is a
Regional Airline operating under the name
US Airways Express for
US Airways . Headquartered in
Salisbury, Maryland , it conducts flight operations along the East Coast of the United States, with concentrated operations at the
Charlotte Douglas International Airport hub in
Charlotte, North Carolina . Piedmont Airlines is a division of the
US Airways Group However, the name "Piedmont Airlines" usually refers to an earlier airline that was, during its heyday, one of America's largest airline companies.
The original Piedmont Airlines began flying in
1948 . Its route system stretched from
Wilmington, N.C. northwest to
Cincinnati, Ohio , with numerous intermediate stops. Early routes were operated with
Douglas DC-3 aircraft. The airline was based at
Smith-Reynolds Airport in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina .
As Piedmont grew over the years, their route system primarily served the U.S. states of
North Carolina ,
South Carolina ,
Virginia and
West Virginia . However, by the end of 1978, and while still under U.S. route regulation, Piedmont had grown to include an area stretching northward to
New York City ,
New York and westward as far as
Denver ,
Colorado and southward to
Miami ,
Florida .
Prior to deregulation, Piedmont had no true hub system. The airline was known for flying large jets into relatively small airports and for connecting unlikely city pairs with jet flights. Examples of this include nonstop jet flights between
Kinston ,
North Carolina and
Florence ,
South Carolina ;
Roanoke ,
Virginia and
Asheville, North Carolina ;
Lynchburg, Virginia and New York City's
LaGuardia Airport ; Chicago's
O'Hare International Airport and
Bristol /
Kingsport /
Johnson City ,
Tennessee ; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina to Lynchburg, Virginia.
Piedmont's fleet grew along with the airline. Piedmont began operations with the DC-3 but added the Fairchild F27, the Martin 4-0-4 and the Fairchild-Hiller FH 227B to their fleet by the 1960's. Routes in the late 1970s were operated with
Japan ese-built
NAMC YS-11 A prop-jet aircraft and
Boeing 737 -200 pure-jet aircraft.
Boeing 727 aircraft were later added to the fleet. Interestingly, one Boeing 727 that Piedmont purchased from
Northwest Orient Airlines and placed into service was the aircraft that had been involved in the famous
D.B. Cooper hijacking in the Pacific Northwest.
Following airline route deregulation in the late 1970s, the airline grew rapidly and began to a develop hub and spoke system with a hub at
Charlotte Douglas International Airport in
Charlotte, North Carolina . Later hubs included
Baltimore/Washington International Airport outside of
Baltimore, Maryland ;
James M. Cox Dayton International Airport in
Dayton, Ohio ; and
Syracuse Hancock International Airport in
Syracuse, New York . The extent of Piedmont's route map grew as well, with nonstop flights to the west coast beginning from the Charlotte and Dayton hubs during the early 1980s. At that time, the airline introduced first class service for the first time on its long-haul Boeing 727-200 jets. Eventually, Piedmont began nonstop service from Charlotte to
London Gatwick Airport in the
United Kingdom utilizing newly acquired Boeing
767 aircraft.
Piedmont's expanding route system, its loyal passenger following, and its profitability caused it to gain notice among other airlines for a potential buyout. In August 1989, Piedmont Airlines was absorbed by
USAir (formerly
Allegheny Airlines ), which had previously focused its route network around the northeastern states. The combined carrier became one of the East Coast's largest airlines.
was founded in
1931 as a
Fixed Base Operator in
Hagerstown, Maryland . It began its first scheduled flights to
Washington National Airport in
1962 . Allegheny and Henson began one of the world's first
Code Sharing arrangements in
1967 , and Henson re-branded itself as an Allegheny Commuter carrier using
Beechcraft 99 aircraft. Later, the airline upgraded to
Shorts 330 and
De Havilland Dash 7 turboprops.
In
1983 , Piedmont bought Henson and re-branded the airline as "Henson, The Piedmont Regional Airline." Under Piedmont's control, the airline expanded rapidly, particularly in
Florida . After Piedmont was bought out by USAir, Henson became a USAir Express carrier.
The Piedmont name was resurrected in
1993 , when USAir renamed Henson to "Piedmont Airlines". The reason for this was to protect the Piedmont brand name, which could be used by others if not exercised in trade use for a period of time. USAir continued this practice by changing the name of its two other wholly owned regional airline subsidiaries, Jetstream and Allegheny Commuter, to
PSA Airlines and
Allegheny Airlines , respectively. (
Pacific Southwest Airlines was the name of a California-based airline merged into USAir.) In
1997 , USAir was renamed US Airways, and Piedmont was likewise re-branded as a US Airways Express carrier. It purchased
Allegheny Airlines in
2004 .
