DALLAS — Today, in 1992, Kiwi International Air Lines flew its first commercial flight. It left Newark International Airport (EWR) at 6 a.m. for Chicago, with 33 passengers aboard a Boeing 727-200 that could seat 150.
Most of Kiwi’s employees and owners had been laid off by bankrupt airlines. The company was founded by pilots and other airline workers who lost their jobs when Pan Am and Eastern failed: Eastern had filed for Chapter 11 in 1989, and Pan Am flew its last flight in December 1991. The employees paid for the new airline themselves. According to the International Directory of Company Histories, which traces the airline’s employee-ownership model, pilots put in $50,000 each and other staff $5,000, and the founders named the company after New Zealand’s flightless bird, for crews who had lost their wings. Robert Iverson, a former Eastern pilot, was the first chief executive.
Highs and Lows
Kiwi started with two 727-200s. Its launch schedule had two daily round trips from Newark to Chicago Midway, two to Atlanta (ATL) and one to Orlando (MCO), with every fare $99 one way for the first 30 days. On launch day, Iverson said he expected the airline to make a $3 million net profit in 1992. The directory records a $6 million loss for the first year of operations.
The pitch was low fares without the usual restrictions, plus the service other airlines had stopped offering. Kiwi spent about $6 on each meal, twice the industry average, and put flowers in the lavatories. Its costs, around 6 cents a mile against an industry average of 9.5 cents, meant it could make money on flights that were half empty, which mattered, because Kiwi always struggled to fill its aircraft. In November 1994, Condé Nast Traveler rated Kiwi the best domestic airline, and in June 1995 Consumer Reports ranked it third in the United States…