Airlines of the (Somewhat Recent) Past

As I posted earlier, I've begun the process of focusing more on aviation and aviation history and less on current political discourse in this country.  I spent some time last week taking an "aviation deep dive" into my aviation photos and found this one from 2009:

US Airways A-319 taxing into poisiton

This photo shows a US Airways Airbus A-319 about to depart Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Northern Virginia.  This photo was likely shot at in the spring or early summer at dusk from Gravelly Point, a park and plane spotters paradise located at the end of the runway of National Airport. The Hat Trick spent many fond afternoons and evenings plane spotting in this very location and it's one of the few things I miss about Washington, DC!

US Airways was the major carrier at National Airport throughout the '80s and '90s and, at one point, had its corporate headquarters across the street from the airport in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia.  Prior to 1997 US Airways was known as US Air and, previous to 1979, the airline was known as Allegheny Airlines but changed to US Air following passage of the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978.  By the time this photo was taken in 2009, US Airways had combined with several other airlines to create the current company having absorbed Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) and Piedmont Airlines in 1987 and 1989, respectively. Following two trips to Chapter 11 bankruptcy, US Airways itself was merged into America West Airlines in 2005 with America West Airlines as the surviving corporate entity but adopting the more national-oriented name of US Airways.  The combined airline maintained hubs at Philadelphia (PHL), Charlotte (CLT) and Phoenix (PHX) with a large focus operation at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA).  The end of US Airways finally arrived in 2015 following consolidation of the Big Six carriers (American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, United and US Airways) into three mega-carriers - American (combined with US Airways), Delta (combined with Northwest) and United (combined with Continental).  The US Airways/American merger was the final one of the Big Three to take place with the management of US Airways taking the leadership positions in the new company, but keeping the American name and corporate headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas.

The final flight of US Airways took place on October 17, 2015 and with the end of that flight a storied, if not complicated (who can forget Metrojet?), chapter in aviation history came to an end..

United-US Airways Merger Talks Continue

From the Hat Trick's perspective this is not great news but better compared with my post on this subject yesterday. According to an article in The Street published last night merger talks between United and US Airways have become "very serious" and are at a "very sensitive stage" at this juncture. The deal could still fall apart, particularly given the opposition to the merger from the pilots and flight attendant unions, but could also very easily go forward given the strong interest in consolidation by both airline CEOs. The United States Department of Justice may also have some concerns given that US Airways has a large mini-hub at Washington Reagan National Airport and United's East Coast hub is located at Washington Dulles International Airport. A combined carrier would have a real choke-hold on this particular market and that might give pause to Justice. Remember when United tried to merge with US Airways in 2000? It eventually was shutdown after serious anti-trust concerns in were raised in 2001 by the Bush Administration's Justice Department...and a Republican department at that!

One positive note in the article is that it appears that United would be the surviving carrier in this merger. This is good news from the Hat Trick's perspective but I still have concerns. Mergers always seem to look good on paper but in actual implementation can be exceptionally tricky and have long lasting effects on the newly merged company and consumers. Recent history illustrates this quite well when America West Airlines merged with US Airways to become the new US Airways in 2005. Five years later the company is still dealing with significant labor and customer service issues. Other examples from the annals of airline history include (surviving carrier/name is listed first) the following:

1. American-TWA
2. Northwest Orient-Republic (Northwest)
3. US Air-Piedmont
4. Continental-Frontier (first incarnation)/New York Air/PEOPLExpress.

Even the recent merger of Northwest into Delta had its moments. Another serious concern for the Hat Trick is also the reduction in competition that takes place in any airline merger. Not every airport in the country can benefit from having a Southwest/Air Tran/jet Blue serve the city and at least some competition by major carries creates competition and keeps them honest.

So we will continue to monitor this story and see what happens...and at least be thankful that it appears the current US Airways management will not be running the merged carrier if this all goes through.