Trump pledged to create 'the best transportation system of any kind in the entire world.' Photo / Getty Images
Trump pledged to create 'the best transportation system of any kind in the entire world.' Photo / Getty Images
The US president is no stranger to a failed enterprise. Over the years he's launched a catalogue of dubious businesses, including (but not limited to) GoTrump.com (a travel search engine), Trump Ice (spring water), Trump Steaks and Trump Vodka. There's even Trump: The Game, his answer to Monopoly.
Many will have forgotten that he also tried his hand at aviation. Trump Shuttle (he really has a thing for eponymous companies) was launched in 1989 accompanies with a pledge to create "the best transportation system of any kind in the entire world."
He snapped up a fleet of ageing Boeing 727s from a struggling Eastern Air Lines, along with many of its disgruntled staff, and launched flights from New York to Boston and Washington DC.
Donald Trump at the launch of his Trump Shuttle airline in 1989. Photo / Getty Images
This being The Donald, those aircraft needed a Trump-style makeover.
"We took old 727s and spent a huge amount of money stripping them down to the frame and refurbishing them with chrome seat belts, maple bulkheads and faux marble bathrooms," Bruce Nobles, president of the Trump Shuttle from October 1988 until June 1990, told The Globe and Mail in a 2011 interview. "It was a problem: we spent too much money on the airplanes."
Nobles claims Trump paid $365m for the aircraft and landing slots, borrowing $380m from a consortium of banks and putting in around $20m of his own cash. Despite grabbing a decent market share, it could not thrive in a tricky economic climate while saddled with so much debt. It never turned a profit and in September 1990 the loans were defaulted and ownership of the airline passed to the banks, who eventually sold it to the US Air Group.
"It worked out well for me," was Trump's assessment in an interview with The Street. "I ran an airline for a couple of years and made a couple of bucks. The airline business is a tough business, [but] I did great with it."
Remember when planes used to smell like ashtrays? Photo / Getty Images
German financier Alexander Schoppmann said he was coming to the rescue of nicotine lovers all over the world, when, in June 2006, he announced the launch of Smintair - an airline which allow passengers to smoke throughout the journey. A triple portmanteau of Smoker's International Airways, the carrier promised to "bring back the exclusivity in flying encountered in the 1960s".
"The upper deck will be the passengers' lounge and not be jammed with seats, as you can sadly find everywhere, nowadays," the website added.
"Allergics against tobacco smoke or militant anti-smokers are asked to not apply," said Smintair on its jobs page.
Flights from Dusseldorf to Nagoya, Japan were mooted, but, alas, the £27.6m needed to turn it from idea into reality was never raised.
Hooters Air
Hooters Air: it really happened. Photo / Getty Images
Seriously, this existed for three glorious years. It was conceived as an unconventional way of raising awareness of the restaurant chain, but expanded to encompass a fleet of seven aircraft covering 17 destinations, including The Bahamas, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Las Vegas. Two "Hooters Girls", wearing the standard skimpy attire, assisted the (conventionally dressed) cabin crew, and the carrier did its best to woo affluent travellers with plenty of legroom and free meals on all flights over an hour. It ceased operations in 2006, and is estimated to have cost the firm $40m.
Naked Air
Hardly an "airline", as it operated for just one flight in 2003, this brainchild of Castaways Travel, a Houston-based "clothing optional" (and still in business) firm, shuttled fliers from Miami to Cancun wearing nothing but their birthday suits. The idea was picked up in 2008 by a (surprise, surprise) German travel agency, which flew nude sunseekers from the city of Erfurt to the (rather chilly) Baltic seaside.
Pet Airways
Because man's best friend deserves a holiday too. Photo / Getty Images
Overestimating the demand among dogs for a week in the sun, Pet Airways unveiled itself in 2009, offering fares based on the size of the animal and the distance travellers. Pets ("pawsengers" is how the carrier described them), were checked in at the airport by their owners, who could then track their progress online. Operations were handled by Nebraska-based Suburban Air Freight, but financial problems surfaced in 2012 and the following year it was consigned to airline heaven.
Aussie pilot Craig Justo launched this oddity in 2006, offering randy couples the chance to join the Mile High Club in his twin-engine Beech H-18S. $1030 bought each couple bubbly, bedding and an hour in the sky - plus a certificate to take home. Needless to say it didn't take off.
And 10 more with very strange names
Touch and Go
Russian charter airline that was hugely unpopular with nervous fliers. Ceased operations in 1997.
Wizz Air
Hungarian budget airline - also slang for "urinate". On the website, there's a section called "My Wizz". It's still going strong.
Ghanaian carrier, lasted just two years (1997-1999).
Vanilla Air
Low-cost carrier launched in 2013. "We chose vanilla as our brand name because it is popular and loved by everyone in the world," the airline's president Tomonori Ishii said at the time. "I think it is a very cute name." Mr Ishii was apparently unaware of the bland and plain associations with the word "vanilla" in the West.
U-Land
On a runway, we presume. Taiwan-based; folded in 2000.
