World Airways Celebrates 60 Years of World Class Service

For six decades World Airways has been a pioneer and an innovator in global passenger charter and air cargo service.

From its humble beginnings in the post-war era, the company has played a significant role in both the business and history of the latter part of the 20 th Century.

Incorporated on March 29 th, 1948, World Airways was established by Benjamin Pepper and J. Stuart Robertson, flying passengers between New York and San Juan, Puerto Rico with three Boeing 314 Clippers.

Edward Daly then purchased the fledgling airline for a mere $50,000. One of his first moves was to update the fleet by leasing Douglas DC-4s.

Daly also established his first government contract with the military, a relationship that would prove to be one of the company’s most profitable and rewarding assets. In 1951, World Airways provided supplemental airlift to the U.S. Military in Korea.

World Airways established another tradition that would characterize the company for years to come. In 1956, World Airways flew humanitarian missions to airlift fleeing Hungarian refugees from Europe to the United States.

The 1960s ushered in the jet age, with acquisitions of Boeing 707s, 727s, and later, DC 8s, for World Airways’ biggest role to date on the world stage: The war in Vietnam.

No other airline was able to provide the same level of aid and support. In March of 1975, Ed Daly had already supervised the evacuation of hundreds of war refugees from Da Nang to Saigon, the perilous “last flight from Da Nang.

A week later, “Operation Babylift” brought 57 infants and children from Saigon to safety in Oakland. It provided the template and the inspiration for the U.S. Government to evacuate thousands of orphans, giving them hope and opportunity in America.

April 1, 2005 marked the 30 th anniversary of the event, and in commemoration World Airways offered 21 former orphans the opportunity to reconnect with their homeland with “Operation Babylift – Homeward Bound”.

Deregulation of the airline industry in 1978 seemed to open up a wealth of possibilities and World Airways positioned itself as a low-fare scheduled carrier, a pioneer in the marketplace.

This move didn’t last, and World Airways returned to its roots in the 1980s as one of the world’s most successful charter airlines. It added more DC-10-30s and MD-11 aircraft to its fleet, and relocated its headquarters to Herndon Virginia. During that time, World Airways again was called upon to provide humanitarian flights, this time in Bosnia and Somalia.

World Airways moved tons of material and hundreds of thousands of troops between the U.S and the Middle East during the Gulf War, helping to ensure the success of Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm, followed by Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Now headquartered in Peachtree City as a subsidiary of Global Aero Logistics, which also owns North American Airlines, World Airways enjoyed several years of profitability prior to its acquisition, and has positioned itself to build and expand for future success.