Saw Piedmont & PSA at the gate....

Had to take a double-take when I was walking down the concourse at CLT this morning...

Though I don't think either one had any Airbus aircraft of any type.
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That's US Airways Express... both PSA and Piedmont... They're all the same...

Part of US Airways, who use Airbus.

In fact, Airbus helped fund the AmericaWest (Cactus) takeover of US Airlines. So US Air uses Airbus.


PSA is just a name now, nothing more, but I remember when PSA was basically "California's State Airline" with the smile on the front. Now it's headquartered in Ohio of all places.

 

That's awesome. Love the old PSA look.

 

Of course US Air uses Airbus - those are USAir A319's in the picture.

I was talking historically. Neither Piedmont nor PSA used Airbus.

Was just surprised to see the historic livery's next to each other...

 

Thanks.
Yes, looks strange, since both the 'real' PSA and Piedmont were history 10 years or so before Airbus even existed.

I heard that US Air (AmericaWest) just named some planes PSA just to 'save the PSA name'. Since they own both PSA and Piedmont names.

I was going back before Airbus existed when PSA was Pacific Southwest Airlines, and the 'real' Piedmont still existed.




But, US Air painted THAT particular plane in PSA livery to commemorate it's PSA heritage. It's the only one like that.

They did the same with the Piedmont livery plane. They both fly as regular US Air planes.

Couldn't find any info, but supposedly there's an AmericaWest livery plane also.

Parked side by side has got to be very rare.



I still think of US Air as AmericaWest since it was a reverse merger with AW 'owning' US Air (which was bankrupt).

 

Well, as long as my next "Piedmont" flight isn't on a Shorts 360....

For some reason, one of the only planes I was nervous flying on. I remember my last flight on a Piedmont Shorts - July 27, 1993. RDU-CLT. When I walked in the door at home, my wife said "let's go", and my daughter was born 11 hours later...

 

Good catch! I've seen a number of "heritage" color schemes over the years, on Air Canada, American and Delta, to name a few, but two right next to each other? Lucky you!

 

Airbus has been around a lot longer, with the A300B4 aircraft back in the early 70s. In fact, while PSA and Piedmont were around, Airbus A300s and Airbus A310s were being flown by North American carries including Eastern Airlines. In fact, it was Easterns killer deal that allowed Airbus to break into the U.S market. Pan Am and subsequently Delta were also flying A300s and A310s during PSAs existence.

I cringe when I see the PSA A320 because US Air screwed up the colors, with the bottom and middle color stripes blending together.

 

I was in CLT on the 19th and also had to do a double-take of the US Airways wearing an Allegheny Airlines livery. Weird stuff going on there. I'll be at CLT again this Saturday for a connection to SAN...maybe I'll be on one of them.