Pinnacle Airlines operating the Northwest Airlink across America. Company history and reservation details.

Pinnacle Airlines

Pinnacle Airlines, formerly Express Airlines I, was founded in 1985 with the intent of offering regional airline passenger feed to a code sharing, major airlines hub. Express I began its first code sharing agreement with Republic Airlines in May 1985.

The much needed Republic Express was created to feed connecting passengers into the expanding Memphis Hub. Republics dilemma was that its fleet of fifty-seat Convair CV-580s and ninety-seat DC-9s could not economically serve the smaller communities.

These aircraft offered too much capacity for the local Memphis hub markets, resulting in only once or twice daily service. The lack of frequency did little to stimulate traffic when driving was often a more convenient mode of transportation.

On June 1, 1985, Republic Express initiated service between the Memphis hub and three cities using three British Aerospace Jetstream 3100s. Within six months, Republic was operating in ten markets with nine Jetstream 3100s and two Saab 340s.

On December 15, 1985, a second contract opened operations at a Republic Airlines home base at Minneapolis-St. Paul. By its first anniversary, Republic Express was operating 20 Jetstream 3100s and seven Saab 340s in 32 markets. In Spring 1986, Northwest Airlines announced its intent to acquire Republic Airlines. Following regulatory approval and ratification by the shareholders of the respective companies, Republic was absorbed into Northwest effective October 1, 1986.

Northwest Airlines, which at that time had its own code sharing network of regional airlines operating as Northwest Airlink, was more than happy to incorporate the existing Express I into its network. Subsequently, Express Airlines I began doing business as Northwest Airlink at both Memphis and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Over the next decade, Express I provided safe, comfortable, and convenient airline service to 56 cities in the Southeast and upper Mid-West. In 1997, Northwest Airlines elected to make changes in the structure of Express I, which, until then, had been privately held. Effective April 1, 1997, Express I became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northwest Airlines. In order to consolidate the many Airlink systems operated at that time, Express I transferred flying at Minneapolis-St. Paul, allowing it to concentrate on the Memphis Hub.

In August 1997, Express I moved its corporate headquarters to Memphis, allowing all the various departments to function from its main base of operations. On May 7, 1999, Express I announced a major transition into the jet age as its parent company announced that Express would be the launch operator of the Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ) at Northwest. This award was for a minimum of 42 CRJs designated to operate as Northwest Jet Airlink. Delivery of the CRJs began in April 2000 and the first Northwest CRJ lifted into the sky on June 1, 2001 bound for Greenville Spartanburg, SC.

Express I further expanded by the development of three additional Maintenance, Repair, Overhaul (MRO) facilities related to CRJ operations. The first, located in Knoxville, Tennessee, is a permanent base. It will be capable of handling up to four aircraft under cover. The Knoxville facility will serve as the primary CRJ Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul facility. Other CRJ maintenance sites are located at South Bend and Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Online Reservations

Northwest Airlink :: Operated by Pinnacle Airlines Inc.