colgan air

Colgan Air, Inc. is a regional airline headquartered in Manassas, Virginia with major bases at LaGuardia Airport in New York City and Pittsburgh International Airport in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Operating as U.S. Airways Express since 1999, it serves some 35 cities as a feeder for US Airways.

History

Charles J. Colgan founded fixed base operator Colgan Airways Corporation at Manassas Airport in 1965. It began scheduled service under contract with IBM in 1970 between Manassas, Washington, DC (Dulles International Airport), and Poughkeepsie, New York. It expanded over the next decade and a half and was sold in 1986 to Presidential Airlines. After Presidential went defunct in 1991, Colgan and his son, Michael J., restarted the service under the name Colgan Air. On July 1, 1997 it became a feeder for Continental Airlines, operating under the name Continental Connection. On December 11, 1999 Colgan left the Continental system and became exclusively a US Airways Express carrier, focusing its routes around major US Airways stations such as LaGuardia, Pittsburgh, and Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts. On January 25, 2005 it announced it would acquire additional Saab 340 aircraft and resume service as Continental Connection, out of George Bush Intercontinental Airport near Houston, Texas.