Logan International Airport
Logan International Airport known as General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport and commonly known as Boston Logan International Airport, is an international airport in the East Boston neighborhood of Boston, United States. It covers 2,384 acres, has six runways and four passenger terminals, employs an estimated 16,000 people, it is the largest airport in both the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the New England region in terms of passenger volume and cargo handling, as well as the 16th-busiest airport in the United States, with 38.4 million total passengers in 2017. The airport saw 40,941,925 passengers in the most in its history, it is named after a war hero native to Boston. Logan has service to destinations throughout the United States, Mexico, Latin America, the Caribbean, the North Atlantic region, Europe and Asia. Effective June 22, 2019, Logan will receive another direct connection to Africa, the first to mainland Africa, courtesy of Royal Air Maroc from their hub in Casablanca, Logan's second African link after Cabo Verde Airlines's weekly non-stop service to Praia.
Much of the expansion of international service over the last decade is attributed to the advent of mid-sized long-range airliners such as the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350, as well as the growing New England economy, which in turn has resulted in Logan seeing rapid growth in international traffic, with new routes as well as increased frequencies on existing routes. The airport is a focus city for Delta Air Lines and JetBlue Airways; the regional airline Cape Air carries out hub operations from Boston. American and United carry out significant operations from the airport, including daily transcontinental flights. All of the major U. S. air carriers offer flights from Boston to all or the majority of their primary and secondary hubs. Logan Airport opened on September 8, 1923, was used by the Massachusetts Air Guard and the Army Air Corps, it was called Jeffery Field. The first scheduled commercial passenger flights were on Colonial Air Transport between Boston and New York City in 1927. On January 1, 1936, the airport's weather station became the official point for Boston's weather observations and records by the National Weather Service.
Until around 1950 the airline terminal was at 42.367°N 71.0275°W / 42.367. During the 1940s the airport added 1,800 acres of landfill in Boston Harbor, taken from the former Governors, Noddle's and Apple Islands. In 1943 the state renamed the airport after Lt. General Edward Lawrence Logan, a Spanish–American War officer from South Boston. In 1952, Logan Airport became the first in the United States with an indirect rapid transit connection, with the opening of the Airport station on the Blue Line; the March 1947 diagram shows 7,000 ft runway 4 in use, with runways 33 under construction. The December 1950 diagram shows a layout similar to the current one: 7,000 ft runway 4L, 10,000-ft 4R, 7,000-ft 9 and 7,650-ft 33. Boston became a transatlantic gateway after World War II. In the late 1940s, American Overseas Airlines began operating a weekly Boston-Shannon-London service, Pan American World Airways began operating nonstop service to Shannon Airport in Ireland and Santa Maria Airport in the Azores, continuing to London and Lisbon respectively.
By the early 1950s, BOAC offered nonstop Stratocruiser service to Prestwick Airport in Scotland, Air France operated a multi-stop Constellation service linking Boston to Orly Airport in Paris. During this time, BOAC employed the De Havilland Comet, the first commercial jetliner in the world, on direct flights to Boston from London Heathrow airport; as of April 1957, the Official Airline Guide showed 49 weekday departures on American, 31 Eastern, 25 Northeast, 8 United, 7 TWA domestic, 6 National, 6 Mohawk, 2 TCA and one Provincetown-Boston. In addition TWA had nine departures a week to or from the Atlantic, Pan Am had 18, Air France 8, BOAC 4 and LAI 4; the jumbo jet era began at Logan in summer 1970 when Pan Am started daily Boeing 747s to London Heathrow Airport. The Boeing 747-400 is scheduled on flights to Boston by British Airways. Lufthansa operates B747s, including the latest-model Boeing 747-8, on its daily nonstop flights to Frankfurt. Terminal E was the second largest international arrivals facility in the United States when it opened in 1974.
Between 1974 and 2015, the number of international travelers at Logan has tripled. International long-haul travel has been the fastest growing market sector at the airport. Massachusetts Port Authority undertook the "Logan Modernization Project" from 1994 to 2006: a new parking garage, a new hotel, moving walkways, terminal expansions and improvements, two-tiered roadways to separate arrival and departure traffic. Massport's relationship with nearby communities has been strained since the mid-1960s, when the agency took control of a parcel of residential land and popular fishing area near the northwest side of the airfield; this project was undertaken to extend Runway 15R/33L, which became Logan's longest runway. Residents of the neighborhood, known as Wood Island, were bought out of their homes and forced to relocate. Public opposition came to a head when residents lay down in the streets to block
Beechcraft 1900
The Beechcraft 1900 is a 19-passenger, pressurized twin-engine turboprop fixed-wing aircraft, manufactured by Beechcraft. It was designed, is used, as a regional airliner, it is used as a freight aircraft and corporate transport, by several governmental and military organisations. With customers favoring larger regional jets, Raytheon ended production in October 2002; the aircraft was designed to carry passengers in all weather conditions from airports with short runways. It is capable of flying in excess of 600 miles. In terms of the number of aircraft built and its continued use by many passenger airlines and other users, it is one of the most popular 19-passenger airliners in history; the 1900 is Beechcraft's third regional airliner. The Beechcraft Model 18 was a 6- to 11-passenger utility aircraft produced from 1937 to 1970, used by the military, charter operations, corporations for executive transport, freight carriers; the 15-passenger Beechcraft Model 99 Airliner was designed to replace the Beech 18, was produced between 1966 and 1975, from 1982 to 1986.
It was commercially successful and remains in common use with freight airlines such as Ameriflight. The Beechcraft 1900's design lineage began in 1949 with the Beechcraft Model 50 Twin Bonanza, a 5-passenger, reciprocating engine utility aircraft designed for the U. S. Army. A larger passenger cabin was added to the Twin Bonanza's airframe, called the Model 65 Queen Air; this aircraft was, in turn, further modified by adding turboprop engines and cabin pressurization, named the Model 90 King Air. A stretched version of the King Air was developed and designated the Model 200 Super King Air. Beechcraft developed the Beechcraft 1900 directly from the Beechcraft Super King Air, in order to provide a pressurized commuterliner to compete with the Swearingen Metro and the British Aerospace Jetstream; the 1900 first flew on September 3, 1982, with Federal Aviation Administration certification awarded on November 22, 1983 under Special Federal Aviation Regulation 41C airworthiness standards. Like the 1900, the 1900C was certified under SFAR 41C, but the 1900D version was certified to FAR Part 23 "Commuter Category" standards.
The 1900 entered service in February 1984, with the first ExecLiner corporate version delivered in 1985. A total of 695 Beechcraft 1900 aircraft were built, making the airliner the best-selling 19-passenger airliner in history. With market trends favoring larger 50- to 90-seat regional jets, Raytheon ended production of the Beechcraft 1900 in October 2002. Many airlines continue to fly the 1900. Since the 1900 is derived from the King Air, all 1900s share certain characteristics with that aircraft. Cockpit controls and operations are similar to those of the King Air. While Federal Aviation Regulations require two pilots for passenger airline operations, the 1900 is designed and certificated for single-pilot operation in corporate or cargo settings, as is the King Air; the 1900 is powered by Whitney Canada PT6A turboprop engines. The 1900 and 1900C use each flat rated at 1,100 shaft horsepower; the 1900D uses two PT6A-67D engines, each rated at 1,279 shaft horsepower. The propellers are manufactured with four blades on each propeller.
The blades are made from composite materials. The 1900D cruises at about 285 knots true airspeed. Ordinary trip lengths range from 100 to 600 miles, but with full fuel tanks, the aircraft is capable of flying well in excess of 1,000 nautical miles; the Beechcraft 1900 can operate safely on short airstrips and it can take off and land on grass and rough runways. The airplane is certified to fly up to an altitude of 25,000 feet above mean sea level with its pressurized cabin, it is designed to operate in most weather conditions, including icing conditions, it is equipped with weather radar to help pilots avoid severe weather. The aircraft can be fitted with a lavatory, using space otherwise available for passenger seating and cargo storage; the original design is known as the Beechcraft 1900. It features two airstair passenger boarding doors: one near the tail of the aircraft much like the smaller King Airs, a second at the front just behind the cockpit, it has a small cargo door near the tail for access to the baggage compartment, behind the passenger compartment.
Only three airframes were built, with "UA" serial numbers of UA-1, UA-2, UA-3. UA-1 and UA-2 are stored at a Beechcraft facility in Kansas. UA-3, registered FAB-043, served in Bolivia until it crashed in November 2011, it became clear that having two airstair doors on an aircraft holding only 19 passengers was excessive. In creating the 1900C, Beechcraft kept the front airstair, but eliminated the aft airstair door, installing an enlarged cargo door in its place. Other than the redesigned door layout, the early 1900Cs were similar to the original 1900s; these were assigned serial numbers starting with the letters UB. A total of 74 UB version were built. Aircraft in the UA and UB series employ a bladder-type fuel tank system in the wings. 1900Cs use a wet wing fuel system: entire sections of the wing are sealed off for use as fuel tanks. This design change allowed more fuel to be stored increasing the 1900C's range; the wet wing 1900Cs were assigned serial numbers beginning with "UC." These aircraft are referred to as 1900C-1s.
The wet wings proved popular, the UC is the most common version of the low-ceiling 1900, with 174 UC airframes built. Raytheon manufactured six 1900C aircraft for use by the U. S. militar
Airline hub
Airline hubs or hub airports are used by one or more airlines to concentrate passenger traffic and flight operations at a given airport. They serve, it is part of the hub-and-spoke system. An airline operates flights from several non-hub cities to the hub airport, passengers traveling between spoke cities need to connect through the hub; this paradigm creates economies of scale that allow an airline to serve city-pairs that could otherwise not be economically served on a non-stop basis. This system contrasts with the point-to-point model, in which there are no hubs and nonstop flights are instead offered between spoke cities. Hub airports serve origin and destination traffic. In the airline industry, a focus city is a destination from which an airline operates limited point-to-point routes. Ergo, a focus city caters to the local market rather than to connecting passengers. However, with the term's expanded usage, a focus city may function as a small-scale or total hub. Allegiant Air, JetBlue and Southwest Airlines are examples of US-based airlines that consider some of their focus cities run like a hub.
The hub-and-spoke system allows an airline to serve fewer routes, so fewer aircraft are needed. The system increases passenger loads. However, the system is costly. Additional employees and facilities are needed to cater to connecting passengers. To serve spoke cities of varying populations and demand, an airline requires several aircraft types, specific training and equipment are necessary for each type. In addition, airlines may experience capacity constraints. For the passenger, the hub-and-spoke system offers one-stop air service to a wide array of destinations. However, it requires having to make connections en route to their final destination, which increases travel time. Additionally, airlines can come to monopolise their hubs, allowing them to increase fares as passengers have no alternative. Airlines may operate banks of flights at their hubs, in which several flights arrive and depart within short periods of time; the banks may be known as "peaks" of activity at the hubs and the non-banks as "valleys".
Banking allows for short connection times for passengers. However, an airline must assemble a large number of resources to cater to the influx of flights during a bank, having several aircraft on the ground at the same time can lead to congestion and delays. In addition, banking could result in inefficient aircraft utilisation, with aircraft waiting at spoke cities for the next bank. Instead, some airlines have debanked their hubs, introducing a "rolling hub" in which flight arrivals and departures are spread throughout the day; this phenomenon is known as "depeaking". While costs may decrease, connection times are longer at a rolling hub. American Airlines was the first to depeak its hubs, trying to improve profitability following the September 11 attacks, it rebanked its hubs in 2015, feeling the gain in connecting passengers would outweigh the rise in costs. The hub-and-spoke system is used by some cargo airlines. FedEx Express established its main hub in Memphis in 1973, prior to the deregulation of the air cargo industry in the United States.
The system has created an efficient delivery system for the airline. Other airlines that use this system include UPS Airlines, TNT Airways, Cargolux and DHL Aviation, which operate their primary hubs at Louisville, Liège, Luxembourg and Leipzig respectively. Although the term focus city is used to refer to an airport from which an airline operates limited point-to-point routes, its usage has loosely expanded to refer to a small-scale hub as well. For example, JetBlue's New York–JFK focus city runs like a hub, although in reality it is still deemed as a focus city. A fortress hub exists when an airline controls a significant majority of the market at one of its hubs. Competition is difficult at fortress hubs. Examples include Delta hubs at Atlanta, Salt Lake City and Minneapolis–Saint Paul. Flag carriers have enjoyed similar dominance at the main international airport of their countries and some still do. Examples include Lufthansa at Frankfurt Airport, Air Canada at Toronto Pearson Airport, Alitalia at Rome Fiumicino Airport, KLM at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Garuda Indonesia at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, British Airways at London Heathrow, Air China at Beijing Capital Airport, Iberia at Madrid-Barajas Airport and Air France at Paris Orly and Charles de Gaulle Airports.
A primary hub is the main hub for an airline. However, as an airline expands operations at its primary hub to the point that it experiences capacity limitations, it may elect to open secondary hubs. Examples of such hubs are Turkish Airlines' Istanbul–Sabiha Gökçen hub, British Airways' hub at London-Gatwick, Air India's hub at Mumbai and Lufthansa's hub at Munich. By operating multiple hubs, airlines can expand their geographic reach, they can better serve spoke–spoke markets, providing more itineraries with connections at different hubs. A given hub's capacity may become exhausted or capacity shortages may occur during peak periods of the day, at which point airlines may be compelled to shift traffic to a reliever hub. A reliever hub has the potential to serve several functions for an airline: it can bypass the congested hub, it can absorb
Regional airline
Regional airlines are airlines that operate regional aircraft to provide passenger air service to communities without sufficient demand to attract mainline service. There are two main ways for a regional airline to do business: As an affiliated airline, contracting with a major airline, operating under their brand name, filling two roles: delivering passengers to the major airline's hubs from surrounding towns, increasing frequency of service on mainline routes during times when demand does not warrant use of large aircraft, known as commuter flights. Operating as an independent airline under their own brand providing service to small and isolated towns, for whom the airline is the only reasonable link to a larger town. Examples of this are PenAir, which links the remote Aleutian Islands to Anchorage and Mokulele Airlines, which operates in the Hawaiian islands. Small regional airlines operating in the U. S. during the 1960s and 1970s were known as commuter airlines and were classified as such in the Official Airline Guide.
Regional airlines began by operating propeller-driven aircraft over short routes, sometimes on flights of less than 100 miles. In the early days of commercial aviation few aircraft had ranges greater than this, airlines were formed to serve the area in which they formed; that is, there was no strong distinction between a regional airline and any other airline. This changed with the introduction of long-range aircraft, which led to the development of the flag carrier airlines, such as British Overseas Airways Corporation and Trans-Canada Airlines; as the flag carriers grew in importance with increasing long-range passenger traffic, the smaller airlines found a niche flying passengers over short routes to the flag carrier's airport. This arrangement was formalized, forming the regional airlines. Through the 1960s and 1970s, war surplus designs, notably the DC-3, were replaced by much more capable turboprop or jet-powered designs like the Fokker F27 Friendship or BAC One-Eleven; this extended the range of the regionals causing a wave of consolidations between the now overlapping airlines.
In the United States, regional airlines were an important building block of today's passenger air system. The U. S. Government encouraged the forming of regional airlines to provide services from smaller communities to larger towns, where air passengers could connect to a larger network; some of the original regional airlines sanctioned by the Civil Aeronautics Board in the 1940s and 1950s include: None of these airlines survive today. A history and study of regional airlines was published by the Smithsonian Institution Press in 1994 under the title Commuter Airlines of the United States, by R. E. G. Davies and I. E. Quastler. One of the first independently owned and managed airlines in the world that rebranded its aircraft to match a larger airline's brand was Air Alpes of France. During 1974, Air Alpes painted its newly delivered short range regional jets in the livery of Air France. NLM's KLM style branding does however pre-date the Air France efforts though by a number of years; the success of the "rebranding" or "pseudo branding" of a much smaller airline into the name recognition of a much larger one soon became clear as passenger numbers soared at Air Alpes, it was soon decided to paint other aircraft such as the Fokker F-27 into full Air France colours as well.
Since the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, the US federal government has continued support of the regional airline sector to ensure many of the smaller and more isolated rural communities remain connected to air services. This is encouraged with the Essential Air Service program that subsidizes airline service to smaller U. S. communities and suburban centers, aiming to maintain year-round service. Although regional airlines in the United States are viewed as small, not lucrative "no name" subsidiaries of the mainline airlines, in terms of revenue, many would be designated major airline carrier status based on the only actual definition of "major airline," in the United States, the definition from the U. S. Department of Transportation; this definition is based on annual revenue and not on any other criterion such as average aircraft seating capacity, pilot pay, or number of aircraft in the fleet. It is common in the U. S. to incorrectly associate aircraft size with the Department of Transportation's designation of major and regional airline.
The only corollary is the Regional Airline Association, an industry trade group, defines "regional airlines" as "...operat short and medium haul scheduled airline service connecting smaller communities with larger cities and connecting hubs. The airlines' fleet consists of 19 to 68 seat turboprops and 30 to 100 seat regional jets." To be clear there is no distinction in the Department of Transportation definition of major and regional airlines by aircraft size. The definition is based on revenue; the clash of definitions has led to confusion in the public. Beginning around 1985, a number of trends have become apparent. Regional aircraft are getting larger and are flying longer ranges. Additionally, the vast majority of regionals within the United States with more than ten aircraft within their fleet, have lost their individual identities and now serve only as feeders, to Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, or United Airlines major hubs. Regional aircraft in the US have been getting more comfortable with the addition of better ergonomically designed aircraft cabins, the addition of varying travel classes aboard these aircraft.
From small, less than 50-sea
Envoy Air
Envoy Air Inc. is an air carrier headquartered in Irving, Texas, in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Airlines Group that, along with several carriers outside the group, feeds the American Airlines route network under the American Eagle brand. With over 1000 flights a day, serving 150 cities across the United States, Canada and the Caribbean, Envoy is considered to be one of the world's largest regional airline systems. Envoy is an affiliate member of the Oneworld airline alliance; the name "American Eagle Airlines" was used between April 1980 and April 1981 by an unrelated air charter service that suspended operations and filed bankruptcy before flying any scheduled operations. Envoy began as a collection of regional carriers with contracts to carry the American Eagle brand name; the first American Eagle flight was operated by Metroflight Airlines, a wholly owned subsidiary of Metro Airlines, on November 1, 1984, from Fayetteville and Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
Metroflight utilized Convair 580 turboprop aircraft, operated by Frontier Airlines. Other carriers that have flown in American Eagle livery include Executive Airlines, Command Airways, Air Virginia, Simmons Airlines, Chaparral Airlines and Wings West Airlines. Among other aircraft in its fleet, Chaparral flew Grumman I-C turboprops which were stretched, 37 passenger regional airliner versions of Grumman's successful propjet business aircraft and was one of only a few air carriers to operate the type in scheduled passenger service; until 1987 these third-party carriers flew under contract with American Airlines to provide regional feed to its hubs. During 1987 and 1988 AMR Corp. acquired its regional carriers, starting with Simmons Airlines. AMR's final airline d/b/a American Eagle acquisition was Executive Airlines in 1989. By mid-1991 AMR had consolidated the number of carriers to four; the May 15, 1998, merger of Wings West and Flagship into Simmons reduced the number of carriers flying as American Eagle under separate operating certificates to two: American Eagle Airlines, Inc. and Executive Airlines, Inc.
During 2007, AMR began studying ways to spin American Eagle Airlines off into a separate company, but not limited to, the possibilities of selling the company to either stockholders or to an unaffiliated third party. In 2008, AMR said any plans had been put on hold until the airline industry stabilized after the worldwide financial crisis. In July 2011, AMR announced the spin-off of American Eagle Airlines but those plans were again put on hold when Parent AMR Corp. filed for bankruptcy in November 2011. In 2014 the company changed its name to Envoy Air Inc. but American Eagle continues to live on as a brand, as well as livery for Envoy-operated and third party-operated regional flights. In January 1988, Nashville Eagle became AMR Corp.’s first and only start-up airline, using equipment acquired from Air Midwest. American Eagle Airlines launched its regional jet service in May 1998 using Embraer ERJ 145 aircraft. Business Express was acquired by AMR Eagle Holdings Corporation in March 1999, although it never flew under the American Eagle brand before being integrated into American Eagle Airlines, Inc. in December 2000.
On January 14, 2014, American Airlines Group announced the rebranding of its American Eagle subsidiary as Envoy. Aircraft operated by American Eagle continued to operate under the current American Eagle branding, but an "Operated by Envoy Air" label was added, similar to the label used by other contract airlines that fly aircraft with American Eagle livery; this name change was created to avoid confusion when American Airlines announced that other regional carriers would operate on behalf of American. The term'Envoy' is a reincarnation of the now deprecated Envoy Class of seating on US Airways aircraft; the headquarters is in Irving, Texas, in two buildings located north of the northeast portion of DFW Airport. American Eagle was headquartered at the American Airlines headquarters in Fort Worth and had employees in several buildings: HDQ1, HDQ2, the Systems Operations Control center, the DFW American Eagle hangar, the DFW-area warehouse CP-28, Flight Academy, the Flagship University, it was scheduled to move 600 employees.
For a brief period American Eagle Airlines cooperated with Trans World Airlines by allowing the placement of the TW two letter IATA code upon American Eagle Airlines flights feeding into Los Angeles and New York's JFK Airports. These services were known as the Trans World Connection; these American Eagle Airlines/Trans World agreements were forged prior to and well in advance of AMR Corporation's route and asset acquisition of TWA in 2001. Until April 11, 2012, the carrier had a codeshare agreement with Delta Air Lines on California routes. Chicago, Illinois – Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas – Miami, Florida – New York, New York – There were bases in Boston, Los Angeles, Raleigh/Durham, San Juan; as of April 2019, the Envoy Air fleet consists of the following aircraft: In September 2009, AMR Corporation announced plans to add a First Class cabin to its fleet of 25 Bombardier CRJ700 regional jets and signed a letter of intent with Bombardier, Inc. to exercise options for the purchase of 22 additional CRJ700 aircraft for delivery beginning in the mi
Brand
A brand is an overall experience of a customer that distinguishes an organization or product from its rivals in the eyes of the customer. Brands are used in business and advertising. Name brands are sometimes distinguished from generic or store brands; the practice of branding is thought to have begun with the ancient Egyptians, who were known to have engaged in livestock branding as early as 2,700 BCE. Branding was used to differentiate one person’s cattle from another's by means of a distinctive symbol burned into the animal’s skin with a hot branding iron. If a person stole any of the cattle, anyone else who saw the symbol could deduce the actual owner. However, the term has been extended to mean a strategic personality for a product or company, so that ‘brand’ now suggests the values and promises that a consumer may perceive and buy into. Over time, the practice of branding objects extended to a broader range of packaging and goods offered for sale including oil, wine and fish sauce. Branding in terms of painting a cow with symbols or colors at flea markets was considered to be one of the oldest forms of the practice.
Branding is a set of marketing and communication methods that help to distinguish a company or products from competitors, aiming to create a lasting impression in the minds of customers. The key components that form a brand's toolbox include a brand’s identity, brand communication, brand awareness, brand loyalty, various branding strategies. Many companies believe that there is little to differentiate between several types of products in the 21st century, therefore branding is one of a few remaining forms of product differentiation. Brand equity is the measurable totality of a brand's worth and is validated by assessing the effectiveness of these branding components; as markets become dynamic and fluctuating, brand equity is a marketing technique to increase customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, with side effects like reduced price sensitivity. A brand is, in essence, a promise to its customers of what they can expect from products and may include emotional as well as functional benefits.
When a customer is familiar with a brand, or favours it incomparably to its competitors, this is when a corporation has reached a high level of brand equity. Special accounting standards have been devised to assess brand equity. In accounting, a brand defined as an intangible asset, is the most valuable asset on a corporation’s balance sheet. Brand owners manage their brands to create shareholder value, brand valuation is an important management technique that ascribes a monetary value to a brand, allows marketing investment to be managed to maximize shareholder value. Although only acquired brands appear on a company's balance sheet, the notion of putting a value on a brand forces marketing leaders to be focused on long term stewardship of the brand and managing for value; the word ‘brand’ is used as a metonym referring to the company, identified with a brand. Marque or make are used to denote a brand of motor vehicle, which may be distinguished from a car model. A concept brand is a brand, associated with an abstract concept, like breast cancer awareness or environmentalism, rather than a specific product, service, or business.
A commodity brand is a brand associated with a commodity. The word, derives from its original and current meaning as a firebrand, a burning piece of wood; that word comes from the Old High German and Old English byrnan and brinnan via Middle English as birnan and brond. Torches were used to indelibly mark items such as furniture and pottery, to permanently burn identifying marks into the skin of slaves and livestock; the firebrands were replaced with branding irons. The marks themselves took on the term and came to be associated with craftsmen's products. Through that association, the term acquired its current meaning. Branding and labelling have an ancient history. Branding began with the practice of branding livestock in order to deter theft. Images of the branding of cattle occur in ancient Egyptian tombs dating to around 2,700 BCE. Over time, purchasers realised that the brand provided information about origin as well as about ownership, could serve as a guide to quality. Branding was adapted by farmers and traders for use on other types of goods such as pottery and ceramics.
Forms of branding or proto-branding emerged spontaneously and independently throughout Africa and Europe at different times, depending on local conditions. Seals, which acted as quasi-brands, have been found on early Chinese products of the Qin Dynasty. Identity marks, such as stamps on ceramics, were used in ancient Egypt. Diana Twede has argued that the "consumer packaging functions of protection and communication have been necessary whenever packages were the object of transactions", she has shown that amphorae used in Mediterranean trade between 1,500 and 500 BCE exhibited a wide variety of shapes and markings, which consumers used to glean information about the type of goods and the quality. Systematic use of stamped labels dates from around the fourth century BCE. In a pre-literate society, the shape of the amphora and its pictorial markings conveyed information about the contents, region of o
Independence Air
Independence Air was a low-cost airline, owned by FLYi, Inc. headquartered in the Loudoun Gateway Corporate Center in Dulles, unincorporated Loudoun County, United States that operated from 1989 until 2006. Its route network focused on the East Coast of the United States, but it extended to the West Coast; the route network was based at Washington Dulles International Airport. It ceased all operations at 8:24 p.m. UTC-5 on January 5, 2006; the airline had been in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy since November 7, 2005. There had been discussion of a last-minute deal that could save the airline, but that did not happen. Independence Air started life as Atlantic Coast Airlines on December 15, 1989, operating feeder services as United Express for United Airlines and Delta Connection for Delta Air Lines. After United withdrew the contract when the ACA labor and management would not agree to the concessions it requested, Atlantic Coast reinvented itself as low-cost carrier Independence Air, it was announced on November 19, 2003, operations as Independence Air began on June 16, 2004.
At its inception, it was unique among low-cost carriers in that its fleet consisted of 50-seat regional jets, although the airline introduced larger Airbus A319 equipment. It was based at Washington Dulles International Airport and contributed to Dulles's substantial increase in passenger use, bringing one million new customers to the airport in its first three months of operation; the airline was credited with helping to reduce fares to and from the airport. From the beginning, the airline faced criticism; some believed that it expanded too had a poor fleet mix and did not have the resources to compete with the legacy airlines, who despite their own financial troubles, would match the fares offered by Independence. Further, industry experts believed that the reasons behind the airline's failure were not problems with the low-cost strategy, but miscues on the part of airline management. Atlantic Coast's / Independence Air's former partner at Dulles, United Airlines, responded vigorously to Independence Air's emergence as a stand-alone carrier by leveraging Washington area passenger loyalty to the United Mileage Plus frequent flyer program.
United offered its Mileage Plus members substantial bonuses, including free trips around the world on United and other Star Alliance carriers. Problems, including flights flying far below capacity, were identified in October 2004, less than six months following the airline's launch as the parent company attempted to avoid bankruptcy. On May 20, 2004 prior to its inaugural flight, Independence Air signed a deal with the Washington Redskins to become the official airline sponsor of the team for three years. In the summer of 2005, the airline offered the GLiDE Summer Travel Pass for college students. Upon paying $250, the customer would be able to fly at no cost from May 1-Aug 31, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Saturdays; this move was meant not to bring in revenue, but to try to fill seats that otherwise would have flown empty. This promotional tool was not enough to prevent trouble, due in part to the airline losing $150 million in its two years of operation. Independence Air became known for the humorous touches it added to the flying experience, such as replacing the flight attendant safety announcements with prerecorded versions of the warnings by celebrities such as James Carville and Mary Matalin.
They attracted attention from their partnership with the Laugh Factory and the use of former baggage handler Dave George as "the Flyi Guy" — the airline's resident comedian. Independence Air invested in a fleet of 20 promotional vehicles, dubbed "Jet Trucks". Modified pickup trucks were painted in the airline's livery and featured an aircraft tail attached to the truck's bed. Jet Trucks were featured at all promotional events and activities, where employees would hand out information and branded giveaways. Rather than having these vehicles sit in the headquarters office parking lot between events, 10 trucks were allocated for employee use to increase public exposure. Independence Air had its headquarters in Loudoun Gateway III in the Loudoun Gateway Corporate Center in Dulles, unincorporated Loudoun County, Virginia; the facility is located at the intersection of Virginia Route 28 and Virginia Route 606, 1 mile north of the Dulles Toll Road and near Washington Dulles International Airport. The three-story, 76,557 square feet building has an about 25,000 RSF floor plate.
The entire Loudoun Gateway Corporate Center has about 38.6 acres of space. Grubb & Ellis had leased 76,982 square feet of the building to Atlantic Coast Airlines. From the airline's beginning, its fleet mix was cited as one of the causes of its financial troubles. Independence Air's fleet flowed in an attempt to stay in business. In February 2005, the airline canceled the lease on more than 20 Bombardier CRJ200 jets and British Aerospace Jetstream 41 turbo-prop planes. After its emergence as an independent brand name, Independence Air became known for offering low airfares: as little as $29 one-way to Florida from Washington Dulles International Airport. However, the company never overcame a series of financial problems during its transition, its decline started only six months after its launch. In Febru
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