Bonanza Air Lines, served communities from its Phoenix base westward through Southern California and northward to Las Vegas and Salt Lake City and West Coast Airlines, based at Boeing Field in Seattle, served the Pacific Northwest.

The airline's initial fleet included the Boeing 727, McDonnell Douglas DC-9, Fokker/Fairchild F-27, and Piper Aztec aircraft. Hungry for another adventure in the airline industry, TWA's former owner Howard Hughes bought the airline in 1970. The airline was then renamed Hughes Airwest.  

Its new call sign became "Hughes-Air." Howard Hughes saw his new airline expand to several other cities in the western United States, Canada, and Mexico. The airline participated in some movies in the 1970s, most notably The Gauntlet with Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke in 1977. At the Las Vegas airport, Locke's character sarcastically called the airline, "Air worst." 

Like other U.S. local service carriers in the 1970s, Hughes Airwest gradually eliminated many of the smaller communities served and opened new, longer-haul routes. New destinations were added, to resorts in Mexico and domestic routes to cities further east, such as Denver, Des Moines, Milwaukee, and Houston. In 1980, Hughes Airwest was purchased by Republic Airlines, formed in 1979 from the merger of North Central and Southern. Republic was acquired by Northwest Airlines in 1986. 

Hughes Airwest's planes were rather recognizable by their banana-yellow fuselage and tail colors. Because of this, their airplanes were often dubbed "flying bananas" and the airline even launched an advertising campaign with the catchphrase "Top Banana in the West".