Airliners, published by the World Transport Press Inc in the USA, was probably the best and most informative civil aviation magazine for over a decade. It didn’t focus on current news so much (in fact initially it had a sister publication Airliners Monthly News that did that). Instead it was all about the experience of working in the aviation industry and the history of airlines and aircraft. The focus initially was mainly towards US airlines but gradually it spread globally.
The first issue was published in Spring 1988 and until 1994 it was a quarterly offering. The articles were text heavy and detailed, often by heavyweights of the aviation publishing scene such as George Cearley, Jon Proctor and R.E.G Davies. In fact, the work was of the sort of quality you’d usually find in books not magazines. As well as the in-depth articles there were also editorials, like Flightlines, which talked of aspects of working in the industry. You could tell from the letters page that many of the readers worked for airlines.
Starting in January 1994 with issue Vol 7, No 1 (i.e. issue 25) the magazine went bi-monthly, for 6 issues a year rather than four. By then most of the images were in colour, if they could be. It was during 1994 that the magazine’s first editor, John Wegg, would depart to form his own title, which became Airways.
The magazine went through a selection of editors, including Bryant Pettit, Nick Veronico, Jon Proctor and David Kaufman but the overall quality of the issues remained very high.
From issue 100 (July/August 2006) the publishers became Airlines Publications LLC, run by Robert Christensen, with Jay Selman as the editor. The magazine had been slow to transfer to print media and seems to have only really gotten a website in 2006 – www.airliners.tv
In the next few years the quality of the magazine began to suffer. This became more pronounced into 2008/2009. The articles were less enthusiast oriented and more the sort of CEO Interview puff-pieces. Presumably this decline in quality was partly driven by the decline of retails sales, although it is hard to say which caused which.
The last issue I own is from Jan/Feb 2009 but the magazine ran under its original name until at least December 2010, when a double issue was run (125/126 – a sure sign of trouble). The last editor was the publisher Robert Christensen and he announced plans to become more interactive and online in 2010 – you can still find the remnants of a twitter feed up to 2014. The magazine itself was renamed ‘Airliners and Airports’ and carried on into 2012 seemingly. The last issue I can find an image of was issue 131 in December 2011.
