California Central Airlines

California Central Airlines (CCA) was a post-war American scheduled price-focused intrastate airline based at Burbank, California, the most prominent airline associated with Charles C. Sherman. CCA slightly preceded, and during its existence was bigger than, its contemporary and competitor, Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA). The core route of both airlines was from Los Angeles to the San Francisco Bay Area.

After the collapse of the original CCA, its owners created another airline, California Coastal Airlines, which did business as California Central Airlines. This second California Central lasted until 1957.

Startup
In 1946, husband and wife team Charles C. Sherman and Edna K. Sherman founded Airline Transport Carriers (ATC) as an irregular air carrier, which is term by which the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) referred to charter carriers at the time. The CAB was the US government agency that tightly regulated the US airline industry until 1979.

In 2 April 1947, the Shermans incorporated California Central Airlines, a separate company, to offer intrastate air travel within California, initially on the Burbank airport (then known as Lockheed Air Terminal) to San Francisco Airport route, with the first flight on January 2, 1949 and equipment provided by ATC. CCA was the first of eight California intrastate carriers that started operations within a 13 month period, of which only PSA and CCA continued in operation for more than a year. As intrastate carriers, none of these new entrants was subject to regulation by the CAB. The intrastates initially charged $9.95 or $9.99 from Los Angeles to the Bay Area, less than half of the CAB-standard fare. By comparison, the Southern Pacific Railroad cost $7.50 and took 10 hours.

CCA started with four Douglas DC-3s and by January 1951, CCA/ATC had eight DC-3s and two DC-4s, one of which was contracted to the government supporting the Korean War. The airline upgraded to five Martin 2-0-2s (billed as "Martinliners") in 1951, sourced from Northwest Airlines. The 2-0-2s had tricycle landing gear and were significantly faster than DC-3s. An Aviation Week article says CCA sold four DC-3s to local service carrier Parks Air Lines immediately before Parks finally started service in 1950.

CCA ultimately extended the Burbank-San Francisco route to San Diego in the south and Sacramento in the north. It added Oakland and smaller points in California such as Salinas, Inyokern and Muroc (today's Edwards Air Force Base).

CCA was credited with having changed the transportation market between Los Angeles and San Francisco. In 1953, the US Senate Committee on Small Business noted that CCA had helped shift 65% of transport between the two cities to air, and asked the CAB to foster the same thing on the east coast.

Sidelines, distractions and competition
In 1952, ATC started a route to Hawaii under the name California Hawaiian Airlines (CHA) using a Lockheed Constellation, using a similar livery to CCA, which the company described as "the plane with the candy-striped tail".

CCA and its owners had a high public profile, constantly in the news. CCA flight attendants regularly featured in fashion shows for department stores. The Shermans were the subject of media profiles. The company regularly billed itself as California's Pioneer Low Cost Scheduled Airline.

Unfortunately, CCA was also in the news for less positive reasons. It tangled with regulators:
 * It angered the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) by jumping the gun on a fare increase, arguing that the CPUC had no right to regulate its fares, something that the California Supreme Court ruled was not true, leading to a very high ($138,000) fine (over $1.5mm in 2024 dollars) in 1954.
 * The existence of ATC gave the CAB a continuing interest in CCA: the Shermans were admonished by the CAB because ATC and CCA were tightly coordinated, something that required CAB permission since both were aviation enterprises. That permission was ultimately granted, but not without angering the enforcement bureau of the CAB.

In June 1953, CCA suffered a wildcat strike when 70 mechanics working for ATC (but contracted to work on CCA aircraft) walked off the job, which interrupted service and generated damaging headlines. The strike lasted 37 days, affecting a peak period for CCA.

There was indication that competition from PSA was beginning to tell. In 1953 PSA charged lower fares ($11.70) with its DC-3 service than did CCA with its faster Martin 2-0-2s ($13.50) on the Los Angeles to Bay Area route. PSA, of course, touted its lower fare and CCA, annoyed it was undercut, tried to get the CPUC to order PSA to charge the same fare, which the CPUC refused to do. In August 1953, CCA re-instituted "Thriftliner" DC-3 service, matching PSA's fares, alongside continued Martin 2-0-2 service at $13.50.

In November 1953, CCA filed a securities registration seeking to sell debt and equity, where it was revealed the company had a significant working capital shortfall.

Bankruptcy
On January 27, 1954, CCA and ATC jointly filed for Chapter XI bankruptcy (pre-1978 US bankruptcy laws differed from those prevalent today - Chapter XI had some similarities to today's Chapter 11 but was not the same. ). A condition of being able to reorganize under Chapter XI was that the companies show more assets than liabilities. CCA/ATC said it had assets three and a half times greater than its liabilities, but tied up in equipment.

CCA/ATC operated for a year under Chapter XI protection, but failed to reorganize. In January 25, the company was declared bankrupt and a trustee was appointed to sell the assets. PSA-owner Kenny Friedkin was among the initial bidders, but the winner, on February 14, was a group composed of Southwest Airways (unrelated to today's Southwest Airlines) and Allegheny Airlines with a bid of $800,000 (about $9mm in 2024 dollars). They ordered CCA/ATC to cease operations immediately and operations ceased at midnight. This was challenged in court, but ultimately upheld.

Post-liquidation
After the assets of the original CCA/ATC were sold, ATC was discharged from bankruptcy and the Shermans resumed business. They bought the rights to use the California Central Airlines name which flew as a dba of California Coastal Airlines, a new company the Shermans established just prior to the auction of the original CCA. This version lasted until August 1957, its disappearance preceded by CPUC action against the airline for failing to refund over 200 customers, resulting in difficult headlines.

California Hawaiian Airlines, again a dba of Airline Transport Carriers continued through 1962. It flew for the military and passenger charters. But in December 1961 it was disqualified from flying military charters and in October 1962 it lost its Federal Aviation Administration operating certificate and in the same month a CAB examiner declined to give it authority to engage in supplemental air In 1963, CHA appealed the decision to the full board, without success.

Legacy
CCA is little known today, but in the early 1950s its impact was noted nationally which helped start a conversation about the efficacy of airline regulation that ended 25 years later in US airline deregulation. CCA helped pave the way for the greater success of PSA.

Fleet
The ATC/CCA/CHA fleet in 1953:
 * 5 Martin 2-0-2
 * 1 Lockheed Constellation
 * 1 Douglas DC-3

Incidents
On 28 January 1948 an ATC Douglas DC-3 (NC36480) crashed at Los Gatos with the loss of all 32 people aboard.