Last flight of US Airways evokes ‘golden age’ of air travel – CNN
If all goes well, you’ll be reading this when the US Airways name has disappeared and everything is running just fine as the new American Airlines. I was asked my thoughts on the end of US Airways and was quoted in this article.
Era of airline merger mania comes to a close with last US Airways flight – USA Today
And here’s another one about the end of US Airways. In this one, I’m specifically talking about the impact of consolidation.
I won’t be writing about the end of US Airways because I don’t really have much nostalgia for it, despite my first airline internship being for USAir back in 1996/1997. US Airways technically died in 2005. While I do have tremendous nostalgia for America West since I worked there in pricing, most of what I knew as America West is long gone. The last pieces for me were the vacating of the headquarters building and the disappearance of the Cactus callsign in recent months.
Of course, if the cutover turns out to be a mess, then I’ll post about that. But I’m on the road until Tuesday so don’t expect to see anything on that until later in the week at the earliest.
Airline Tech Glitches Are the New Norm—What Can You Do? – Yahoo! Travel
I can’t see I agree with the headline that glitches are the new norm, but I was asked why these glitches happen. Of course, it could be any number of reasons.
6 comments on “Cranky on the Web – The End of the US Airways Name”
As a former Pittsburgher who flew Allegheny Airline (AKA “Agony Airline”) as our local carrier, watching them grow to USAir, hearing all of their promises which resulted in building a huge airport and then leaving the city and seeing gates being walled off from the terminal, I have no regrets. Their demise didn’t just happen – they worked their way towards it.
JAC
I’ll always remember the old America West headquarters on Mill as the nightclub called Rockin’ Freddie’s before the airline moved in. Good times.
I only flew US after they took over PSA and once they killed off the west coast PSA routes I had no reason to fly with them again. They also in later years would tell me to use or loose my “never ending miles” which I donated to Make-A-Wish.
And now they are joined up with AA who was another west coast airline killer of AirCal and RenoAir. Funny how both ended the three west coast carriers they purchased which only made UA stronger and allowed WN to move into the west coast market and grow, plus allowing AS to grow larger in the west. Just think of the power house they could have been on the west coast now.
I’m a native of Pittsburgh, now living in St. Louis. Good riddance to US Airways, who saddled Pittsburgh with its beautiful, empty airport. And much joy may it bring American, who dropped St. Louis like a hot potato after absorbing TWA.
Not that I’m bitter, or anything…
We do have nostalgic feelings. Mohawk Airlines served us well in New York State and New England with jet service when no other carriers were interested. Then, they were absorbed into the Allegheny (“Allegedly”} system which was the basis of US Air. Later, US Airways grew and served us well in the northeast with its extensions into the West Coast and Europe. I can understand how Pittsburgh feels that it got shafted in exchange for Charlotte’s international gateway. But, the airline was really working well when it’s management took over American Airlines. Hope that is not too big a bite to chew.
I worked for Allegheny Airlines in the early 1970s. We then had mostly prop planes with a few BAC-111s. We then started bringing in DC-9s and they performed well. Since most of the flights were in the Northeast, we got a lot of complaints about reliability during the winter (hint: weather). While I was there, we improved our performance dramatically and fewer people were calling us Agony Airlines.
Before I left to come to California, there were reports in the local newspapers that Allegheny was going to change its name USAir. We all thought that was weird, but shortly after I left it happened.