In 1959, West Coast Airlines replaced United had Douglas DC-3s service which a route from Portland, OR - Salem, OR - Redmond, OR - Klamath Falls, OR - Lakeview, OR - Burns, OR - Boise. West Coast Airlines later merged with Bonanza Air Lines and Pacific Air Lines to form Air West which became Hughes Airwest. In 1972 Hughes Airwest began Fairchild F-27s service, which flew nonstop to Portland and direct to Sacramento, San Francisco and Seattle. By 1975 Hughes Airwest had introduced McDonnell Douglas DC-9s aircraft, which served a flight to Redmond. They flew nonstop to Portland and direct to San Francisco and Los Angeles. In 1980 Hughes Airwest had four scheduled DC-9 flights per day from Redmond. Two flights went to San Francisco via Redding and two went to Seattle via Eugene. In the mid 1980s, Hughes Airwest merged into Republic Airlines, which continued DC-9s service at Redmond. In 1981, Republic sstarted flying DC-9-30s nonstop to Portland (OR), Eugene, and Klamath Falls, continuing to San Francisco or Seattle.