Although America has had its share of funny moments in flying, the ata airlines have had a bit more to contribute to them. From the ‘Grand joke’ of the ‘American Dream’ to the ‘Die Harder”, ata airlines has had it all.
Not all the airlines, but ata had a flair for drama from the very beginning. It all basically began with the designing of the first 737 of ata airlines. Some over efficient zealous concept visualize thought of painting ‘American Dream’ along the nose of the air craft. What is even weirder is the fact that the slogan did get painted. However since the fun and the soul was appreciated by all, the slogan stayed on that aircraft alone.
The aircraft is known for its knack of ‘leaving things as they are’. As a result, long after the aircraft introduced in the 25th anniversary scheme of the ata airlines was pulled from service, it is still adorned by the 25th anniversary logo while it lies all alone in the desert.
Ata has indeed a funny bone in every aircraft of its fleet because funnily enough, each aircraft invites you with the door saying ‘The employees of ATA welcome you aboard’, assuming that the other flights basically don’t have their employees welcoming you aboard, or that the employees of the ata don’t really like you on the ground. Passengers found the door hilarious and hence the painting stayed.
This low cost airline served scheduled as well as chartered flights and is to date the largest charter airline of North America. However, that does not really define its affiliation with Hollywood, but we still see that from time to time. From ‘Die Hard 2: Die Harder’ to ‘Second Sight’ to ‘Running Scared’, yes ata airlines have been in all of them. Even the American television has found room for ata, with ata being featured in ‘The Amazing Race’. But this certainly does not intimate the ata airlines have been concerned with the limelight only. Ata poignantly commemorates the fact that it was the first airline to bring troops from the Gulf war back to home.
Although ata airlines have basically enjoyed a fairly interesting and captivating tenure, the end has been somewhat unsettling for all those who have loved being aboard the ata airlines. Like many other sister airlines including aloha airlines and Champion air, this April brought bad news. For all affiliated with ata, this was indeed a sad time. Ata filed for bankruptcy, and ceasing not a few but all of its services. This basically happened due to the 11th hour cancellations of a major contract with military charter business. The sole culprit was FedEx which pulled out of the contract and this alone was responsible of ata being put out of business. The only flights that took off after the announcement were the ones already air-borne.
The worst scenario turn out was the fact that a lot of sites kept and still are continuing to book for ata airlines and this is indeed resulting in a havoc. In fact, when the airline declared bankruptcy, laying off almost 2500 employees, many of the passengers were not reimbursed and had to purchase new tickets for their replacement flights, resulting in a distressful situation. This indeed is not the way ata airlines wants to be remembered, after having contributed significantly to the lives of its passengers.
ATA airlines maintain a clean record, with no fatality since the day their first flight took off. To think of such a lustrous name ending in such an indignant manner is indeed heart breaking and a loss for all the american flyers, who had learned to fly with the ‘American Dream’ after all.
