In 1972, Rio pilots initiated collective bargaining efforts with proposed representation by the Teamsters, but vigorous opposition by Rio management and strong appeals by popular pilot Mike Mills, swayed the pilots to reject the union. Two years later, the Rio pilot group having grown dissatisfied with Rio management's failure to carry through with promises made to discourage the former unionization efforts, solicited the National Labor Relations Board to conduct another union vote. This time the initial solicitation was actually initiated by Mike Mills who personally handed out the solicitation cards to be signed by pilots, and the pilots unanimously voted ALPAsubsidiary "UPA" as their collective bargaining agent. After a year of failed negotiations the NLRB mediator declared a thirty-day "cooling-off" period and then made his recommendation known to the pilot group that "only a strike will likely force the company to abandon coercive and probably unsafe practices against the pilots." The pilots had an almost 100% walk-out beginning August 1976, with the exception of management pilot Herb Cunningham, and line pilots Mike Mills, Calvin Humphrey, Will Kilgore, and Hugh Longmoor remaining with the company. The company hired replacement pilots from across the country, many of whom arrived to discover the airline under a labor dispute. The strike continued for two years, with no UPA pilot returning to the company, until August 1978, when pilots Calvin Humphrey and Mike Mills organized a "sweetheart" union which de-certified UPA and established the "Rio Pilots Association". Rio acquired competitor Davis Airlines of College Station, Texas in 1979 and began service to that city. The Connell's who owned Rio, sold it in early 1986 to a group of investors from Houston, Texas headed by Hugh Seaborn a former owner of Metro Airlines Rio operated various aircraft types through its history and initially flew single piston engine Piper Cherokee Six and twin piston engine Beech 18 aircraft. Turboprop aircraft were then operated, including the Beechcraft 99 until 1977 followed by de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otters, Fairchild Swearingen Metroliners, de Havilland Canada DHC-7 Dash 7s and Beechcraft 1900Cs.
Incidents
On January 12, 1971 a Rio Airways flight from Dallas crashed on short-approach to the Killeen Municipal airport injuring several people including the chancellor of MH-B College. The flight descended below the approach minimum altitude in fog and struck the ground about a quarter mile short of the runway, slid across the highway 190 and ended up on the airport boundary fence. On February 15, 1983 an Iranian man, Hussein Shey Kholya, hijacked flight ILE-DFW. The plane landed in Nuevo Laredo.
Destinations in 1983
According to the January 1, 1983 Rio Airways route map, the airline was serving the following destinations:
Ted C Connell Chairman Of Board; Mark S Connell Vice Chairman of Board; Pete Howe, exec. vice-president
TranStar SkyLink
For a brief period of time, Rio Airways provided commuter passenger feed services via a code sharing agreement on behalf of TranStar Airlines, the successor to Muse Air after this new start up jet airline was acquired by Southwest Airlines and renamed TranStar. Only in print media were Rio's aircraft ever illustrated in TranStar SkyLink brandings. According to the Victoria Advocate newspaper, plans were for TranStar Skylink to feature the aircraft livery of TranStar and operate smaller Fokker F27 turboprop aircraft in order to replace the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-50 jetliners then being flown by TranStar on the Houston Hobby - Brownsville, TX route as well as being operated on other intrastate feeder routes in Texas. Among the routes flown as the TranStar Skylink feeder brand were:
