Grand Canyon Airlines
The onset of the Great Depression spelled the end for overextended Scenic Airways (an aerial sightseeing company which offered flights over the Grand Canyon) along with many other aviation operations. By Thanksgiving of 1930, Scenic’s assets, including the new Sky Harbor Airport facilities, the Red Butte Airport and its maintenance hangar, along with 17 aircraft – including five Ford tri-motors – had been sold off.
In late 1930, a group of investors headed by Jack Thornburg bought the assets
of Scenic Airways and reformed the company under the new name -- Grand Canyon Air Lines.
By the summer of 1931, the new company was again operating air tours over the
Grand Canyon from the reopened the Red Butte airport. The operation flew a
three-engine Bach monoplane and a Curtiss Robin.
A group of Navajo Indians gathered in front of a GCA Ford Trimotor
From 1931 onward – except for World War II when pleasure flying was suspended –
the aerial tour service continued to operate from the South Rim under various ownerships
and several names, all containing the words “Grand Canyon.” In the
mid-1930s the airline enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with Transcontinental and Western
Air (TWA’s predecessor) through the pre-war equivalent of code-sharing with side
trips to the Canyon from TWA stops at Winslow, Ariz., to the Red Butte field via Ford
tri-motor. The package, including ground transportation to and from Grand Canyon
Village, cost $12 one way and $19 round trip, with optional lodging and excursions into
the Canyon.
The airline remains active today.
Ticket, c.1934
Timetables and Promotional Materials
c.1927
undated. c.1928-29 (?)
c.1929
