Parks Air Lines

The CAB awarded the airline, then known as Parks Air Transport, a substantial network of routes to mostly smaller cities mostly centered on St Louis.

The CAB had created the category of local service (or “feeder”) airlines earlier in the year to bring air transport to previously unserved smaller cities and was seeking to certificate new carriers to fly such routes.

This sounded impressive, but actual available capital (as represented to the CAB) was $650,000 committed by PAC, PASS and the board members of PAT (including Parks).

The resulting mileage of the routes awarded in these certifications was 50% larger than the next biggest feeder network and over eight times as large as the smallest.

[8] The certifications were contingent on a sufficient number of airports on these routes upgrading (radios and other infrastructure) to federal standards required to accept commercial aircraft.

In May 1948, the CAB issued Parks a certificate for part of its system, based on a sufficient number of airports being of required standard.

[11] In early 1948, Ozark, in appealing to the CAB to reverse the PAT route awards, noted "severe financial losses suffered by Parks and his affiliated companies during the past two years.

[11] Oliver Parks had notable drains on the resources of his enterprises during the period 1944 to 1950: PAL was unable to obtain funding, including from government-owned Reconstruction Finance Corporation which in January 1949 turned it down a loan (based on all of Parks's enterprises) for a $600,000 loan on the basis of insufficient collateral and weak prospective earnings.

Editorials expressed anger for him retaining routes he'd been unable to operate,[22] and politicians said they'd pass legislation to fix things if the CAB did not act.

[24] In April PAL announced its sale to Mid-Continent Airlines, a Kansas City trunk carrier, subject to CAB approval.

The CAB took 13 months to come to a final decision, but since the case included taking applications for replacement service, the likely outcome was clear.

"[26] In October 1949, Parks raised a $400,000 loan for PAL by pledging his other companies, providing a personal guarantee and securing a $130,000 investment from St Louis University.