Things in the Sky

Today, US Airways announced that it would begin nonstop service between Philadelphia and Anchorage, running from June 1 to September 7, which is in addition to the airline’s existing year-round service from Phoenix. The airline notes that the flight “will be the only nonstop airline service to Alaska from the northeastern United States.” While it’s ture there are no other nonstops, Continental does offer direct service from Newark with a stop in Seattle each way on a 737-800.

US Airways is using a 757 with 12 First Class seats with 164 economy, so it looks like the aircraft is an ETOPS 757 equipped with winglets, which makes sense considering the length of the route – 3,379 miles. For comparison’s sake, that’s longer than the nonstop from Philadelphia to Dublin! That’s a good thing for premium passengers as the Envoy seat is nicer than US Airways’ first seat on domestic aircraft.

So, it appears that, like Delta, US Airways has been needing to find domestic routes for internationally-configured 757s.