america west airlines

The airline maintains two hubs, one at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona, and at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, through its merging with US Airways, it also maintains hubs at Philadelphia International Airport, and Charlotte-Douglas International Airport; and focus cities in Pittsburgh International Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. It is the second largest low-cost airline in the US. America West provides service to approximately 100 destinations in the US, Canada, and Mexico. Service to Europe is provided through code sharing arrangements.

As of March, 2005, America West operated a fleet of 140 aircraft with its only maintenance base in Phoenix.

America West Express was the name for commuter and regional flights operated by Mesa Airlines for America West Airlines. The America West Express fleet consists of 43 aircraft. All flights are now branded as US Airways Express.

On May 19, 2005, America West Holdings Corporation announced it would merge with the Arlington County, Virginia based US Airways Group. The new entity is named US Airways Group and is headquartered in America West's former corporate offices. The merger was completed on September 27, 2005, and America West now operates under the US Airways brand. A merger of the two airlines' FAA operating certificates is expected in 2007.

Beginning January, 2006, all America West flights are branded as US Airways, along with most signage at airports and any other printed material.

Further information: US Airways

History

The early years

One of the 1980s' greatest business success stories, the airline was established in February 1981 and started on August 1, 1983 using three Boeing 737 aircraft flying out of their base in Phoenix, Arizona with Ed Beauvais as CEO. At the start, passengers could buy tickets on board the aircraft.

The airline quickly expanded, with 11 737s operating flights to 13 cities, developing a secondary hub in Las Vegas, Nevada by the end of 1983, and in 1984 grew to 21 aircraft and 23 cities.

America West was one of the first airlines to use extensive "cross-utilization", in which employees were trained in a variety of airline jobs, such as pilots trained in dispatch, and both baggage handlers and flight attendants being trained as gate agents. America West also started as a "full service" airline, in contrast with Southwest Airlines, the discount air carrier competing in many of the same markets. America West also utilized an aggressive employee stock ownership program, in which new employees were required to invest 20% of their salary in company stock, providing a steady flow of cash as the company grew.

In 1985, America West had grown to the point that no more gate space was available at Sky Harbor International Airport. While the new Terminal 4 at Sky Harbor was approved in 1986, it became apparent that additional gates would be needed before Terminal 4 was completed, and a temporary concourse was added to the southwest corner of the Airport's Terminal 3, adding six gates (eventually a total of 11 gates by 1990) for the use of America West.

The airline's rapid growth continued in 1986, with the airline greatly expanding its fleet, primarily with Boeing 757s purchased from Northwest Airlines after Northwest bought out Republic Airlines, as well as the acquisition of a number of De Havilland Canada Dash 8 aircraft for local service from Phoenix and Las Vegas.

Also in 1986, the airline started running red-eye flights from Las Vegas to increase aircraft utilization.

The rapid growth of America West resulted in large operating losses for the airline, and by 1986 the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. Originally slated to occupy the vast majority of the gates in the under-construction Terminal 4, America West had to reduce its commitment to the city of Phoenix to just 28 gates, with the growing Southwest Airlines agreeing to lease the remainder of Terminal 4.

Despite revenue problems, America West continued its growth, with a rebuffed attempted buyout of Eastern Air Lines "shuttle" division in 1988. In 1989, the airline purchased four Boeing 747 aircraft (formerly operated by KLM), offering service to Hawaii and Nagoya, Japan, as well as an expansion of service to many Mexican destinations.

In 1990, the airline moved into the new Terminal 4 and also took the delivery of several Airbus A320 aircraft that were destined for the now-defunct Braniff Airways. The A320's were sold to America West at a steep discount. Braniff had assumed the Airbus A320 order after purchasing the original order rights from Pan Am, another troubled carrier.

Despite these developments, the airline continued to lose money. The operating expenses at the new Terminal 4 were much larger than previous expenses in Terminal 3's temporary concourse. The Nagoya, Japan route was essentially a bust (the planes were flying with almost no passengers), with extremely low ticket sales. Finally, concerns about stability in the Gulf States in the lead-up to the Persian Gulf War lead to increasing fuel costs. This combination forced America West to file for bankruptcy in June, 1991.

Bankruptcy

America West operated in bankruptcy from 1991 to 1994. As part of its restructuring, the employee stock became worthless, the Hawaii and Nagoya routes were scrapped (and the 747s sold), and the airline's fleet was heavily pared down to 87 aircraft. All of the Dash 8 aircraft were sold, and America West's service to local markets was contracted to Mesa Airlines, which began conducting operations as "America West Express."

The bankruptcy forced a number of changes on the management side as well. Founder and CEO Ed Beauvais was removed as CEO, but remained on the board of directors, while Mike Conway, who had been with the airline since its start, was appointed as the new CEO, although he in turn would leave the airline in 1994, replaced by A. Maurice Myers. America West's Flight Attendants also unionized in 1993, a move which ended the cross-utilization between customer service agents, flight attendants, and ground agents. Many maintenance and training functions that were previously operated by America West in-house were also outsourced during the bankruptcy.

Reorganization

Finally, in 1994 America West managed to secure a reorganization that allowed it to come out of bankruptcy, with a large portion of the airline owned by a partnership including Mesa Airlines and Continental Airlines, which resulted in code-sharing agreements with these airlines.

To help reinvigorate the airline as it emerged from bankruptcy, a number of consumer-visible changes occurred, including a new color scheme and logo (still in use as of 2005), new livery, E-ticket, and online ticket purchasing (in 1996). The airline continued ordering Airbus A320 aircraft, and gradually started retiring its older Boeing 737-200 aircraft.

In 1990s, America West Airlines opened an east coast hub at Port Columbus International Airport in Columbus, Ohio. Chautauqua Airlines was used to provide commuter and regional flights. An America West Club was provided for the hub.

In 2000s America West Airlines received a loan of $380 million from the Air Transportation Stabilization Board. As of April 2005, the remaining balance on the loan was $300 million. On October 19, 2005, the loan was repaid when the debt was refinanced with other lenders.

In February of 2003, America West Airlines announced plans to close the Port Columbus International Airport hub. The closure was completed later that year reducing the number of scheduled flights from near 50 a day to only 4.

America West Airlines, in conjunction with SkyMedia International, pioneered advertising space inside the cabin of the aircraft as an additional revenue source to help bring costs down. The companies developed FAA approved tray-table advertising.

2005 and Beyond-US Airways

Further information: America West Holdings Corporation#History

With the merger of the holding companies, described above, major changes will happen at America West. Eventually, the America West name will disappear in late 2007. Changes that have already occurred include:

• On October 5, 2005 the airport club changed names from the America West Club to the US Airways Club
• All new America West aircraft will be delivered in the new US Airways livery
• Airports in which both US Airways and America West, the gates and ticket counters have been consolidated to one location.
• Currently America West uses computer reservation system QIK (Which relies on Shares and Amadeus while US Airways uses Sabre. The two systems are very different and the company expects the US Airways systems to be migrated to the new systems in early 2007.

Destinations

Further information: America West Airlines destinations

Service was briefly provided to Nagoya, Japan during the 80's.

Fleet

Further information: US Airways#Fleet

Aircraft counts accurate as of August 2006, according to FAA records.

Airline Affinity Programs

Airport Lounge

The airline's airport lounge is called the US Airways Club.

Frequent Flyer Program

The airline had a frequent flyer program called FlightFund. In 2006, FlightFund was merged into the US Airways Dividend Miles program.

Partner airlines or programs for Dividend Miles (formerly FlightFund) include:

• America West Express
• Hawaiian Airlines - Limited
• Royal Jordanian Airlines
• US Airways
• Virgin Atlantic Airways

Code Sharing

America West participates in code share arrangements with several airlines including:

• America West Express
• Big Sky Airlines
• EVA Airlines
• Hawaiian Airlines
• Royal Jordanian Airlines
• Qantas
• US Airways
• Virgin Atlantic Airways

Other commercial interests

America West has promotional partnerships with the Phoenix Suns NBA team, the 2001 World Series champion Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team and the Arizona Cardinals NFL team.

In 1992, America West paid $26 million for the 30-year naming rights of the Phoenix Suns home court, which it named America West Arena. As part of the merger with US Airways, the arena is now called US Airways Center. Ironically, rival carrier Southwest Airlines is advertised as the league's "official airline."

Incidents

America West has had several in-flight incidents on its aircraft, but has never had an accident resulting in a fatality. One accident has resulted in a hull loss (aircraft written off).

External links

• America West Airlines
• America West Fleet Detail
• Guide to earning miles on America West