American Eagle Airlines

American Eagle Airlines is an airline based in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. It is a regional airline partner of American Airlines (both wholly owned by AMR Corporation), operating over 1,600 flights a day, serving 140 cities across the USA, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. It is considered to be the world's largest regional airline system. Like its partner, American Airlines, American Eagle is an affiliate member of the oneworld alliance. American Eagle also has a codesharing agreement with Northwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and Continental Airlines.

History

American Eagle was conceived in the mid-1980s as a collection of regional carriers with contracts to carry the American Eagle brand name and started operations on 1 November 1984. The first of these was Command Airways (or Command Airlines) and was based at Dutchess County Airport in Wappinger, New York. The operation there included a maintenance facility. Other carriers included Avair, Simmons Airlines, Wings West Airlines, Metro airlines and Chaparral Airlines. In the mid-1990s, these carriers were purchased by American and combined to form Flagship Airlines dba American Eagle. Executive Air was not merged into American Eagle, and it still provides American Eagle service by contract, although it is wholly owned by American Eagle. American Eagle launched its first jet service in May 1998 from Chicago to Cleveland, Cincinnati and Milwaukee using Embraer ERJ-145 aircraft. Business Express was acquired in March 1999 and integrated in December 2000.

American Eagle's flights from Los Angeles International Airport are codeshared by Continental Airlines, and are under the Delta Connection name for Delta Air Lines.

Incidents and accidents

In 1988, an American Eagle Metroliner crashed in Indiana killing all 12 people onboard.

The airline suffered two fatal crashes during 1994. In October an ATR-72 aircraft crashed during a snowstorm near Roselawn, Indiana, killing all 68 people aboard. In December a Jetstream 32 aircraft crashed while landing at Raleigh, North Carolina, killing 15 people.

On May 9th, 2004, an ATR-72 crashed while landing in San Juan, Puerto Rico. No passegers were killed but at least 13 passengers and crew suffered serious injuries.

An Embraer 145 en route NW Arkansas (XNA)-Chicago (ORD) (AA4348) slid off the runway as it was landing at Chicago O'Hare on May 2th,2006. Smoke was seen coming from the landing gear ; the aircraft ended up in the grass about 25 feet off the edge of Runway 22R.

Hubs

American Eagle operates from hubs in Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago-O'Hare, Miami, Los Angeles, New York LaGuardia, Boston-Logan, San Juan Luis Munoz Marin International Airport (Executive Air) and San Jose. (American's other hub, St. Louis, is served by AmericanConnection rather than American Eagle.)

American Eagle also operates a maintenance facility at Abilene Regional Airport in Abilene, Texas.

Destinations

Fleet

The American Eagle Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft (at March 2006):

25 Bombardier CRJ 700-701ER
39 Embraer ERJ-135LR
59 Embraer ERJ-140LR
108 Embraer ERJ-145LR (further 8 on order)
38 Saab 340B (American Eagle is phasing this aircraft out of its fleet; Abilene Regional Airport serves as the storage facility for the retired aircraft)
36 ATR 72-Super ATR, under the name of Executive Air (for more information on Executive Air, see below.)

In March 2006, the average age of American Eagle Airlines fleet is 5.3 years .

Executive Air, which uses American Eagle's livery but is not part of American Eagle Airlines, uses ATR 72 aircraft. American Eagle Services Killeen-Fort Hood Regional Airport. They provide nonstop flights to Dallas Fort Worth International (DFW) where passengers may connect to another flight.

External links

Airlines of the United States | American Airlines | Worldperks | Oneworld affiliate members

American Eagle Airlines | アメリカン・イーグル | American Eagle