US Airways is whistling the favorite tune of its biggest stockholder: Sweet Home Alabama.
The Retirement Systems of Alabama, which invests pension funds for public employees in the state, invested $240-million to help get the company out of bankruptcy. The pension fund now owns 37 percent of US Airways' stock and 70 percent voting control.
When the airline contracted out heavy maintenance of its Airbus A319 jets, executives picked Mobile Aerospace of Mobile, Ala. The work is on hold pending the outcome of a lawsuit filed by the International Association Machinists, which represents US Airways mechanics.
Now US Airways has more business ties to the state. The airline is selling package golf tours to the courses on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, a chain of 23 courses at eight locations that's owned by the retirement system.
US Airways also is offering its Dividend Miles members double miles for flights to four Alabama cities through Jan. 31 and discounts on its flights to the retirement system's 300,000 members.
Alabama and the retirement system are returning the favors. Gov. Bob Riley last month designated US Airways the official airline of Alabama tourism. The state puts information about US Airways in its tourism brochures.
The airline also is getting free ads from pension fund-owned Raycom Media and Community Newspaper Holdings, which owns 36 television stations and newspapers in 200 communities.
The cross-promotions give US Airways a leg up in a state dominated by rival Delta Air Lines, said Ben Baldanza, the airline's senior vice president for marketing and planning. US Airways replaced turboprops with regional jets and added flights in Alabama, he said, but isn't ready to fly full-size jets there.
Pension fund chairman David Bronner, who is also US Airways chairman, asked the airline to consider starting a nonstop route between Montgomery, the state capital, and Reagan Washington National Airport. When the numbers didn't work, Baldanza said, Bronner didn't balk.
"He's never asked us to do anything that's not in the interest of US Airways," he said.
