The airline flew leased Boeing 727-200, 737-200, 737-300 as well as McDonnell Douglas MD-80 series and MD-87 jetliners to a number of destinations from its main hub in Kansas City at the time of its demise.

By the time Vanguard began operations, however, most major air carriers had learned how to deal with such competition.

[4] One year later in the summer of 1996, Vanguard was flying nonstops between Kansas City and California with service to Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO) in addition to operating nonstop service between Wichita and Chicago Midway Airport, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver and Kansas City.

Eventually they opened a second call center in Lawrence, KS, which was mostly staffed by college students attending the University of Kansas.

Service, on-time performance, leg room, frequent flier programs, and other factors are often used in this competitive model.

As in the case of Braniff's ultimate "Ultra" or "wet-look", more restrained use of colors were favored by the design team, which conversely was to become Vanguard's final livery.

Sept 12, no airlines flew and only a few small aircraft "Emergency" type flights were granted approval from the FAA.

That first flight took place Sept 13, from Kansas City (MCI) to Chicago's Midway Airport (MDW), as reported by the company news letter.

In 2001, Vanguard changed from the Open Skies reservation system to SABRE, which cost the airline millions.

Company meetings between CEO Scott Dickson and Marketing Director Greg Aretakis and other staff became more numerous and serious as the year passed.

On at least three occasions, the conclusions made by the CEO and marketing director was that the transformation of Vanguard from an Open Skies to a SABRE system had to work, or it would be the end of the airline.

While operational performance continued to improve to summer 2001 levels, the airline was still saddled with $80 million in debt.

In his book about the bankruptcy of the airline, Scott Dickson wrote how these processors required surety bonds of 125% of sales to continue processing credit cards.

[13] Controversy broke out with other airlines that had accepted Air Transportation Stabilization Board grants immediately following the September 11, 2001, attacks.

[14] Its headquarters became the temporary offices of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in Kansas City, now the home of Entercom Radio.