Beginning in 1979, however, overseas passenger traffic began to fall steadily, leading one carrier after another to suspend service to Hilo. The OAG lists only two air carriers operating nonstop service from the U.S. mainland to Hilo in 1979: United operating daily McDonnell Douglas DC-10 flights with one nonstop flight a day from both Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO), and Western operating nonstop DC-10 service once a week from LAX. In early 1985, United was operating just one departure a day from Hilo: a daily nonstop to Los Angeles (LAX) flown with a stretched Super DC-8. Also by the mid-1980s, overseas traffic had fallen by such an extent that United Airlines, the sole remaining overseas carrier, terminated scheduled service on December 1, 1986. The number of overseas passengers travelling to Hilo had declined in each of the previous eight years. During the first eleven months of 1986, United Airlines had served a mere 20,914 passengers in Hilo. Hilo would be left without nonstop service to North America for nearly two decades.