Morris Air


Morris Air was a low-fare airline in the western United States, based in Salt Lake City, Utah. It began operations in 1992, and was sold to Southwest Airlines in December 1993 for over $120 million in stock. The airline officially became part of Southwest in the autumn of 1994. Morris Air was the first airline in the world to invent e-ticket travel based on the suggestion of Stuart Thatcher, an employee at the time. Although Southwest Airlines is often credited with offering the first e-ticketing system, it was in fact created and implemented by Morris Air and later integrated into Southwest Airlines after their purchase of Morris Air.

History

The airline began charter operations as Morris Air Service in 1984. It was launched by Utah businesswoman June Morris, who also founded Morris Travel in 1970, and David Neeleman who also co-founded WestJet and JetBlue. Neeleman worked with Southwest for a short period and when his non-compete agreement expired, he founded JetBlue Airways. June Morris sat on the board of directors of Southwest Airlines until she retired at the annual shareholders' meeting on May 17, 2006.
Charter flights were operated by Ryan International Airlines during 1992, and by both Ryan International and Sierra Pacific Airlines prior to 1992.
Morris obtained its own FAR 121 operating certificate in December 1992 and then began operating as its own carrier.
The airline was based at Salt Lake City International Airport where it operated a hub and flew a number of routes primarily in the western U.S. using Boeing 737-300 aircraft. In late 1993, it operated over 1,000 flights per week with a fleet of 21 planes.

Destinations

The following destination information is taken from Morris Air route maps with the airline not serving all of these airports at the same time.
post-merger; note the nose with Southwest colors on the radome.