Crown Airways

Short 330 of Henson Airlines in Allegheny Commuter livery.

Crown Airways was a regional airline operating for USAir Express with its headquarters on the grounds of DuBois Regional Airport in Washington Township, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, near Falls Creek.^[1][2]

A privately owned company, Crown Airways started as Allegheny Commuter in March 1969.^[2] By 1981, Allegheny Commuter was operating twelve French Nord 262 turboprops and three de Havilland Canada DHC-7 Dash 7 turboprops. Service was flown from Philadelphia, New York, Washington, DC and much of the northeast U.S..^[3]

Crown Airways was taken over in a leveraged buyout in 1990 by two of its executives, Albert Beiga and Philip Burnaman.^[4] Crown Airways ceased to exist as an independent entity in 1994 when it was purchased by Mesa Air Group.^[5]

Allegheny Commuter feeder airline code share service for Allegheny Airlines followed by USAir was also operated by several other air carriers primarily in the eastern and northeastern U.S. These airlines included Aeromech, Air Kentucky, Air East, Air North, Britt Airways, Chatauqua Airlines, Fischer Brothers Aviation, Henson Airlines, Pennsylvania Commuter Airlines, Pocono Airlines, Ransome Airlines, Southern Jersey Airways and Suburban Airlines. The Allegheny Commuter System created by Allegheny Airlines pioneered the practice of code sharing by smaller air carriers with larger airlines.

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