Gulf Air Lines > Gulf International B727-100

Gulf Air Lines took delivery of its first Boeing 727 in September 15th 1964, with the intention of complimenting the mainline fleet of DC-8s, which were in the process of replacing the older DC-6s and DC-7s. It was commonly seen (on off-peak hours) on high-frequency routes to major cities, and on services to Central America and the Caribbean that are not big enough for the DC-8; Gulf 727s often called into cities such as Cartagena, Managua, Tegucigalpa and Paramaribo on their way to Panama and Caracas, to connect with DC-8 services between the US and South America. After the international route network began to recede following the Oil Crisis in 1973, the 727s slowly became the workhorse of the fleet in the Americas as it took over Gulf's remaining Central and N. South American routes as its multi-stop routes to Sao Paulo, Rio, Buenos Aires and Santiago were dropped in favor of direct routes. The 727 remained Gulf's workhorse until the introduction of the MD-90 in 1995.

In 1971, Gulf Air Lines underwent another re-brand to its current full name: Gulf International, in order to display its sizeable international network and to differentiate itself from Gulf Aviation (later Gulf Air). The Ibis logo underwent a redesign, stylish yet closely resembling the bird in flight than the former. There are two versions of the tail logo to tell apart the domestic/regional mainline fleet from the intercontinental one with the imminent arrival of the Widebodies: domestic and regional ones have the logo on top of a thin gold-blue-gold strip, intercontinental ones have the logo within a more thicker strip.

Boeing 727-100 "WhisperDart", City of Baton Rouge, N3978G.

Delivered to Gulf Air Lines, January 10th 1966.
Sold to Líneas Aéreas Sudamericanas - Ecuatorianas, March 5th 1989.
Overran Runway and damaged, Quito, Ecuador, February 9th 1994.
Dismantled at Quito, Ecuador, September 15th 1996.