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.
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.
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.
Following the crash near Roselawn, Indiana, longstanding problems with the ATR aircraft operating in some icing conditions were revealed by a whistleblower later fired by the airline. Unheeded Warning - The Inside Story of American Eagle Flight 4184 was published in July, 1996 by McGraw-Hill. The author, Stephen Fredrick, is the terminated whistleblower.
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.
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.
The American Eagle Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft (at March 2006):
*25
Bombardier CRJ 700 701ER
*39
Embraer ERJ-135 135-LR
*59
Embraer ERJ-140 140-LR
*108
Embraer ERJ-145 150-LR (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 , under the name of
Executive Air (for more information on
Executive Air, see below.)
**Also includes a single and 12 in addition to the 36 aircraft in the Executive Air fleet.
In March 2006, the average age of American Eagle fleet is 5.5 years.
Executive Air, which uses American Eagle's livery but is not part of American Eagle Airlines, uses
ATR 72 aircraft.
*
AAdvantage*
American Eagle page at American Airlines website*
American Eagle Airlines Embraer Fleet Age*
American Eagle Airlines Embraer Fleet Detail*
American Eagle Airlines Passenger Opinions
