Featured Map for 26 January 2023:
Throwback Thursday: Tag, You're It: Express Airlines as Northwest Airlink in 1999

Express Airlines began in 1985 as a regional (express) carrier for major U.S. airlines. By 1999, it was flying a fleet of Saab 340 aircraft to 29 destinations from a hub at Memphis as Northwest Airlink, with some destinations being served as tags from non-stop markets. Express Airlines changed its name to Pinnacle Airlines in 2002. Pinnacle Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2012 and emerged as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delta Air lines, renamed Endeavor Air.

Today's Featured Map is a throwback to 1999, showing where Express Airlines flew as Northwest Airlink as documented in their annual report, thanks to Departed Flights. The most interesting part of that map seemed to be the tags, cities which didn't have non-stops from Memphis but instead were connected via an intermediate stop. Those tags are depicted in red; the non-stops from Memphis are in grey.

(Many of the destinations were obscure, so the Great Circle Mapper's search function was used liberally to interpret the decades-old map. There may be errors; corrections are welcome. There may also be routes which are missing as they were added after the annual report. No effort was made to chase them down.)

References and additional information:

• Endeavor Air
• Departed Flights
  • Faceboook: Express Airlines (9E) operating as Northwest Airlink 1999 Annual Report map...
• Express Airlines I Fleet Details and History – Planespotters.net