Holiday Airlines (US airline)

[7][8] Henry P. Kengla started flying a pair of de Havilland Dove aircraft from San Jose and Oakland on June 15, 1965 under the name "Holiday Airlines" as a sole proprietor for a fare of $11.95.

[14] After an extension to the Tahoe runway, Holiday added two Electras acquired from Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA), including flights to Burbank.

[18] A 1970 article by the Los Angeles Times based in part on the IPO prospectus, showed that the main shareholder was Harry A. Trueblood, Jr., a Denver oilman, and that another Denver figure, John McCandish King, had a significant influence, including leasing an aircraft to the airline through one of his companies.

[20] Holiday ultimately also expanded to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) (1971) and San Diego (1972).

It had Electras as early as 1968 and the proceeds of an IPO in 1970, yet until close to the end, Holiday applied only for routes that involved Tahoe.

Moreover, the CPUC explicitly saw itself as obligated to ensure the survival of carriers it regulated,[24] so there was good reason to believe that it would have made some non-Tahoe awards to Holiday.

In late 1973, the CPUC said that would be OK.[22] Returning to that example, in April 1974, there were over 30 jet flights (ten of them PSA's) from LAX to San Diego, with equipment ranging in size from DC-9s to DC-10s.

[26] In response, Holiday finally asked for routes outside of Tahoe, but then withdrew, saying the CPUC process had become an overwhelming financial burden for a small airline.

The 1973 CPUC decision referenced above was the result of a process that started over 10 months earlier with three days of public hearings in Tahoe, four days of public hearings in San Francisco, and briefs and supporting evidence submitted almost six months before the decision, and ended with the CPUC producing 15 pages of closely-written quasi-juridical reasoning, with findings of fact, findings of law, references to past cases and a formal order.

[29] This resulted in another process, lasting over six months, no hearings this time but more briefs and submissions, with the CPUC affirming (in January 1975) its prior decision with another 21 pages of reasoning.