US Airways (US/AWE) begins service between CLT (Douglas International Airport, Charlotte, NC) and HNL today using 767-200s. The CLT-HNL flight is listed as AWE807, and the HNL-CLT flight is AWE808.
This is the first direct flight from the eastern US by US Airways, and the first by the original US Airways. The US Airways flights between PHX and Hawai‘i are legacy flights from America West Airlines (AWE), before the USA/AWE merger. With their participation in the Star Alliance, this flight is code-shared as UAL1497.
Due to severe weather and strong headwinds over the southern half of the continental US, AWE807 has been diverted to LAX for a fuel stop, and is now scheduled to arrive at HNL around 1610HST. N251AY (c/n 24784), a 767-2B7ER, is seen above landing on Runway 26L at 1709HST, as the winds shifted today to "Kona Winds". AWE808 departed HNL for CLT at 1915HST.
It seems many of the USAirways flights are now using the America West callsign, "Cactus."
ReplyDeleteOGGturbojets, they all are actually. All US Airways flights, both "west" (pre-merger America West) and "east" (pre-merger US Airways) use the callsign "Cactus" and ICAO code AWE.
ReplyDeleteThanks, David. I happened to live in Phoenix back when America West started up. One of their pilots told me the "Cactus" callsign was chosen so ATC could differentiate between "American," and "Western." But there is also a legend that "Cactus" was one of the original names considered for the airline.
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