Desert West Airlines - Desert Express Fleet 1980s

Following deregulation in 1978 a whole raft of new carriers started operations, Phoenix based Desert West grew its operation from a single 757 in 1982 to a small fleet by 1988. The sudden growth of a newcomer led to an intense fare war with the former intrastate airline AeroCalifornia which had expanded to serve routes outside of California. Initially the battle looked fairly evenly matched until 1992 when AeroCalifornia agreed to a merger with its main rival TransCal under attempted takeover attempts of the latter.

Three years later AeroCalifornia acquired a stake in its regional partner Surfrider. Both these were hammer blows to Desert West now competing with a much stronger AeroCalifornia, things later got worse with the crash of one of their Beech 1900cs at Palm Springs which undermined public confidence in the airline.

Despite the tumultuous years of the 1990s and a brief stint in bankruptcy the airline survived and would continue flying into the 2010s.