Allegheny Airlines (IATA: AL, ICAO: ALO, Call sign: ALLEGHENY) was a U.S. airline that operated out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, from 1952 to 1979. It was a forerunner of today’s US Airways. Its headquarters were at Washington National Airport in Arlington County, Virginia.
Allegheny Airlines began as All American Aviation Company providing mail delivery and passenger operations starting on 7 March 1939. It was founded by du Pont family brothers Richard C. du Pont and Alexis Felix du Pont, Jr.
In 1949 the company was renamed All American Airways as it switched from airmail to passenger service. On 1 January 1953 it was again renamed, to Allegheny Airlines. Over the next two decades the airline expanded to include more destinations.
Like other local service airlines of the time, Allegheny was subsidized; in 1962 its operating revenues of $23.5 million included $6.5 million in "public service revenue".
In 1960, Allegheny headquarters were in Washington, D.C.
Allegheny added the Convair 540 to its fleet in 1961. The aircraft proved unreliable, incurring many problems with its British-made Napier Eland turbines that had replaced the Convair's piston engines. The airline bought new Fairchild F-27Js that the company named "Vistaliner". The F-27J was a U.S.-built version of the Fokker F27. The airline switched to General Motors/Allison turboprops in the Convair 580 which the carrier named the "Vistacruiser".
Allegheny Airlines was the first airline to create an network of affiliated regional airlines, the Allegheny Commuter System.
Contributing to Allegheny’s growth were the acquisitions of regional carriers Lake Central Airlines in 1968 and Mohawk Airlines in 1972. Mohawk added BAC One-Elevens to the fleet. Allegheny added other jets, notably the Douglas DC-9-30 which the company named the "Vistajet". Other jets included Boeing 727-100s and 727-200s and the Douglas DC-9-50.
As deregulation dawned, Allegheny, looking to shed its regional image, changed its name to USAir on October 28, 1979.
After Allegheny Airlines rebranded itself as USAir, the company retained its earlier name for its Allegheny Commuter service, later renamed US Airways Express.
Under USAir, which eventually renamed itself US Airways, the Allegheny name continued to be used by the parent company, keeping the trademark under US Airways' control. The Allegheny Commuter division was originally headquartered at the Reading Airport in Reading, Pennsylvania, and flew a large fleet of Short 330s and Short 360s, being the launch customer for the Shorts 360. It had three Fokker F27 "Friendship" turboprops, and was the last US operator of passenger F27s. After replacing much of its Shorts fleet, and retiring the F27s, it merged with another fully owned USAir subsidiary, Pennsylvania Airlines, headquartered at Harrisburg International Airport near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and the combined airline retained the historic name until its own merger with another wholly owned subsidiary, Piedmont Airlines. After retiring earlier aircraft, Allegheny, before and after its mergers, mainly flew De Havilland Canada Dash 8 turboprop aircraft to 35 airports in the northeastern United States, and eventually Canada, from hubs at Boston and Philadelphia. Its activities and Dash 8 fleet were incorporated into a regional airline, Piedmont Airlines, in 2004.
