PHOENIX, June 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/—America West Airlines
(NYSE: AWA) held grand opening ceremonies today for its new $33-million,
164,000-square-foot Flight Center.

“America West`s new Flight Center provides state-of-the-art tools and
training systems to help our employees maintain the outstanding operational
performance they`ve worked so hard to achieve,” said W. Douglas Parker,
chairman and chief executive officer, at today`s grand opening ceremony.  “Our
pilots, flight attendants and SOC employees assisted in the design and
development of the facility to best meet their needs.”

“We`re thrilled to have such a fantastic facility in Phoenix,” commented
Phoenix Mayor Skip Rimsza during the grand opening ceremony.  “America West is
Phoenix`s hometown airline, so its long term growth is important to the future
of the city.”

The facility incorporates the latest computerized training and
flight-management tools and accommodates introductory and recurrent training
for more than 1,650 America West pilots and 2,400 flight attendants.  The new
Flight Center is home to the airline`s pilot and flight attendant training
departments, system operations control center, maintenance operations control,
crew scheduling and flight standards departments.  Approximately 250 America
West employees work in the Flight Center.

The Flight Center is home to seven full-motion flight simulators with
capacity for expanding to 10 simulators and 20 classrooms fully equipped with
state-of-the-art multi-media technology.  The facility is located in Phoenix
at Sky Harbor Center at the northwest corner of the intersection of Buckeye
Road and the Papago Freeway (Interstate 10).  America West broke ground on the
Flight Center in November 2000.  The installation of the first simulator began
in January 2002.

The grand opening ceremony was attended by America West officers,
employees, America West union leadership, City of Phoenix officials, community
leaders and representatives of Smith Group and Benham Group, the architects,
and W.E. O`Neil, the general contractor for the building.

America West Airlines, the nation`s eighth-largest carrier, serves
88 destinations in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.  America West Airlines is a
wholly owned subsidiary of America West Holdings Corporation, an aviation and
travel services company with 2001 sales of $2.1 billion.

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