US Airways Planes' New Look Reflects Practicality, Heritage

The new look isn't so much of a departure from the current appearance that it will require massive redesign inside the terminals. Executives wanted to keep the changes to a minimum to save costs on redoing ticket counters, airport gates and other facilities.

The redesign does not extend to inside the cabin, where the configuration and legroom will remain unchanged, said Scott Kirby, America West's executive vice president of marketing and sales.

While the new airline will offer East Coast travelers more flights to Las Vegas, Phoenix and Hawaii, don't expect additional transcontinental flights to San Francisco or the Los Angeles area. The airline plans to focus mainly on cities where it has hubs or major operations such as Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Washington's Reagan National Airport.

"Other destinations have become intensively competitive and fuel prices make them uncomfortable," Kirby said. "We are going to concentrate on our core strengths and areas where we think we will be profitable even with high fuel prices."

Northwest Update: Northwest Airlines said it continued to operate under normal conditions yesterday after its 4,400 mechanics and aircraft cleaners walked off their jobs Saturday.

Northwest spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch declined to comment on the number of delays and canceled flights, but said the airline's operations were "consistent" with other days this month.

The airline spent about 18 months preparing for the walkout and is using workers laid off from other airlines to replace the strikers.

The Federal Aviation Administration is not "seeing anything unusual in regards to delays or cancellations," agency spokesman Paul Takemoto said. "Things are running smoothly and the planes are in air-worthy condition."

Takemoto said Northwest's replacement workers were taking a "little bit longer" to work on the aircraft, but the FAA was not seeing a spike in delayed or canceled flights.

On Sunday, the FAA said Northwest's planes were about 78 percent full, which is about normal for this time of year.

Question of the Week: Have you flown Northwest during the strike? Do you have plans to do so in coming days? If so, we want to hear from you. What are your thoughts on the airline's operations? Has it improved, worsened or remained the same during the strike? Send your comments to alexanderk@washpost.com . And don't forget to include your name and a daytime telephone number.