Mid-Continent Airlines
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| Founded | 1928 (as Hanford's Tri-State Airlines) Sioux City, Iowa, United States |
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| Commenced operations | 1938 (as Mid-Continent Airlines) |
| Ceased operations | August 16, 1952 (merged into Braniff Airlines) |
Mid-Continent Airlines was an 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 was based in Kansas City, Missouri at the time of its acquisition by Braniff.
The company was founded in 1928 in Sioux City, Iowa as Hanford's Tri-State Airlines by Arthur Hanford, Jr., who offered charter service and scheduled flights from Sioux City to Omaha, Nebraska, Minneapolis, Minnesota and Bismarck, North Dakota.
In 1934 it was awarded mail contract for runs from Minneapolis to Kansas City, Kansas; from Sioux Falls to Bismarck; and from Chicago to Winnipeg via Minneapolis. Its fleet was four four-passenger Lockheed Vegas and three Ford Tri-Motors.
Hanford died in 1935 and his father took over the airline and it was acquired in 1936 by Thomas Fortune Ryan III, the grandchild of financier Thomas Fortune Ryan. Ryan moved the headquarters to Kansas City and renamed the airline Mid-Continent in 1938 after expanding service into the oil boom cities in the Mid-continent Oil Field out of a hub in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ten-passenger Lockheed 10 Electras were added to the fleet.
In 1940 Mid-Continent routes extended from Minneapolis and Bismarck south to Tulsa. It had 6 million revenue passenger miles that year; Braniff had 36 million and industry leader American had 312 million. After World War II Mid-Continent expanded to Shreveport, Louisiana, New Orleans and Houston; in October 1951 it flew to 34 airports.
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