Domestic US travelers flying American Airlines will often come across the ‘American Eagle’ brand; in fact, it’s hard not to. More than 3,000 flights a day take off across North America, connecting hundreds of airports.
But as well as the American Eagle branding often mentioned on the booking information, passengers might also notice ‘operated by…’ followed by an airline name. That flight could be ‘operated by PSA Airlines as American Eagle,’ or it could be Republic Airways, or any one of another four carriers most people won’t have heard of.
But these aren’t little five-plane operations – some of these airlines are huge. SkyWest, for example, puts its name to more than 500 aircraft, all regional jets. They don’t all fly for American Airlines though, as it also operates regional flights for Alaska, Delta, and United.
Three of the airlines are wholly owned subsidiaries of American Airlines. The other three are contractors. In all, more than 600 aircraft fly under the American Eagle brand. Here’s what you need to know.
The American Airlines owned subsidiaries
Three airlines are wholly owned by the American Airlines Group: PSA Airlines, Envoy Air, and Piedmont Airlines. PSA and Piedmont were soaked up by US Airways as it grew – and ultimately USAir became American Airlines. But Envoy was an American Airlines homegrown, sort of. Let’s take a look at each.
PSA Airlines
PSA Airlines has a storied history, founded as Vee Neal Airlines in 1979, operating a single Cessna 402 between Latrobe and Pittsburgh. Flourishing after deregulation, it changed its name to Jetstream International Airlines (JIA) in 1983, after the aircraft it was operating – the BAe Jetstream 31.
Struggling financially, it made a deal with Piedmont Airlines to operate flights under its Commuter brand. In 1986, Piedmont bought Jetstream, and then in 1987, USAir bought Piedmont. The rest, as they say, is history.
Its final name change is interesting, though. Around the time Jetstream stopped operating its Jetstreams, in 1995 USAir changed its name to Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA). Why? Because USAir owned the Pacific Southwest Airlines brand, but the airline had long since been absorbed into the mainline. This way, it could protect the brand.
Today, PSA operates a fleet exclusively of Bombardier regional jets, with 143 aircraft in total. Its CRJ-700s are the older aircraft, with an average fleet age of 18.8 years, while the CRJ-900s average just 8.7 years, according to planespotters.net.
Around 800 flights a day take off with PSA aircraft, connecting almost 100 destinations across the United States. Although it’s headquartered at Dayton, it has crew bases at Charlotte, Philadelphia, Reagan National and Dallas Fort Worth.
Piedmont Airlines
Founded in 1961 as Henson Aviation, and later Henson Airlines, this unassuming startup in Hagerstown, Maryland, was a trailblazer in something we take for granted today – codesharing. Henson, with Allegheny Airlines, began one of the earliest known codesharing arrangements in 1967.
After deregulation, Henson started providing regional passenger feed for the blossoming Piedmont Airlines (the original), and was eventually bought by Piedmont in 1983 and rebranded as ‘Henson, The Piedmont Regional Airline’. Four years later, USAir soaked them both up.
For a while, the Piedmont name disappeared, but in 1993 USAir took it upon themselves to rebrand Henson to Piedmont Airlines. Why? You guessed it: to protect the brand it had previously bought. Under US law, brand names can be reused by others if they’re not used in trade for a period of time.
Although it has 93 aircraft registered to the fleet, 33 of the oldest aircraft are parked up at Marana Pinal Airpark (MZJ) and have been for some time. 60 aircraft remain active, though most of these are no spring chickens. The youngest is 19.5 years old.
Piedmont has a busy operation too, flying around 400 services a day to more than 55 destinations. At several airports, including Pitt-Greenville, Watertown International, and Salisbury Regional, it is the exclusive operator there.
Envoy Air
If you’re looking for the origins of the American Eagle brand, look no further than Envoy Air. It all started with deregulation, when US air carriers moved from working closely with regional operators to fully outsourcing all their regional operations. This included sharing branding and even booking systems with the mainline airline.
American Airlines’ parent AMR Corp established the American Eagle brand in 1984, contracting operators to use the new brand to bring passengers into its hubs. Various airlines worked under the American Eagle brand, including Metroflight, Air Midwest, Air Virginia (later AVAir), Chaparral Airlines, Command Airways, Simmons Airlines, and Wings West.
Through the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, AMR Corp bought and merged these small regional carriers to consolidate its operations. By 1998, there were just two – American Eagle Airlines, and Executive Airlines. AMR Corp filed for bankruptcy in 2011, taking Executive Airlines with it. Just American Eagle Airlines remained.
In 2014, American wanted to have other regional carriers operating its services under the American Eagle brand, but knew that the name of its regional carrier would cause confusion. It undertook to rename American Eagle Airlines as Envoy Air, paying homage to ‘Envoy Class’, the business class product of US Airways.
The contractor airlines
Alongside American’s own regional carriers, three airlines work under contract to provide regional connectivity. SkyWest is the biggest, with hundreds of aircraft at its disposal, while Air Wisconsin has just a few dozen. Rounding out the three is Indianapolis-based Republic Airways. Let’s take a look at each.
SkyWest Airlines
SkyWest’s story begins in Utah in 1972, when businessman Ralph Atkin bought Dixie Airlines with the intent to fly businesspeople to Salt Lake City. His endeavors paid off, and when it purchased Sun Aire Lines in 1984, SkyWest became the 11th largest regional airline in the US.
Having codeshared with Western Express in the mid ‘80s, when Western was bought and merged into Delta in 1987, it became a Delta Connection airline. Through the ‘90s, SkyWest flourished, launching regional services for United Airlines and Continental. It acquired ExpressJet in 2010 for $133 million, and began operating for Alaska Airlines in 2011.
It arrived at the American Eagle brand in November 2012 with capacity purchase agreements with American for 12 CRJ200. It introduced larger CRJ-700/-900 aircraft in 2016, with Embraer 175s joining the American Eagle system in 2021.
Planespotters.net lists 582 aircraft registered to SkyWest, although around 100 are noted to be parked. Nevertheless, it’s a huge fleet, much bigger than JetBlue or Spirit. With operations ongoing for United, Delta, Alaska and American, as well as its own charter services, there’s some incredible organization going on there.
According to its annual report from 2023, its fleet operational for American Eagle numbers 106 aircraft. This includes 86 CRJ-700 and 20 Embraer 175. It operates 1,800 flights per day, around 20% of which are American Eagle, and carried 38.6 million passengers in 2023.
Republic Airlines
Republic has a somewhat confusing history. Its parent company, Republic Airways Holdings, can trace its roots back to the purchase of a carrier called Chautauqua Airlines in 1998. Chautauqua flew under the Allegheny Commuter service and later as USAir Express. Ultimately, it was absorbed by Shuttle America, also a Republic Airways Holdings company.
So what does this have to do with Republic? Well, the holding company registered a subsidiary called ‘Republic Airline, Inc.’ in 1998. It chose the name because it felt the brand ‘Republic’ still had some credibility with local people. That was despite the original Republic Airlines having been absorbed into Northwest in the mid ‘80s.
The subsidiary had no activity for years, and just sat as an empty entity until Chautauqua Airlines ran into trouble. It had begun flying 70-seat ERJs for United Airlines, which violated the pilot union scope clause. To remedy the situation, the holding company activated its sleeping brand, naming it Republic Airways and, once it got its Part 121 in 2005, allowing commercial flying to resume.
Shuttle America, the company Chautauqua had merged with, was itself merged into Republic Airways in 2017. Today, it operates more than 900 daily flights across the US and Canada on behalf of American, United and Delta. Its fleet of 208 aircraft is split roughly equally between the carriers, with around 75 dedicated to American Eagle.
Air Wisconsin
Right now, if you get an American Eagle flight, you might see ‘operated by Air Wisconsin’ on your ticket. But that’s going to change soon, as the airline announced in early 2025 that it would be ending its capacity purchase agreement in April. It will instead be pursuing independent operations in charter and Essential Air Service flights.
In the meantime, you could still catch a flight on one of its Bombardier CRJ-200s operating as American Eagle. It has a fleet of 62, but 25 of these are parked at Roswell (ROW) and are unlikely to come back. You’ll find Air Wisconsin mostly in Chicago O’Hare (ORD) although it also has crew bases in Dayton (DAY) and Milwaukee (MKE).
Over the years, numerous other airlines have flown for American Eagle. Most recently, Mesa Airlines flew routes for the brand until 2023 when it transferred all its services exclusively to United Express. Others include Compass Airlines, ExpressJet, Trans State Airlines and Wings West.
