US Airways

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US Airways
Image:US Airways logo.png
IATA US	ICAO USA	Callsign US Air
Founded		1939 (as All-American Aviation)
Hubs		Charlotte Douglas International Airport Philadelphia International Airport
Focus cities/ secondary hubs		Pittsburgh International Airport Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Int'l Airport New York LaGuardia Airport Ronald Reagan Wash. Nat'l Airport Boston Logan Int'l Airport
Frequent flyer program		Dividend Miles
Member lounge		US Airways Club
Alliance		Star Alliance
Fleet size		263 "mainline", plus 22 in "MidAtlantic" division
Destinations		100 (183 including US Airways Express)
Parent company		US Airways Group, Inc.
Headquarters		Tempe, Arizona
Key people		Doug Parker (CEO), Derek Keer (CFO)
Website		www.usairways.com

Image:Us.737.ohare.jpeg

US Airways (IATA: US, ICAO: USA, and Callsign: US Air) is an airline based in Tempe, Arizona that is owned by US Airways Group, Inc.. It is currently the seventh largest airline in the United States, with a fleet of 263 aircraft serving 100 destinations in North America, Central America, the Caribbean, and Europe. The airline is in the process of merging with America West Airlines.

US Airways operates hubs in Charlotte and Philadelphia, as well as an inter-American focus city in Fort Lauderdale that opened in February 2005. It has a secondary hub at Pittsburgh and focus airports New York LaGuardia, Washington National, and Boston. The airline became the 15th member of the Star Alliance on May 4, 2004.

Commuter service is offered by US Airways Express, a service operated by contract and subsidiary airline companies, along with US Airways itself, and US Airways Shuttle, a US Airways brand which provides hourly service between key Northeastern markets in competition with Delta Air Lines' Delta Shuttle.

1 History
2 Merger
3 Fleet
4 Destinations
5 External links

History

US Airways traces its history to All American Aviation, a company founded in the Ohio River valley in 1939. In 1949, the company was renamed All American Airways as it switched from airmail to passenger service. The company was again renamed, to Allegheny Airlines, in 1952.

Allegheny expanded progressively, introducing the Douglas DC-9 in 1966 and absorbing Lake Central Airlines in 1968 and Mohawk Airlines in 1972 to become one of the largest carriers in the northeastern US.

Allegheny's agreement with Henson Airlines, the forerunner to today's US Airways Express carrier Piedmont Airlines, to provide service under the Allegheny Commuter banner, is generally regarded as the industry's first code-share agreement, a type of service now routinely offered throughout the industry.

Allegheny changed its name to USAir in 1979 following the passage of the Airline Deregulation Act the previous year, which allowed the airline to expand its route network to the southern US. In the early 1980s, its routes in the Northeast were fed by Ransome Airlines, among others.

USAir was the launch customer for the Boeing 737-300. Prior to its absorption of PSA and Piedmont, USAir needed an aircraft with greater capacity to serve its rapidly-growing Florida markets. USAir was the world's largest operator of DC-9 aircraft and approached McDonnell Douglas for a new airplane. However, in the late 1970's, the company was not interested in developing a new variant of the DC-9-50. After negotiations with McDonnell Douglas broke down, Boeing stepped forward with a proposed variant of the 737. USAir chose this aircraft and the company worked closely with Boeing during its development, receiving the first plane on November 28, 1984.

USAir expanded dramatically in 1987, when it purchased San Diego-based Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) and Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based Piedmont Airlines. The mergers gave the airline hubs in Baltimore and Charlotte, as well as routes to the West Coast, and Piedmont's transatlantic service to London Gatwick Airport. When the Piedmont acquisition was completed in 1989, it became the largest merger in airline history.

In the early 1990s, USAir expanded its service to Europe with new flights to London, Paris, and Frankfurt from its three main hubs. The company formed new partnerships, marketing the Trump Shuttle as the "USAir Shuttle" and accepting a large investment from British Airways that started one of the first transatlantic airline alliances. It also invested heavily in a new, state-of-the-art terminal at its hub at Pittsburgh International Airport.

In 1996, USAir closed its relationship with British Airways and announced its re-branding as US Airways. It expanded its flights to Europe through the end of the decade, and bought out the remains of Trump Shuttle in 1998. That same year it introduced a single-class service known as MetroJet, which attempted to compete with low-cost carriers expanding into the East, in particular Southwest Airlines.

On November 6, 1996, just following the re-branding to US Airways, US Airways placed an order for up to 400 Airbus A320-series narrowbody aircraft, with 120 firm orders at the time of the order signing. At the time, it was regarded as the largest single aircraft order in history. In 1998, they followed that up with an order for up to 30 Airbus A330-series or A340-series widebody aircraft, with an initial firm order for 7 A330-300 aircraft. These orders accomplished two goals. They allowed US Airways to replace older aircraft with newer, more efficient aircraft, and they also helped with the re-branding and repositioning of US Airways as the "Global Carrier of Choice".

Although the airline had returned to profitability in the mid-1990s, its route network's concentration in the U.S. Northeast and high operating costs prompted calls to merge with another airline. On May 24, 2000 US Airways announced plans to be acquired by United Airlines, then the world's largest, for $4.3 billion. The complex deal drew immediate objections from labor unions, consumer advocates, and antitrust regulators. Negotiations stalled; with both airlines losing money and the deal all but certain to be blocked by the federal government, United withdrew its purchase offer on July 27, 2001, paying US Airways a $50 million penalty for withdrawing from the deal.

As the largest carrier at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, US Airways was disproportionately impacted by that airport's extended closure following the September 11 attacks. The disaster precipitated the closure of its MetroJet subsidiary and Baltimore hub, and the furloughing of thousands of employees. The airline entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy on August 11, 2002.

The company received a government-guaranteed loan through the Air Transportation Stabilization Board and was able to exit bankruptcy after a relatively short period. Despite eliminating its Pittsburgh hub and de-emphasizing its hub and spoke system to capitalize on direct flights between major Eastern Seaboard airports such as Washington Reagan, LaGuardia, and Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood, high fuel costs and deadlocked negotiations with labor (chiefly the Air Line Pilots Association, who were traditionally the first group to come to a concessionary agreement) returned US Airways to Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on September 12, 2004. Widespread employee discontent and irregularly high sick calls were blamed by the airline for a staff shortage around the 2004 Christmas holiday, a public relations disaster which led to speculation that the airline could be liquidated; the DOT, however, found that the problems were caused mainly due to poor planning by management.

Merger

Image:Hpuslivery.jpg

On May 19, 2005, US Airways Group announced that it would merge with Phoenix, Arizona based America West Holdings Corporation, whose strength in the West would complement US Airways' routes in the Northeast, Europe, and the Caribbean. Plans call for the new entity to retain the US Airways brand, its Dividend Miles frequent flyer program, and participation in the Star Alliance (subject to the approval of partner United Airlines); however, it will be headquartered at America West's corporate offices and America West executives and board members would be in control of the merged company. The merger between the two airlines, US Airways and America West Airlines, will be completed approximately 18-24 months following the merger of the holding companies. For the initial merger announcement see: NYT story. See: Merger with US Airways Group for additional information.

On September 13, 2005, America West's shareholders voted to approve the merger agreement. 95.5 percent of shareholders approved the transaction. See: results of shareholder voting.

On September 16, 2005, the US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia approved US Airways' Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization, clearing the way for the merger to be closed on September 27, 2005, in conjunction with US Airways Group's emergence from bankruptcy. For the merger approval announcement see Plan of Reorganization Approval

A new livery has been unveiled that incorporates colors from the 4 airlines that became US Airways. Allegheny (red and blue), America West (white and waving gray lines), Piedmont (also red and blue), PSA (red), These four airlines will have their logos in miniature near the main cabin door. There will also be 4-8 "retrojets" painted in the final livery colors of each of those predecessor airlines but with US Airways titles.

On September 27, 2005, the merger of the two companies was completed. Over the course of the next few years, the airlines will gradually merge their operations and fleets, and finally, their FAA operating certificates.

Fleet

US Airways flies a fleet of twinjets, divided between mostly newer Airbus aircraft and generally older Boeing aircraft. As of 30 September 2005, its fleet includes:

US Airways also operates a fleet of approximately 22 Embraer 170 aircraft as US Airways Express, through its MidAtlantic Airways division, staffed primarily with previously furloughed mainline employees. US Airways is in the process of selling these aircraft to Republic Airways, where they will continue to operate as US Airways Express.

US Airways has stated that they intend to have an all-Airbus international fleet by 2010. They have no current orders or options for any Boeing aircraft. Pending official launch of the aircraft, they will be a launch customer for the Airbus A350 with deliveries scheduled between 2011 and 2013, with Airbus also providing a $250 million loan to help fund the exit from bankruptcy.

The combined airline will also take delivery of Airbus aircraft ordered by US Airways and America West before their merger announcement. They will take delivery of 11 A320-family aircraft originally ordered by America West in 2009. 19 A320-family aircraft originally ordered by US Airways will be delivered in 2009 and 2010. Finally, 10 A330-200 widebodies originally ordered by US Airways will be delivered in 2009 and 2010. Along with the A350s, the A330-200s will help complete US Airways' transition to an all-Airbus international fleet.

Most US Airways aircraft are equipped with Verizon Airfone at every row of seats.

Since an initial trial run in 2003, US Airways has discontinued complimentary meal service on domestic flights, and now offers sandwiches and salads for purchase on board most flights of over 700 miles (1126 km).

Since the year 2000, US Airways has retired several aircraft types in an attempt to simplify its fleet and thus lower its costs. These retirements were made possible thanks to deliveries of new Airbus A320-series narrowbodies. Aircraft types retired include the Boeing 727-200, DC-9-30, Boeing 737-200, MD-80, and F100.

Destinations

US Airways' routes are heavily concentrated in the eastern United States and Caribbean, with a number of routes to Europe and several destinations on the west coast. Their west coast presence will increase dramatically upon the completion of the merger with America West Airlines. The US Airways Express carriers operate a number of routes, primarily into US Airways' hubs and focus cities, but with a few exceptions, in particular where smaller US Airways Express carriers operate service under the EAS program, and also some point-to-point routes in the northeast and Carolinas.

Main article: US Airways destinations