16th Nov 1989, the day America West inagurates 747 service.

Vintage VHS transfer of this important day in America West history. Starts off at Luke AFB, Arizona for the first few minutes of the video then goes to PHX airport for the America West footage.

[@herbertcarrillo-ramos3772]

How exciting to see everyone so excited to see a 747 take off from PHX back in the day .....when everyone truly used to appreciate aviation. Thx for sharing. Hugs to all in PHX from MIA HUB.

[@Jeanettesboxingchannel]

Saludos a MIA!!!

[@aeromoe]

Fun Fact: In early 1989 Northwest inaugurated daily 747-400 service MSP-PHX-MSP...the first 747-400 service in the world.

[@noell5684]

I grew up in Tempe, and have been right where you are in the video many times to watch planes. It's crazy to see the old tower, old skyline, Northwest & America West at the gate- AW was the first airline I remember flying. Thanks for posting!

[@sanspotter]

Wow - watching that HP 747 take off brings back tons of memories. That sound!! Thanks for the upload.

[@brkitdwn]

Now I want to see the filming at the gate, and the complete onboard experience.

[@BettinaBalser]

AWA, the little airline that could...very much missed indeed

[@thetwopointslow]

Thank you so much for sharing this, I grew up as an AWA brat in Phoenix as my dad flew for the airline. This brings back so many memories of America West and Phoenix

[@MrFlashjet]

Great memories of a classic - The Jumbo looks just tooo goood in the AW scheme! Bravo for shooting this history!

[@ArizonaCowboys]

a most beautiful sight! AW747 looked and sounded awesome

[@tomb4568]

Loved the HP 747 but what a BAD decision! Live and learn in this CRAZY industry! I miss HP and thank you HP for the many flight I took on you!

[@mrblujet]

This is a great video. Thanks for posting. I was born and raised in Phoenix and frequented PHX pick-up and dropping-off my Dad at Sky Harbor. This would have been my freshman year in high school and - unfortunately - wasn't able yet to drive to the airport myself to watch this stuff in person. Those America West 747s were a disaster for the airline.

[@brkitdwn]

Yes. Expensive to operate. But, to have the 747 in your fleet was a big deal. Passengers wanted to fly on bigger planes. I always certainly did.

[@747heavyboeing3]

Yes they were. The same with People Express

[@Jeanettesboxingchannel]

@@747heavyboeing3 Around that time but earlier of course, Delta and Eastern found them too big for their route structure too..

[@abathens]

Everyone loves the old Southwest cat-vomit brown livery ✈

[@j2simpso]

Didn't know AA introduced 747s in the late 80s always thought it was earlier!

[@aeromoe]

American Airlines (AA) did introduce them in the early 70s. This is America West (HP)

[@jeffreykoran4820]

WOW...I WAS ACTUALLY THERE HELPING TO LOAD LUGGAGE AND CARGO ON FIRST AWA 747 FLIGHT TO HONOLULU..

[@howardcod4]

I flew on it as it went from Phoenix to Las Vegas and then left from there I think to Japan. It was pretty full up to Vegas. Glad I flew it.

[@TheoneandonlyEETFUK]

This is so weird, terminal 4 wasn’t even up yet :)

[@airbusmikey831]

I was at the airport to watch this flight take to the skies.

[@michaeldouthitt5972]

The 74s that America West operated from 1989-92 were formerly owned by KLM.

[@aeromoe]

Yup: 747-206Bs

[@visionist7]

6:30 every time I see an American 762 I automatically wonder if it's the one hijacked on 9/11

[@doug9066]

Love the video

[@apieceofdirt4681]

747s never go out of style but those acid washed jeans do.

[@brkitdwn]

LOL

[@donb4301]

I was doing lots of Travel to Asia at the time and i was so excited when they announced Nagoya, I flew the route after the Japanese Government warned it's people to not fly on AWA because of the war. I think we had 25 people on that 747. Awesome flight but it was obvious that this route was bound to be cancelled. As I recall NW bought the rights. Dn't think they ever used them out of PHX

[@bestpilot98]

Was a frequent passenger on AWA back in the day. Memorable flights on the -200 include AUS-PHX-DRO-GJK, and LBB-MAF-PHX. Large(ish) "regional" jets are the norm these days at medium/large city's airports these days, but i miss seeing classic 737s, dc-9s, and 727s. Any footage of America West's rare Fokker 70?

[@aeromoe]

I didn't shoot any video of the Mesa / America West Express Fokker 70s. Photos yes. Video, no.

[@Jeanettesboxingchannel]

Was America West flying the Dash 8 mainline then? Cause I just noticed that it doesnt say Express...

[@aeromoe]

Yes...mainline HP DHC-8s. I flew one LAS-GCN-FLG-PHX back in Aug 1987.

[@michaelo1929]

27:40 for the big show

[@Frosty-iv9mj]

The tower looks so different 0.0

[@marvmoss4503]

my first visit to the states back in 1990 i purchased a flight ticket book which enabled 4 flights between any AW destinations for $159 !!...first flight was JFK to LAS on a 747. then from LAS to TUS via PHX..shortest flights i have ever had. on the way home it was from oakland to JFK on a 747 with no cabin service for entire flight cause of extreme turbulance..worst flight ever ! still have one of the 'wings' badges stewardesses wore which she gave me

[@aeromoe]

That was a great deal. One of my "worst mistakes" was not flying aboard one I was scheduled to fly on. I was on a buddy pass...when buddy passes cost $5 a segment and I'd flown in from BOS via LAS to PHX. I was booked on a late-night/early-morning 747 LAS-PHX and for some crazy stupid reason I opted for the earlier flight #110 a 757.

[@JAMESWUERTELE]

Did they ever fly these to Sacramento? I remember as a kid flying on a 747 to Sacramento at night, we only flew America West when I was growing up, because they flew Pueblo to Phoenix direct.

[@michaelo1929]

18:52-18:54 Lol

[@CJbrinkman602]

shooting that footage for later😉

[@aeromoe]

Yeah I must admit that was a bit "cheeky" (blushing with embarrassment)

[@stitch-xx2oo]

Did this 747 go to Honolulu?? And did america West use the 747 only on the Honolulu route?

[@aeromoe]

Yes...this was nonstop to HNL. They eventually had 4 ex-KLM 747-200Bs and they served PHX, LAS, HNL, JFK...maybe others too. They wanted to do a route to Japan but that never materialized. 747s gone in the early 90s.

[@stitch-xx2oo]

Didn't the America West 747s serve KLAX as well?. thanks!@@aeromoe

[@aeromoe]

I don't know if they did.@@stitch-xx2oo

[@aeromoe]

I guess the Nagoya route did materialize...however unsuccessfully ??

[@mrtodd3620]

How did America West build a cost effective infrastructure for maintenance and pilot training with so few 747s? Why did they choose the 747 instead of other options? 3/24/2020 Still waiting for an answer, 3 years later. 8/1/2020 Surviving through the virus. Still waiting.

[@hewhohasnoidentity4377]

It wasn't done in a cost effective way, but it wasn't designed to be. It was to increase the brand and profile of management. They successfully made the larger legacy carriers treat them as competition, thus upgrading AW from small regional carrier status. Then when US Airways was in financial distress the CEO of AW worked a merger that put him in charge of US Airways followed by a reverse merger to put him in charge of American. It was a case of right place right time and 90% luck.

[@mrtodd3620]

@@hewhohasnoidentity4377 That is really interesting. It is like there was a genius in the boardroom. Little startup America West now owns American!

[@kcindc5539]

I worked for HP at the time and can confirm the decision to fly the -47 was pure hubris, plane and simple (sorry for the pun). Ed/Mike felt they had something to prove as we were about to hit $1 billion in annual revenue which would officially categorize us as a major airline. But this decision was illogical and ill-fated right from the get-go. We eventually had four of them and bled money on low yield HNL and empty NGO segments. Ugh what a mess.

[@JustinLHopkins]

Did they fly non-stop for PHX-NRT?

[@JustinLHopkins]

aeromoe Thanks for the info.

[@kcindc5539]

Nope. We flew PHX-HNL-NGO. We tried for Tokyo but were awarded Nagoya

[@martinmayfield1932]

Rad.