ABSTRACT
Morris Air, which began scheduled operations in 1992, provides an example of a start-up airline that succeeded during the dark days of U.S. commercial aviation in the early 1990s. Morris Air benefited from a favorable regulatory climate for start-ups but owed most of its success to innovations in cutting costs and to its discipline in filling a well-defined market niche. When Morris Air began to hurt the operations of the major airlines, particularly Delta’s hub at Salt Lake City, it began to suffer from aggressive responses that could be considered predatory. Morris Air was sold to Southwest Airlines at the end of 1993, resulting in substantial capital gains for its shareholders. There is evidence that Morris Air’s founder anticipated a sale to Southwest from the time she incorporated the airline.
