7 airlines that flew away from LI's MacArthur Airport

By HENRY POWDERLYMay 21, 2014

Here's a list of seven airlines that at some point stopped flying out of Long Island MacArthur Airport. It was compiled from Newsday archives, as well as online information from the airport itself. In some cases, airlines went out of business. In other cases, they just left.

1. PenAir - 2014

Credit: Ed Betz

Commuter airline PenAir on May 20, 2014, said it would stop running its twice-daily flights from Long Island MacArthur Airport after only a year of flying out of the Islip airport. Officials said the Alaska-based airline had lost customers after a spate of cancellations and mechanical problems

RELATED: PenAir takes off

(Caption: Passengers arrive from PenAir's first flight into MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma on July 25, 2013)

2. Allegiant Air - 2014

Credit: AP / David Becker

Las Vegas-based budget airline Allegiant Air in April 2014 said it was suspending its twice-weekly flights from MacArthur to Florida for summer and fall. The carrier has said it could return in December.

(Caption: Ramp agent Vince Divon retrieves gate-checked items of an Allegiant Air jet parked on May 9, 2013, at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas.)

3. Spirit Airlines - 2008

Credit: AP / Lynne Sladky

Another low-cost carrier, Spirit Airlines, cut its service from MacArthur to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. in 2008. It was the second time the carrier left the airport. The company had offered flights to Florida and Detroit out of MacArthur before leaving in 2001 when it shifted its operations to LaGuardia Airport. It had returned to MacArthur in 2008, before leaving again quickly, blaming fuel prices.

(Caption: A Spirit Airlines airplane sits on the tarmac on June 13, 2010, at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)

4. Delta Air Lines and Delta Express - 2008, 2003

Credit: AP / Alan Diaz

Delta Air Lines cut its history short at Long Island MacArthur Airport when in 2008 it announced it would cancel its flight from Islip to Atlanta. The announcement came after its commuter division Delta Express stopped flying its twice-daily round trips to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. from Islip in 2003, the same year Delta closed that division.

(Caption: A Delta Air Lines jet takes off Aug. 20, 2012 from Miami Airport.)

5. Continental Airlines

Credit: AP / David J. Phillip

Continental used to run flights out of Long Island MacArthur Airport from its budget Continental Express and Continental Connection division to Albany and Cleveland before pulling the plug on the routes in 2005. in 2010, Continental has since merged with United Airlines.

(Caption: A retro-painted Continental Airlines jet pushes away from a gate at George Bush Airport on Feb. 10, 2011, in Houston.)

6. Pan American Airways - 1998

Credit: AP / Kurt Strumpf

After going bankrupt in 1991, the Pan American World Airways brand briefly came back after an investment firm purchased the rights to the name. The result was the short-lived Pan American Airways, which ran shuttle services out of 17 U.S. airports, including Long Island MacArthur. At one point the airline ran four flights a day between Islip and the Florida cities of Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, West Palm Beach and Orlando, but it stopped in 1998, when the new company also went bankrupt.

(Caption: Well-wishers wave as a Pan American World Airways Boeing 747, called the Clipper Voyager, takes off on Nov. 1, 1991, from the Frankfurt Airport in Germany.)

7. Braniff International Airways - 1992

Credit: AP

Long Island MacArthur hosted an ill-fated "resurrection" of a classic airline brand in the early 1990s, when Braniff International Airways began running Islip-to-Florida routes. Braniff, which had its height between 1930 and 1982 had gone through two previous collapses before briefly coming back in 1991 for the last time. In 1992, Braniff closed, for good, pulling out of all airports where it operated.

(Caption: A 1973 photo of a Braniff jet with exterior colors designed by the artist, Alexander Calder.)