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Tower Air (IATA: FF, ICAO: TOW, call sign: Tee Air) was a privately owned low-fare and charter U.S. airline that operated from 1983 until 2000, when it declared bankruptcy and was liquidated. During the mid-1980s until People Express ceased operations in 1987, the airline was a main competitor of People Express, in the high-density U.S. domestic market, but it had initially begun service as an international-only airline.

History

Tower air was co-founded, owned and managed by Morris K. Nachtomi, an Israeli citizen who had immigrated to the United States. After a 30-year career with El Al, Nachtomi joined a wholesaler and tour package operator called Tower Travel Group in 1981 and co-founded Tower Air one year later. The other co-founder, Sam Fondlier's son Arthur Fondlier, perished on Pan Am Flight 103.

The company won many contracts from the United States Department of Defense to transport U.S. armed forces personnel to overseas locations: it also flew refugees out of Kosovo in the 1990s, and was often chartered to fly groups of Muslim pilgrims to Mecca.

Tower Air's main base of scheduled operations was John F. Kennedy International Airport in Jamaica, New York; during the height of its history, the airline had its own terminal (the former Eastern Airlines Terminal), and had a large focus on flights to Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, becoming a major competitor of El Al and British Airways in the US-Israel market. The airlines also had several flights into France, Greece, and Brazil as well as high density domestic destinations in the New York market, including San Juan, Miami, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. The airline was unique as being exclusively composed of Boeing 747-100 and -200 series aircraft.

Early in its history and certainly by the mid-1990s, Tower Air became notorious for poor service and questionable maintenance. By 1995 it ranked fourth in the number of complaints per mile among leading U.S. airlines. The 1997 Zagat Survey placed Tower Air 59th out of 61 ranked carriers, only edging ahead of Valujet and Aeroflot. In February 1998, the Federal Aviation Administration proposed two civil penalties totaling $276,000 for continuing to fly aircraft that required maintenance action . The FAA successfully sought in January, 1998 to have the airline remove then-29 year old Mr. Guy Nachtomi, son of the Chairman and CEO, from the position as Vice President-Operations, in part because of the airline's maintenance, as well the junior Mr. Nachtomi's little airline experience, having worked at Twentieth Century Fox until 1994. However, the junior Mr. Nachtomi continued service with the company in a capacity unrelated to maintenance as Vice President-Office of the Chairman. The Department of Defense Commercial Airlift Review Board suspended Tower Air military charters from January 27 to February 12, 1999, pending an on-site review of their operations. At the same time the airline lost an arbitration brought by the Association of Flight Attendants, claiming that Tower Air had begun lodging its flight attendants in dirty Tel Aviv hotels with poor security and bed bugs. Because of its reputation of poor service and maintenance issues, "Tower Scare" was a common nickname for the airline, although it must be noted that derogatory names have been used for many other airlines, such as US Scare, Untied, Doesn't Ever Leave the Airport, Terrorists with Arms, Southworst, etc.

Tower Air filed for protection under Chapter 11 bankruptcy on February 29, 2000, ceased all scheduled service on May 1, 2000, and surrendered its FAA air carrier operating certificate on November 28, 2000 .

Other facts of interest

• Tower Air was prominently featured in such movies as Liar Liar and Turbulence. The latter featured one of their 747 aircraft in the full colors of fictional TransCon Airlines.
• Many former Tower Air airplanes have been stored in Marana, Arizona.
• Major artifacts from the World Trade Center are housed for safekeeping in the former Tower Air Hangar 17 at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
• An old Tower Air website is still functional but has been abandoned since the carrier went bankrupt. ]

Incidents and Accidents

Tower Air has not experienced any airplane crashes.

References

1. Air Travel -- Trans-Pacific Carriers Tops In Airline Poll, Seattle Times News Services, May 4, 1997.
2. FAA Proposes Two Fines For Tower Air, Federal Aviation Administration press release, February 3, 1998.
3. http://sec.edgar-online.com/1998/05/01/14/0000940180-98-000483/Section9.asp
4. http://sec.edgar-online.com/1998/05/01/14/0000940180-98-000483/Section9.asp
5. Information for Consumers Regarding the Cessation of Service by Tower Air, Aviation Consumer Protection Division, Department of Transportation.

External links

• 1997 interview with co-founder
• Essay on the Tower Air bankruptcy

• Defunct airlines of the United States
• Airlines established in 1982
• 2000 disestablishments