This forum is a meeting place for former employees of MarkAir.

In 1946 Jim Magoffin founded Interior Airways (later Alaska International Airways), carrying cargo within the state of Alaska. In 1979, Neil Bergt bought out the all-cargo Alaska International Air. In 1984 the company took on the name MarkAir and began carrying passengers as a regional carrier, becoming Alaska's largest airline. In October 1991, Alaska Airlines gave notice of termination of its code sharing and frequent flyer relationship with MarkAir. In response, beginning in November of 1991, we started a major expansion to the lower 48 states offering jet (737) service to more than a dozen cities in the lower 48 states and 13 cities in the State of Alaska. Through MarkAir Express, our commuter service, we also provided transportation to over 140 Alaskan communities. In April, 1995, we moved our headquarters to Denver, where for three years we'd been building a successful Boeing 737 operation. At our zenith, we had 61 planes, over 2,000 employees and annual revenues exceeding $250 million. Our decades old company was in Chapter 11 from battles in Alaska with Alaska Airlines. On July 28, 1995, Neil asked the Denver FAA manager if there were any more problems, some had been caused by the move. Told there weren't, four days later he received an emergency order of revocation. It is little known, but six days after that the FAA lawyers from Seattle, who'd issued it, flew in to Denver and told him they'd been hasty and he could resume operations. On August 1st MarkAir had 165,000 reservations in its computer, a week later, due to the adverse publicity, we had 65,000! That killed the cash flow needed to bring the company out of Chapter 11. Sadly, after a couple of Chapter 11 bankruptcies (1992 and 1995), we ceased operations under Chapter 7 on October 24, 1995.