Royale/L'Express airlines

[EMBATP]

anyone remember these guys? i know they flew 99's/1900's in and out of louisiana and other states. any info on routes, a/c , what happened to them. thanks. not much info on the net.
also how were they to work for, etc.

 

[CoolHands]

EMBATP, my father actually used to fly for them out of Shreveport in the late 1970s. I believe they first started out in 1969 flying army personel in and out of Fort Polk, La. in navajos and DC-3s. I'm pretty sure they never flew any 1900s but while he was there he flew the BE-99 and the EMB-110. They wre actually the launch customer for the bandit here in the states if I'm not mistaken. I think I've seen one of there old route maps on the internet but he told me his standard day would be something like... SHV-POE-LFT-MSY-LFT-LCH-IAH-LCH-LFT-MSY-BTR-AEX-SHV. Talk about a busy day!!! Most trips were two days in length and 10-12 legs per day. Average leg was 35 minutes with 10 minute turns. He said the pay was poor on a good day and the flying was brutal but he wouldn't trade the experience for anything. Everything was hand flown and he used to always tell me about the "CAT 2" ADF approaches they would have to shoot because they had no fuel to deviate . He said it was a great bunch of guys to work with and he thinks 9 or 10 of them ended up at the major he flies for. If you have any other questions let me know and I'll ask the old man.

Cheers,
Scott

 

[EMBATP]

thanks

hey scott

thanks a bunch for the info.which carrier did he work for? why did they go out of business? i know royale ended up flying dc-9's for continental on some routes. does he have any pics or stuff he would like to share?

any info appreciated. any one else?

 

[enigma]

I don't know anything about Royale. LXpress went out of business sometime in 1990 (thereabout). They definitely flew Beech1900's. I think that Conquest and Mesa both received a couple of their airplanes. Then Conquest switched from 1900's to Deathtubes and Mesa got some of their old 1900's. If I remember, N1947C flew for both Conquest, LXpress and Mesa.

enigma

 

[EMBATP]

enigma

thanks for the info!!!

anyone else?

 

[EMBATP]

info

the only info i can find on the net: royale went out in '87 and l'express in '91.
also l'express lost a 99 in alabama.( or maybe it was royale)

airliners.net has a pic of a royale emb110(royal airlines) and used to have a pic of a 99 but i cant find it.

 

[CoolHands]

Glad I could help! He flew for Royale from 1979 to 1981. I think he has some pics laying around the house of the 99 and the 110 in SHV. I'll see if I can find them and I'll pm you. I'm pretty sure they went out of business in sept of 1987 but I have no idea why. I'll talk to my dad a little more and see if he knows.

Good luck on finding more info!

Scott

 

[EMBATP]

thanks again

thanks again scott. are you in LA. ?

 

[NuGuy]

I was in NOLA during the time that L'Express was flying, and knew a couple of guys that flew there that were farther down the pipeline than I was (IE getting ratings, building time, CFI, check-running and so on). They had 99s and 1900s. I believe it was run by the same people that ran Royal, but I am not %100 on that.

The 1900s were C models, and were your basic white, with purple, green and gold (Mardi Gras colors) stripes. I had the chance to sit in one at KNEW.

They had a 99 auger in near Birmingham.

My bros that flew there report the typical start up, family owned commuter airline trauma. A "challenging" management, to say the least.

If memory serves, they wound up in financial trouble, had planes repo'ed, went bust and wound up owing the pilots (among others) a lot of money. The more things change....

Good news was that after they went bust, what was then Nashville Eagle, later to become Flagship hired most, if not all of the pilots.

Nu

 

[CoolHands]

Your welcome

EMBATP, I actually live in TX now, fly out of ADS just north of Dallas. I didn't realize it, but Royale also used to fly the Shorts 330. I could only find two pics, one of the 330 and the 110 parked nose to nose, and one of the 330 by itself. Both pics show off the company livery pretty well though. It looks like both shots were taken in SHV. Sorry but I couldn't find any pictures of the BE-99. If you want, pm your email to me and I'll scan these pictures and send them to you. I wish I could find more but hopefully these two pics help you out.

Scott