The last flight of the little airline that could - and did! takes off tonight. After that, MidAtlantic Airways and their outstanding Embraer 170 operations will be history... just one final parting gift from Old US management to the new US Airways - a rotten outsourcing contract with a junk airline replacing motivated mainline employees. Thanks a pantsful, Bruce.

:(

This is the saddest move that was the WORST move since I've become a frequent flyer (post 9-11.) As I saw the airline industry skid and slid downwards, I do correlate most of what we saw due to 9/11, SW popularity and growth, and the high price of oil.

But this fiasco and how these employees were treated only traceable to bad management, bad decisions, and shortsightedness. It's inexcusable. :td:

This is a sad story, having flown them quite a few times. We must admit and acknowledge, though, that almost all European and Pacific airlines are fully back. 9/11 had an almost equal effect on all major worldwide airlines (UA and AA weren't the only ones negatively affected).

The non-USA airlines tended to not live in the old calcified world of load factor, cut-cut-cut, etc. Non USA carruiers, instead, decided to come back energetically by doing almost nothing that did, or could have been perceived to have, make their customers pay for their sector problems.

It is really apparent that the USA airline industry has followed the USA automotive industry to offshore locations in terms of quality disparity.