Troubled legacy ends in last merger

US Airways bumped its way through rough buyouts, spotty service and inefficiencies in its 61-year history.

By BILL ADAIR

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 25, 2000

It's only 600 miles from Pittsburgh to Boston, but when Bill Sorbie piloted the route for Allegheny Airlines, it took seven stops. That's when the company earned its nickname: "Agony Airlines."

Sorbie's career soared as his employer struggled through four mergers, becoming USAir and later US Airways.

He had started flying twin-engine propeller planes to little steel towns, but by the time he retired in 1995, he was living on a nice boat in Tierra Verde and piloting Boeing 767s to London. The mergers had transformed his airline into the nation's sixth-largest carrier.

"They made us more of a major force in the industry," he said Wednesday.

But not enough of a force to survive on its own. Wednesday, Sorbie's former company announced it is being bought by United Airlines in deal valued at $11.6-billion that will create a global powerhouse, but one that would fly under United's control and under its name.

The news carried a sad irony for Sorbie and thousands of other past and current employees who survived the company's ups and downs. Their airline had trouble competing with other carriers because of lingering inefficiencies from its own mergers.

The mergers led to a mishmash of cities, labor contracts and airplane types that made the airline inefficient. Customer service was spotty.

For years, airline analysts have warned the company might not survive.

In the end, US Airways had to merge one last time.

Throughout its 61-year history, US Airways struggled to get in the big leagues.

It had humble beginnings in 1939 as All American Aviation, a tiny cargo company that went dive-bombing for packages in small towns in western Pennsylvania. The towns were too small for runways, so the planes dove toward odd contraptions shaped like football goalposts and snagged the packages with a big hook.

This was a great way to get respect from residents of the tiny steel towns. But in the meantime, big carriers such as American and United were establishing national reputations for first-class passenger service.

All American changed its name to Allegheny and began carrying people, but the company couldn't grow easily. Air service was tightly regulated by the federal government, which prevented Allegheny from serving the same long-haul routes as the big carriers.

Allegheny had to merge.

Some marriages worked well. Sorbie says that when Allegheny bought Lake Central Airlines in 1968, the employees blended because "Lake Central was a failing company and these guys were happy to have a job."

That was not the case after Allegheny's 1972 merger with Mohawk Airlines. The Mohawk pilots balked at the merger, stubbornly refusing to adopt some of Allegheny's rules and cockpit procedures.

"They wanted to keep doing things the Mohawk way," Sorbie said.

In the mid-1980s, when the company, then named USAir, bought North Carolina-based Piedmont Airlines, there was another culture clash.

"Some of those Southern boys still wanted to call themselves Piedmont on the radio, they had Piedmont stickers on their bags, they still wanted to wear the Piedmont uniform," Sorbie said.

To show their dislike of the new company, the pilots often drew the Piedmont logo in the cockpit of USAir planes. "There were a hell of a lot of cultural differences with that one," Sorbie said.

When Stephen Wolf took over USAir in 1996, his goal was to elevate the struggling airline into a major international force.

The inefficiencies from the mergers were a big reason why USAir had the highest operating costs in the industry. Many business travelers avoided the carrier because of its reputation for spotty service. Business travelers represent a relatively small share of total passengers, but they account for a large share of revenue because they often buy expensive, last-minute tickets.

Wolf, a finicky, detail-oriented man who had previously run United, believed USAir was on the verge of greatness. He gave the planes a stylish paint scheme and gave his company a global vision. He renamed it US Airways to make it sound more classy.

He brought a talented team of managers from United, struck new deals with his unions and consolidated offices and maintenance hangars. He made plans to buy a new fleet of Airbus planes, replacing the hodgepodge that dated to the Allegheny days. He started MetroJet, a low-cost service, to fight off an attack from Southwest Airlines, which had invaded US Airways cities such as Tampa and slashed fares.

Ultimately, though, Wolf couldn't grow fast enough to compete in the bigger-is-better global industry.

Although his company dominated many cities in the Northeast, it lacked the complete network that many business travelers wanted. US Airways did not serve many Western and Midwestern cities, it didn't fly to Asia, and it had relatively few European flights.

"On the East Coast, everybody was planning a major assault on US Airways. They were not a strong competitor," said Darryl Jenkins, a professor of airline economics at George Washington University in Washington.

"They had no global alliances and (few) international routes," Jenkins said. "They were just going to get eaten up on the East Coast."

So after Wolf finalized a new contract with his flight attendants about two months ago, he quietly negotiated a deal with United.

For Sorbie, the deal is bittersweet. He still refers to US Airways as "us," largely because his son Mike is now a pilot for the company.

"I'm going to be sad to see it go," Sorbie said. "But I think for the employee group, it's going to be a tremendous opportunity and a better future for everybody."

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