Wilmington-Catalina Airline

Despite the airline’s modest size, WCA was captured by the 1938 Civil Aeronautics Act and was thus certificated in 1939–1940 as a scheduled airline by the Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA) on the basis of flying domestic scheduled service prior to the passage of Act (“grandfathering”).

[2] By June the airline was operating from Wilmington, California (home of the Port of Los Angeles) to the Hamilton Cove Seaplane Base north of Avalon on Santa Catalina, initially with two Loening amphibians,[3] but replaced in July and September by two ten-passenger Douglas Dolphin aircraft.

The service was said to be the favorite of “film folk” such as Douglas Fairbanks and “yachtsmen” who accessed their boats docked at the island.

[6] A 1 June 1934 timetable shows five to seven flights per day and a $4.75 one way fare, $8 round trip, whereas a return steamer passage was $2.25.

Intrastate airlines, those that flew within a single state and made an effort to not participate in interstate commerce, were exempt from CAA/CAB regulation, but the CAA determined that WCA was not an intrastate carrier, because at 30 miles offshore, most of the water between Santa Catalina and the California mainland (outside of a three-mile limit) was federal jurisdiction and overflying that meant legally leaving California.

WCA was entitled to such a certificate due to grandfathering; it had provided bona fide scheduled service prior to the Act.

The CAB approved plans for CAT to acquire two 17-passenger Lockheed Lodestars, which, during peak summer periods, would fly nonstop to Catalina from Los Angeles Union Air Terminal and Long Beach Airport, and during wintertime, fly Los Angeles-Long Beach-Catalina.

The US government was increasingly concerned about the ambitions of the Axis powers and in May, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had declared a national emergency.

It set fares jointly with CAT and paid 25 cents per passenger to use Catalina Airport, subject to yearly minimum and maximum.

The CAB also noted that WCA/CAT had run mostly at a deficit from 1936 to 1941 and had about a 4% market share of all trips to Catalina (including sea traffic).

[17][18] United gave notice that it would cease the route as of 1 October 1954, citing the specialized, sightseeing and seasonal nature of the flights.