Mohawk Airlines began operations in 1945 as Robinson Airlines out of Ithaca, New York. In 1948 its headquarters relocated to Utica, New York, and the name was changed to Mohawk Airlines in 1952 when the company was purchased by Robert Peach. Mohawk Airlines operated in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, primarily in New York and Pennsylvania, from the mid-1940s until its acquisition by Allegheny Airlines in 1972; at one point it also experimented with helicopter airline service to the Adirondacks.
At its height, the company employed over 2,200 people. The company pioneered several technical and social aspects of regional airline operations, including being the first airline in the United States to hire an African American flight attendant (1958), the first airline to use a centralized computer-based reservation service (1961), and the first regional airline to utilize flight simulators (1965).
From the guide to the Mohawk Airlines Records, 1948-1967, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)
