Former US Airways Top Exec, Who Defined The Airline, Turns 100 Today

BusinessAerospace & DefenseFormer US Airways Top Exec, Who Defined The Airline, Turns 100 TodayByTed Reed,Senior Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Charlotte-based reporter Ted Reed covers airlines and airline labor.Follow AuthorJun 09, 2026, 11:12am EDTThe tails of USAir, Northwest and American Airlines pass each other in July 2001 at ORD. (Photo by Tim Boyle)Getty ImagesEd Colodny, a towering postwar airline executive who presided over four significant mergers as he built US Airways into one of the country’s strongest regional airlines, turned 100 today.His plan for the day is to “relax and enjoy a martini,” Colodny said Monday, in a telephone interview from his home in Naples, Fla.” He attributes his long, active life to “good family genes and a wonderful wife and children.”The US Airways name was lost when the carrier merged with American Airlines in 2013.In 1957 Colodny joined Allegheny Airlines as assistant to the president and staff attorney. He was a 31-year-old lawyer, schooled in the complexities of a regulated airline industry. On his first day, he climbed the stairs to his office in Hangar 12 at Washington National Airport. “It was a very small office,” he recalled. During a 34-year career at the company, he was in charge from 1975 to 1991.He oversaw a 1968 merger with Lake Central Airlines, a 1972 merger with Mohawk Airlines and, in 1987, mergers with both Pacific Southwest Airlines, known as PSA, and Piedmont Airlines. The latter two followed the 1978 deregulation of the airline industry. Allegheny initially opposed deregulation, but under Colodny it became one of the major beneficiaries, surviving until the last round of major industry consolidation. The airline’s name changed from Allegheny to US Air in 1979 and to US Airways in 1997. Throughout his career, Colodny retained a reputation as an employee-focused executive, known as “Uncle Ed,” in a heavily unionized industry often characterized by bitte...