note
Founded by Thomas Henry Davis as Piedmont Aviation a charter, maintenance and aircraft broker in Winston-Salem North Carolina. Airline can trace its history to Camel City Flying Service which was North Carolina distributor of Piper and Stinston aircraft. In July 1940 TH Davis became owner of the company and changed its name to Piedmont General Aviation. In 1943 Piedmont applied for passenger and cargo local airline service. Next five years Piedmont battled State Airlines and Eastern Air Lines for the routes. CAB awarded Piedmont certificate to operate passenger flights from North Carolina to Ohio valley in 1948. At this point TH Davis incorporated Piedmont Aviation as a separate airline company, part of Piedmont General Aviation Inc. Airline service commenced on February 20th 1948 with a Douglas DC-3 from Wilmington North Carolina to Cincinnati, with stops in Southern Pines, Charlotte, Ashville, Tri-Cities and Lexington. First turboprop service was with a Fairchild F-27 in November 1958. Jet service was introduced in 1967 with a leased Boeing 727. In 1984 Piedmont won industry's most coveted award - Airline of the year by ATW. Piedmont traditionally focused on mid atlantic and northeast, but before its merger with USAir in August 1989, Piedmont operated transcontinental service to the west coast as well as International flights to London (since 1987) with Boeing 767 aircraft. At the time of the merger, Piedmont was 6th largest airline in the U.S. and one of the most profitable and well managed.
founded - demised (age)
January 1 1948 - August 20 1989 (41)
headquarters
, Charlotte, NC
web
base airports
related operators
current /stored fleet (0)
