American retires its turboprops
It’s the last of the major airlines to do so.
One of American Airlines’ regional affiliates retired the last of its Bombardier Dash 8 last week, ending an era of turboprop flying at the USA’s biggest carriers.
American’s American Eagle affiliate Piedmont Airlines flew its final Dash 8 flight on July 4. The flight – operating as American Flight 4927 – took off from Charlotte and landed in Salisbury, Maryland, on Wednesday evening.
“The Dash 8 was one of those rare airplanes that stood out in a crowd,” Piedmont Capt. Michael Schirmann said in an American employee newsletter that included an update about the last Dash 8 flight.
“It had the performance and ability to handle tough weather conditions that, when paired with a skilled pilot, allowed it to routinely and safely complete flights that other airplanes simply couldn’t,” Schirmann continued. “From a pilot’s perspective, the Dash 8 was a lifelong friend that commanded respect and taught so many of us what flying was really about. It’s a friend that will be sorely missed.”
Phased out at the 4 big airlines
The retirement did more than usher the venerable Dash 8 out of the fleets of American’s regional affiliates; it also marked the last turboprop flight for the entire American brand. All of American’s flights – both mainline and regional – are now operated by jet aircraft.
“But it also marked the end of something much bigger,” adds Brett Snyder in his popular blog, The Cranky Flier. “There are no longer any propeller oper- ations at the country’s four big airlines.”
Delta had already phased out turboprops, and United did the same earlier this year. Southwest, which operates an all-Boeing 737 fleet, has never operated prop aircraft.
Still, while the phase-out echoes a broader trend among the USA’s biggest airlines, the retirement of the Dash 8 from American’s Piedmont unit is particularly poignant. By the 1990s, the Dash 8 had become a workhorse for USAir (later US Airways). The plane was ideal for feeder flights connecting small East Coast cities to the carrier’s hubs.
The Dash 8s continued flying into the
2000s for US Airways, eventually joining American’s regional operations after American and US Airways merged in
2013. American spent two years integrating the carriers, with the final flight under the US Airways name in 2015.
In its newsletter, American hinted at the scope of the company’s Dash 8 operations over the years, writing: “The Piedmont Dashes served 104 cities east of the Mississippi, and, little-known fact, flew for a brief time in and out of LAX in the early ’90s.”
Smaller airlines still flying them
While the Dash 8 turboprops have retired from American, you can still find a handful flying across the U.S.: Anchorage-based Ravn Alaska operates 10 Dash 8 Q100s. Alaska Airlines subsidiary Horizon Air operates a fleet of turboprops, Bombardier’s Q400. The aircraft is technically a current-generation update of the venerable Dash 8. Also nearby, Air Canada flies dozens of Dash 8 and Q400 models. But, for the USA’s biggest carriers, it’s now jets only.
Jeremy Dwyer-Lind-