What Happened to Piedmont Airlines? Why Piedmont Airlines Disappeared

Why did USAir pay $1.59 billion for Piedmont Airlines, a carrier that made money every year after deregulation, and then retire the name by 1989? Piedmont grew from one secondhand DC-3 into the seventh-largest carrier in the country, and then it was gone. Tom Davis started Piedmont Airlines in Winston-Salem in 1948 and named his planes Pacemakers. After 1978 it built hubs in Charlotte, Dayton and Baltimore, flying from smaller cities the big carriers had left, and in 1986 it carried more than 22 million passengers. The 1987 deal priced it at $69 a share in cash. From 1989 through 1992, USAir Group lost more than $2 billion. What this video covers: 1948: The first flight out of Wilmington and the Pacemaker names painted on each nose 1966: How a federal subsidy paid for short hops through the mountains 1982: Why Dayton spent $15 million to win a Piedmont hub 1987: The railroad stock agreement whose expiry started the bidding 1989 to 1993: Higher costs, too many hubs and low-fare rivals If you changed planes in Charlotte on Piedmont, tell us in the comments which city you flew from. Subscribe for careful histories of the airlines Americans once flew. Piedmont was not a failing airline. It was sold while it was still winning. Sources: USAir Group Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal 1993 - SEC EDGAR, 1994: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/70... Civil Aeronautics Board v. State Airlines, Inc., 338 U.S. 572 - U.S. Supreme Court, 1950: https://static.case.law/us/338/cases/0572-... U.S. Approves Merger of USAir and Piedmont - The New York Times, 1987: https://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/31/busines... Thomas H. Davis Dies at 81; Founder of Piedmont Airlines - The New York Times, 1999: https://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/24/arts/th... #PiedmontAirlines #USAir #PiedmontPacemaker #TomDavis #AirlineHistory #AirlineDeregulation #CharlotteDouglas #WinstonSalem #USAirways #DC3 Disclaimer: The voiceover used in this video was generated using AI.