World Airways
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| Founded | March 29, 1948 | ||||||
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| Ceased operations | March 27, 2014 | ||||||
| Fleet size | 9 (1 scrapped in September 2014 8 grounded) | ||||||
| Parent company | Global Aviation Holdings (defunct) | ||||||
| Headquarters | Peachtree City, Georgia, United States | ||||||
| Key people | John Graber, CEO | ||||||
| Website | worldairways.com | ||||||
World Airways, Inc., was an American airline headquartered in Peachtree City, Georgia in Greater Atlanta. For the most part, the company operated non-scheduled services. World Airways ceased all operations on March 27, 2014.
World Airways was founded in 1948 by Benjamin Pepper with the introduction of ex-Pan American World Airways Boeing 314 flying boats. Edward Daly, however is thought of as World's founder. He bought the airline in 1950 for $50,000 and proceeded to acquire DC-4s.
World got its first government contract in 1951 and has had a substantial amount of government business since then.
Later, World acquired DC-6s and Lockheed Constellations. World entered the jet era in the late 1960s with Boeing 707s and 727s. In the early 1970s, World acquired Douglas DC-8s.
World became a key military contractor during the Vietnam War, flying troops and equipment between the war zone and World's base at Oakland International Airport. On March 29, 1975, World operated the last airlift flight out of Đà Nẵng, Vietnam. Two 727s were flown to Đà Nẵng, one of which landed with Daly aboard. Thousands rushed the airplane and it took off on a taxiway under heavy fire. The aircraft with Daly aboard started its takeoff roll with the 727's back airstairs still down with Daly fending off additional people trying to leave due to over capacity (The film of this was later broadcast on the CBS Evening News on March 30, 1975). When the airplane landed at Saigon, there were 268 people in the cabin and possibly 60 or more in the cargo holds. World did not return to Đà Nẵng until April 17, 2002, then with an MD-11 aircraft to pick up a team of people resolving Missing-In-Action cases from the Vietnam War.
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