Piedmont Airlines (IATA: PI, ICAO: PAI, Call sign: PIEDMONT) was a major airline in the United States which operated from 1948 until it was acquired by and merged into USAir in 1989. Its headquarters were at One Piedmont Plaza in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, a building that is now part of Wake Forest University.

In April 1989, shortly before it merged into USAir, Piedmont had 22,000 employees. In September 1988, it flew to 95 airports from hubs in the eastern United States; its commuter and regional affiliates flew turboprop aircraft via code sharing agreements to 39 more.

The company that would become Piedmont Airlines was founded by Thomas Henry Davis (1918 – April 22, 1999) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1940, when Davis purchased Camel City Flying Service and changed the name to Piedmont Aviation. Piedmont originally operated as an airplane repair service and a training school for pilots in the War Department Civilian Pilot Training Program. In 1944, Davis filed an application to run a passenger flight service in the southeast. After several years of lobbying government agencies and fighting legal challenges from other airlines, Piedmont received authorization on January 1, 1948. The first flight, from Wilmington, North Carolina to Cincinnati, was on February 20, 1948.

Davis grew up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. As a child, he loved airplanes and often used his allowance to take flying lessons. He took pre-med classes at the University of Arizona. At the same time, he worked as a part-time flight instructor.

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