) as well as direct one stop flights to Detroit (DTW) and Washington, D.C. (DCA).^[7]

In the spring of 1987, the airline was operating direct flights between the west coast and the east coast of the U.S. including a round trip multi-stop flight with a routing of Orange County (SNA) - Portland (PDX) - Seattle (SEA) - Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP) - Washington, D.C. (DCA) as well as a Long Beach (LGB) - Chicago (ORD) - Washington, D.C. (DCA) round trip flight.^[8]

Late in 1986, the airline received buyout offers from Delta Air Lines and Alaska Air Group.^[9] The airline accepted the Alaska bid and by the end of the year the acquisition had been completed. After initially attempting to operate the two airlines separately but finding it costly to do so, Jet America was merged into Alaska Airlines in October 1987.^[10]

Jet America served the following destinations as of June 1987.

At the time of its acquisition by Alaska Airlines, the Jet America fleet consisted of the following aircraft:

• List of defunct airlines of the United States