Muse Air

{{short description|Southwest Airlines rival, then subsidiary (1980–1987)}} {{Infobox airline | airline = Muse Air/TranStar Airlines | image = | image_size = | IATA = MC | ICAO = TST | callsign = Muse Air | founded = {{Start date and age|1980|01|30|df=y|br=y}}<ref>[https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_tx/0050559300 OpenCorporates.com record for TranStar, accessed 21 April 2024]</ref> | commenced = {{Start date and age|1981|7|15|df=y|br=y}} (as Muse Air) | ceased = {{End date and age|1987|8|9|df=y|br=y}} (as TranStar) | hubs = Dallas, Houston | secondary_hubs = | focus_cities = | frequent_flyer = | alliance = AirCal | subsidiaries = | fleet_size = 16 | destinations = Texas, California, Florida, Louisiana, Nevada, Oklahoma | parent = | headquarters = Houston, Texas | key_people = Michael Muse Lamar Muse Herb Kelleher | website = }} [[File:Muse Air MD-82; N930MC@MSY, February 1984 (5067079218).jpg|thumb|MD-82 at New Orleans February 1984]] '''Muse Air''' was a domestic U.S. airline founded in 1980 by Michael Muse, a former CFO of Southwest Airlines, and his father Lamar Muse, the founding president of Southwest. Muse Air was notable for initially choosing to compete head-to-head against Southwest, thereby gaining the name "Revenge Air", given the circumstances under which the Muses departed Southwest. Muse Air also chose to be a non-smoking airline at a time when smoking was prevalent on commercial aircraft.

Southwest acquired Muse Air in 1985 and initially continued to operate it under the name '''TranStar Airlines'''. TranStar turned significantly unprofitable after it came under competitive attack from Frank Lorenzo's Continental Airlines, also based in Houston. This caused Southwest to shut down TranStar in summer 1987. Southwest CEO Herb Kelleher later said that continuing to operate Muse Air was his greatest management mistake.

==Muse Air== Company formation was announced October 27, 1980 in conjunction with an application to the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) as a Houston, Texas-based airline named '''Muse Air'''.<ref>[https://www.upi.com/Archives/1980/10/27/Former-Southwest-Airlines-executives-M-Lamar-Muse-and-Michael/4387341470800/ ''Former Southwest Airlines executives M. Lamar Muse and Michael...'', UPI, October 27, 1980]</ref> The driving force behind the airline was Michael Muse, former CFO of Southwest Airlines, the son of Lamar Muse, founding president and CEO (1971–1978) of Southwest Airlines. Lamar said of his son, “I told him that to begin with, he would have to do all the work and I would have to have all the fun,"<ref>[https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/1981/november/is-big-daddy-really-back/ ''Is Big Daddy Really Back?'' D Magazine, November 1, 1981]</ref> and said he was to step back once fundraising was complete.<ref>{{cite book |last=Muse |first=Lamar |author-link=Lamar Muse |date=2002 |title=Southwest Passage |publisher=Eakin Press |page=221 |isbn=1571687394|url=https://archive.org/details/southwestpassage00lama}}</ref> Lamar's memoir says he helped his son start the airline in order to maintain a "tenuous" relationship with him.{{sfn|Muse|2002|p=220}} However, the favorable reception by the CAB and investors was clearly due to the fact that Lamar was CEO and Chairman.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Muse Air, Fitness Investigation |encyclopedia=Civil Aeronautics Board Reports|series=Economic Cases of the Civil Aeronautics Board|date= October 1980 – January 1981|volume=87 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |location= Washington, DC |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xqM7AQAAMAAJ | pages=1049–1070|access-date= February 24, 2024}}</ref> Further, initial advertising heavily emphasized Lamar. In April 1981, an initial public offering raised over $35mm, and an additional $75mm was raised in debt, making Muse Air the best capitalized airline startup to that point.{{sfn|Muse|2002|p=222}}

Muse Air launched July 15, 1981 between Dallas Love Field (DAL) and Houston Hobby Airport (HOU) in 1981 with two McDonnell Douglas MD-80 aircraft, in head-to-head competition with Southwest's single busiest route. Muse offered a more upscale service (including assigned seating and other creature comforts) than Southwest, and was a nonsmoking airline. The August 1981 air traffic controller's strike, which suppressed the ability of airlines to fly at all for several years, almost immediately made things difficult for the company, though this constraint was relaxed somewhat on the collapse of Braniff in May 1982, allowing Muse Air to backfill for some of the lost capacity. As promised Lamar stepped back and let Michael take the lead, 33 years old when he officially became CEO.<ref>[https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/muse-air ''Muse Air'' Texas State Historical Association Handbook entry: November 1, 1995 updated May 27, 2021]</ref> Lamar retreated to his boat in British Columbia.{{sfn|Muse|2002|p=225}}

Michael Muse did not have his father's experience, the deregulated era of the 1980s was much tougher than the regulated era in which Lamar had such great success at Southwest, but the most mystifying issue was why Michael insisted on competing with Southwest,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=NywEAAAAMBAJ ''Fasten Your Seat Belts'', Texas Monthly, November 1982]</ref> prompting observers to dub Muse Air "Revenge Air". Despite further capital raising,<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/26/business/briefs-debt-issues.html ''Briefs'', New York Times, May 26, 1983]</ref> by the end of 1984 the company was in trouble. Lamar Muse reached out to a friend, Harold Simmons, president of Amalgamated Sugar Company who offered funding on the condition that Lamar resume the position of CEO.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/19/business/texan-s-bid-to-save-muse-air.html ''Texan's Bid to Save Muse Air'', New York Times, January 19, 1985]</ref> Lamar and Michael did not speak again for years.<ref>[https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/1990/may/business-the-grounded-ceo/ ''The Grounded CEO'', D Magazine, May 1990]</ref><ref>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-feb-09-me-muse9-story.html ''M. Lamar Muse, 86; airline industry maverick had a hand in rise of Southwest Airlines'', The Los Angeles Times, February 9, 2007]</ref>

Muse Air was initially headquartered near Dallas Love Field in Dallas, Texas,<ref>"World Airline Directory." ''Flight International''. April 2, 1983. [http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1983/1983%20-%200606.html?search=%22Muse%20Air%22 924]. "Head Office: Executive Tower, Suite 700, 3300 W. Mockingbird Lane, Dallas, Texas 75235, USA."</ref> later moving to William P. Hobby Airport in Houston.<ref>"World Airline Directory." ''Flight International''. May 16, 1981. [http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1981/1981%20-%201450.html?search=%22Muse%20Air%22 1452]. "Head Office: Dallas Love Field,"</ref>

{{Table alignment}} {|class="wikitable plain-row-headers defaultright" |+ Muse Air/TranStar Airlines Financial Results, 1981 thru 1987 ! (USD 000) !! 1981<ref>[https://airlines.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/1982.pdf Air Transport Association 1982 Annual Report]</ref> !! 1982<ref>[https://airlines.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/1983.pdf Air Transport Association 1983 Annual Report]</ref> !! 1983<ref>[https://airlines.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/1984.pdf Air Transport Association 1984 Annual Report]</ref> !! 1984<ref>[https://airlines.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/1985.pdf Air Transport Association 1985 Annual Report]</ref> !! 1985<ref>[https://airlines.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/1986.pdf Air Transport Association 1986 Annual Report]</ref> !! 1986<ref>[https://airlines.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/1987.pdf Air Transport Association 1987 Annual Report]</ref> !! 1987<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.southwestairlinesinvestorrelations.com/~/media/Files/S/Southwest-IR/documents/company-reports-ar/ar-1987.pdf|title=Southwest Airlines 1987 Annual Report|page=23|publisher=Southwest Airlines|website=Southwest Airlines Investor Relations|access-date=April 21, 2024}}</ref> |- ! Op revenue | 6,296 || 33,056 || 72,928 || 101,918 || 131,851 || 149,943 || 80,499 |- ! Op profit (loss) | (5,537)|| (4,738)|| 4,616 || (3,300)|| 8,294 || 7,663 || (10,734) |- ! Net profit (loss) | (3,968)|| 11,468 || (1,959)|| (17,042)|| (8,733)|| (1,301)|| (5,004)(1) |- ! Op margin | −87.9% || −14.3% || 6.3% || −3.2% || 6.3% || 5.1% || −13.3% |- ! Net margin | −63.0% || 34.7% || −2.7% || −16.7% || −6.6% || −0.9% || −6.2%(1) |+ align="bottom" style="caption-side: bottom; text-align: left;" | (1) 1987 figure is for pre-tax |}

==TranStar== thumb|right|TranStar DC-9 Herb Kelleher, CEO of Southwest, offered to buy Muse Air, thereby relieving Lamar Muse of the need to stay CEO. The purchase price reflected a need to provide Harold Simmons with a healthy return on his investment.{{sfn|Muse|2002|p=229}} The purchase was announced in March 1985, the deal closed June 25. Muse Air continued to operate as a subsidiary of Southwest, changing its name to TranStar Airlines in February 1986. Southwest continued to run TranStar as a somewhat more upmarket airline than Southwest based in Houston Hobby. This attracted the attention of Continental, which had a hub in the other Houston airport, Intercontinental, and was then run by Frank Lorenzo. Lorenzo was an old adversary, having run Texas International in the 1970s, when that airline came off much the worse as Southwest spread its service across Texas. Continental went after TranStar, which proceeded to make heavy losses. Kelleher recognized he'd miscalculated, shut TranStar on August 9, 1987<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/image/358502035 ''TranStar shuts down operations'', Austin American-Statesman, August 10, 1987]</ref> and sold many of the assets to Lorenzo.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/image/587853486 ''Texas Air To Buy 15 TranStar Jets'', Tyler Courier-Times, August 14, 1987]</ref> At the time of his retirement as Southwest CEO, Kelleher saw the continued operation of Muse (in the form of TranStar) as the biggest mistake of his time as leader.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090314005548/http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2001/05/28/303852/index.htm ''The Chairman Of the Board Looks Back As Herb Kelleher hands over the controls, he tells FORTUNE's Katrina Brooker what it took to make Southwest Airlines a great--if wacky--company. How did he do it? His way.'' CNN Money, May 28, 2001]</ref>

==Muse Air alliance with AirCal== In 1984, Muse Air entered into an alliance with California-based AirCal with connections being listed in its April 29, 1984 timetable via Los Angeles to and from AirCal flights serving Oakland, Portland, Oregon, Reno, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose and Seattle.<ref name="index">{{cite web|url=http://www.departedflights.com |title=index |publisher=Departedflights.com |date= |accessdate=2015-08-14}}</ref> The January 1, 1984 AirCal timetable listed connections via Los Angeles and Ontario to and from Muse Air flights serving Austin, Houston, Midland/Odessa and New Orleans.<ref name="index"/>

==No smoking policy== Muse Air prohibited smoking long before the U.S. government restricted smoking on board scheduled commercial airline flights.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=AOPA Pilot|title=No smoking policy|date=July 2011}}</ref> The intent was to not tarnish the airline's brand new MD-80 aircraft. However in 1985 Muse Air rescinded the smoking ban.<ref>Kramon, Glenn. "Northwest Airlines Bans Smoking on Most Flights." ''The New York Times''. March 24, 1988. [https://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/24/us/northwest-airlines-bans-smoking-on-most-flights.html 1]. Retrieved on February 8, 2012.</ref>

==Destinations== ===Muse Air 1982===

According to the September 15, 1982 Muse Air route map, the airline was serving the following destinations by the fall of that year:<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://departedflights2.com/muse-air-september-15-1982/|title = Muse Air September 15, 1982|date = 12 August 2021}}</ref> {{col div}} * Houston, Texas – Hobby Airport (HOU) * Dallas, Texas – Love Field (DAL) * Los Angeles, California – Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) * Midland, Texas/Odessa, Texas (MAF) * Tulsa, Oklahoma (TUL) {{col div end}}

===Muse Air 1985=== According to its July 20, 1985 route map, the following destinations were being served by Muse Air shortly after its acquisition by Southwest Airlines:<ref name="index"/> {{col div}} * Austin, Texas (AUS) * Brownsville, Texas (BRO) * Dallas, Texas – Love Field (DAL) * Houston, Texas – Hobby Airport (HOU) - ''Hub'' * Las Vegas, Nevada (LAS) * Los Angeles, California – Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) * McAllen, Texas (MFE) * Midland/Odessa, Texas (MAF) * New Orleans, Louisiana (MSY) – ''Focus city'' * Orlando, Florida (MCO) * San Antonio, Texas (SAT) * San Jose, California (SJC) * Tampa, Florida (TPA) * Tulsa, Oklahoma (TUL) {{col div end}} Muse Air also previously served Lubbock, Texas (LBB) in 1983, Ontario, California (ONT) in 1984 and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (OKC) in 1985.<ref name="index"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.departedflights.com/MCoklahomacity85.html|title = Mc071584}}</ref>

===TranStar 1987=== According to its June 15, 1987 route map, the following destinations were being served by TranStar shortly before the airline was shut down:<ref name="index"/> {{col div}} * Austin, Texas (AUS) – ''Focus city'' * Brownsville, Texas (BRO) * Dallas, Texas – Love Field (DAL) * Houston, Texas – Hobby Airport (HOU) - ''Hub'' * Las Vegas, Nevada (LAS) * Los Angeles, California – Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) * Miami, Florida (MIA) * New Orleans, Louisiana (MSY) – ''Focus city'' * Orlando, Florida (MCO) * San Antonio, Texas (SAT) * San Diego, California (SAN) * San Francisco, California (SFO) * Tampa, Florida (TPA) {{col div end}} TranStar also previously served McAllen, Texas (MFE) and Midland/Odessa, Texas (MAF) during 1986.<ref name="index"/>

== Fleet == According to the Muse Air historical website, the airline operated the following jet aircraft during its existence as Muse Air and TranStar:<ref name="museair1">{{cite web|url=http://www.museair.com |title=MuseAir.com |publisher=MuseAir.com |date= |accessdate=2015-08-14}}</ref> {{col div}} *1 – McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 *8 – McDonnell Douglas DC-9-50 *2 – McDonnell Douglas MD-81 *8 – McDonnell Douglas MD-82 *2 – McDonnell Douglas MD-83 {{col div end}} The Muse Air historical website also states the airline owned two de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter STOL capable turboprop aircraft at one point; however, it appears they were not operated in scheduled service.<ref name="museair1"/>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * {{cite web|title=Muse Air-related videos|url=https://www.youtube.com/@MuseAir/videos |publisher=Muse Air|website=youtube.com|language=en|format=video|date=30 March 2023}} * {{cite web|title=McDonnell Douglas DC-9 Ship 9880 [Former Muse Air DC-9-50 preserved at Delta Flight Museum, in its Delta livery/configuration, but still with Muse registration]|url=https://www.deltamuseum.org/exhibits/exhibits/aircraft/mcdonnell-douglas-dc-9|website=deltamuseum.org|language=en|access-date=3 June 2024|archive-date=3 June 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240603144048/https://www.deltamuseum.org/exhibits/exhibits/aircraft/mcdonnell-douglas-dc-9|url-status=dead}}

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Category:Defunct airlines of the United States Category:Airlines established in 1980 Category:Airlines disestablished in 1987 Category:Companies based in Houston Category:Defunct companies based in Texas Category:Airlines based in Texas Category:Southwest Airlines