Mid-Continent Airlines

Mid-Continent Airlines

IATA ICAO Call sign — — MID-CONTINENT
Founded	1928 (1928) (as Hanford's Tri-State Airlines) Sioux City, Iowa, United States
Commenced operations	1938 (as Mid-Continent Airlines)
Ceased operations	August 16, 1952 (1952-08-16) (merged into Braniff Airways, Incorporated)
Hubs	Kansas City International Airport Minneapolis-St. Paul Wold-Chamberlain International Airport
Secondary hubs	Tulsa International Airport Des Moines International Airport St. Louis Lambert International Airport
Focus cities	Sioux City Municipal Airport Houston William P. Hobby Airport Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport Moisant Field Shreveport Municipal Airport
Headquarters	Sioux City, Iowa 1928 to 1936 Kansas City, Missouri 1936 to 1952
Key people	Arthur S. Hanford Sr. Arthur S. Hanford Jr. Thomas Fortune Ryan III James Wescott "Bill" Miller Richard B. Cass

Mid-Continent Airlines was a trunk carrier, a scheduled airline which operated in the central United States from the 1930s until 1952 when it was acquired by and merged with Braniff International Airways. Mid-Continent Airlines was originally founded as a flight school at Rickenbacker Airport in Sioux City, Iowa, during 1928, by Arthur Hanford Jr., a dairy operator. The Hanford Produce Company was the largest creamery in the United States with over 100 trucks in operation. The company was primarily a dairy but also sold ice cream and poultry. The Hanford's also founded and built the new Rickenbacker Airport and operated eight gas stations and several service repair garages under the name Hanford's, Inc. The airport was a division of Hanford's, Inc., but the service stations and garages were later sold to finance airline operations. Mid-Continent was based in Kansas City, Missouri at the time of its acquisition by Braniff.^[1]