Member

Joined: 27 Jun 2005
Posts: 333
Location: St. Louis, MO

Anybody have anything on the old US Air Indy hub circa the early to mid 1990's? Just curious.

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

Someone had posted on a.net that they had nearly 120 flights a day at one point. I think they were in the process of shutting down the hub when I moved to Indiana.

AirTran Reporter

Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 341
Location: Indianapolis

I think that is around the correct #. I remember flying IND-MCO direct on USAir in Oct. of 1990.

Member

Joined: 15 May 2006
Posts: 728
Location: West Lafayette, IN

Found some stuff on the web. Here's the results:


A bit about the express part of the hub from: http://www.psaairlines.com/cohist.asp

"On July 1, 1988 Jetstream International Airlines became a wholly owned subsidiary of USAir Group and Keith D. Houk joined Jetstream as President on December 19, 1988. Jetstream began feed service to USAir's Indianapolis hub on June 2, 1989 replacing Air Kentucky that had filed bankruptcy.

With the operational integration of Piedmont into USAir on August 5, 1989, Jetstream began operating all of its flights under the new name and colors of USAir Express. In October 1990, the maintenance base in Hagerstown, MD was moved to Indianapolis, IN thus upgrading Indianapolis from a line operation to a full maintenance facility and leaving Dayton as the other maintenance site.

Another big event for JIA was the November 27, 1991 finalization of an agreement to lease seven EMB-l20 aircraft, all of which were in service by June 1992. A galley and flight attendant introduced a new level of service along with the convenience of a lavatory. The EMB maiden flight was January 31, 1992, IND-MKE (Indianapolis to Milwaukee).

Primary maintenance for the 28-seat Brasilia was located at Indianapolis, as well as the crew domicile, with line maintenance in Dayton. The Indianapolis Airport constructed a new parking apron which accommodated up to seven Embraer and 18 J-31 aircraft at one time. Keith Houk was promoted to Vice President, USAir Express, in March 1992; however, he also continued to serve as President of Jetstream until the appointment of Richard Pfennig on May 6, 1992.

During the summer of 1992, several moves took place. In June 1992, Corporate Office moved, within Dayton, OH, from 6520 Poe Avenue to 3401 Park Center Drive. On August 15, 1992, the Indianapolis Administration office moved from Building 146 to the third floor of the Indianapolis Terminal where it remained until July 31, 1993 when Indianapolis administrative personnel moved to Dayton, OH."


Also, I found these interesting USAir related pictures:



From '86




From '66

http://www.airchive.com/Timeta...Air%20Compressed/ALmap7708.jpg

http://www.airchive.com/Timeta...Air%20Compressed/USmap8908.jpg
USAir route map from 1989, includes a regional route map from IND.

Isn't much help, but it was all I could find.

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

Dang. Bravo. Excellent work. I think thats great historic information. This way we can help preserve it.

Member

Joined: 15 May 2006
Posts: 728
Location: West Lafayette, IN

Well, it is what I could come up with during an hour of free time. I really want to see some IND hub pics, but I can't find them anywhere.

Member

Joined: 27 Jun 2005
Posts: 333
Location: St. Louis, MO

There's too many damned red lines there to really get all the destinations. Poo.

Member

Joined: 15 May 2006
Posts: 728
Location: West Lafayette, IN

Yeah, thats a pretty bad route map, but its the best I could find.

Member

Joined: 15 May 2006
Posts: 728
Location: West Lafayette, IN

Here's the routes I can pick out from the last route map.

Kansas City
Tampa
Evansville
Phoenix
Milwaukee
Charlotte
San Fransico
Denver
Los Angeles
Pittsburgh
Las Vegas

There are many more, but the eastern half of the U.S. is a big waste of red ink thats is impossible to read.

Express Cities:

Chicago
South Bend
Ft. Wayne
Decatur
Columbus
Dayton
Lexington

That makes 18 total cities, but I would imagine there are more to the East like BOS, DCA, and LGA, as well as more Florida routes, so the actually number of destinations is probably in the twenties or higher.

Member

Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 142
Location: IND

Danville, Ill. has an airport?

Look at all of the cities that have lost commercial service. WOW!

Member

Joined: 15 May 2006
Posts: 728
Location: West Lafayette, IN

Before deregulation, the CAB forced airlines to fly to small towns like that, seems pointless by todays standards though.

Member

Joined: 11 Jun 2006
Posts: 8
Location: Indianapolis

I also remember that there were flights to Boston, Laguardia, and Phoenix in the early to mid-90's. I think I may even remember Albuquerque.

I may have some old pictures from around 94 or so that I could scan. I'll look around.

Member

Joined: 15 May 2006
Posts: 728
Location: West Lafayette, IN

Nice, I really want to see some pics from back then.

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

I can tell you the number of flights per day were significant. I'll be posting more as I complete my research on the US hub. I do have some good info.

Member

Joined: 15 May 2006
Posts: 728
Location: West Lafayette, IN

What kind of research are you doing? Sounds big, can't wait to see it.

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

Digging up old news stories. Still have to make it back to the libary to go through about 3 years of news articles.

Member

Joined: 15 May 2006
Posts: 728
Location: West Lafayette, IN

I know you have been gone awhile, but the last post on this subject was in June. Any updates on your research indy?

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

I haven't been back downtown since that post. I know I need to get back.

Member

Joined: 27 Jun 2005
Posts: 333
Location: St. Louis, MO

At some point and time in the 1990's, US Airways Express service from Indianapolis had expanded to cities such as ...


Champaign
Peoria
Milwaukee
Kalamazoo
Akron/Canton
Evansville
Lansing
Grand Rapids
Nashville
Moline
Cleveland
Louisville
Toronto
Toledo


And yes Danville, IL has an airport.

Member

Joined: 27 Jun 2005
Posts: 333
Location: St. Louis, MO

Cities I remember seeing mainline service back in the day

Baltimore
Boston
Charlotte
Denver
Ft. Lauderdale
Ft. Myers
Kansas City
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
Miami
Newark
New York La Guardia
Orlando
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Pittsburgh
San Francisco
Washington D.C. National


Cities that received a mainline flight departing as the last flight of the day and cycling through Indianapolis the next morning as the first flight back through --

Evansville
South Bend
Grand Rapids

Cities that might have potentially had mainline service but I can't remember or confirm --

Jacksonville
Orange County
Dallas
Hartford/Springfield