My "first" job out of college, wha whann

I did have a plan post college, you know. With a degree in Geography and Economics, I intended to pursue a career in airline route planning. Deregulation had occurred not all that long before, and I JUST knew that understanding traditional migration and population growth patterns would make me great at it.

I had a very successful interview with Hughes Air West, the Flying Banana Airline. I was invited for a second interview, and it was all working dreamy. And then... Well, this is the story as told in another blog about defunct airlines.

Republic Airlines

Credit: Jon Proctor/ Wikimedia 

Republic Airlines was born in 1979 from the combination of North Central Airlines and Southern Airways (both founded in 1944). It was the first merger approved in the deregulated era. Republic was based at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, with additional hubs in Detroit and Memphis, and operated the largest fleet of Douglas DC-9s in the world. 

To expand the airline’s footprint in the West, Republic purchased Hughes AirWest in 1980, making it the largest U.S. airline at the time in terms of destinations served. In 1986, Northwest Airlines (then known as Northwest Orient) purchased Republic Airlines for $884 million, which was then the largest merger in U.S. aviation history. The Republic name lives on as Republic Airways, a regional carrier operating flights on behalf of American, Delta, and United.

At the time, Republic Airlines' flight planning was based in Texas and was uninterested in hiring more route planners.

And so, my employment path moved into computers, something I had sworn would not happen. Best laid plans, right?