MidAtlantic Airways

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

MidAtlantic Airways was US Airways’ brief, jet-age side project: a regional operation conceived in 2002 from the remnants of Potomac Air and headquartered in the Pittsburgh area. It was initially announced as a wholly owned US Airways Group subsidiary, with offices planned near Pittsburgh International Airport in Findlay Township, Pennsylvania. The plan evolved, and MidAtlantic ultimately operated as a division of US Airways rather than as an independently certificated airline.

Scheduled service began April 4, 2004, flying in the US Airways Express network. MidAtlantic brought Embraer 170 regional jets into the mix—72-seat aircraft intended to bridge the awkward gap between tiny commuter planes and full-size mainline equipment. Its routes connected Pittsburgh and Philadelphia with cities around the eastern and central United States.

For a moment, it was a very early-2000s answer to airline economics: fresh aircraft, a new operating concept, and a name that sounded like it had been lifted from a departure board in a parallel universe. The operation also employed furloughed US Airways pilots and flight attendants under the carrier’s labor arrangements.

The experiment did not last. Effective May 27, 2006, certain MidAtlantic assets transferred to Republic Airways, which assumed operation of the aircraft as a US Airways Express affiliate. MidAtlantic’s flights and distinct identity then disappeared into the great airline-industry paperwork vortex.

Our MidAtlantic Airways collection celebrates the short-lived regional-jet dream: Pittsburgh grit, crisp early-E-Jet optimism, and a corporate ghost that boarded early, flew hard, and vanished before the overhead bins were full.