As my Midwest Express flight pulled up to the gate at DFW last Thursday, I noticed a 737-300 in full USAir bare metal scheme colours parked next to us. I was really surprised to see that old livery - guess the plane hadn't made it to the paint shop yet! I would think USAirways would have rushed to have all its planes made over, though, because of the bad image USAir had.

Just an FYI here.  

I don't think that USAir had a bad image. Besides that, the name change is not to fix an image concern. No one will be fooled that US Airways is not USAir.

I think US repainted its planes that it intends to keep during a scheduled maintenance period. The planes were flown down to Mississippi where they were painted. At the latest, this occurred at a D check, but I think it happened most of the time during C checks.

The plane that you saw is possibly waiting for its repainting because it is scheduled to join the MetroJet fleet early next year.

I was wondering the same thing when I went to LGA about a month ago. I saw scores of MD-80's, DC-9's, 737-200's, a few 737-300's, even a couple of F-100's all still in USAir colors. Even all but one of the Shuttle 727's were still in the USAir colors. The only USAirways planes I saw were 737-300's, -400's, a 757, several F-100's and the Shuttle A320 and 727. There was also a DC-9 in a hybrid USAir/USAirways Shuttle livery. At LAX though, it's been awhile since I've seen a USAir 757 or 767. I'm guessing all of those have been repainted.
At least I was able to get all of the USAir fleet on film.

Is there any truth to the rumor that some of the MD80s infact will be painted in the new livery? I think the MD80 if painted would look fabulous. The Shuttle 727 looks amazing.

I have seen lots of USAir planes in the old colors when I visited FLL in October.

Hey D L X, do you know where in Mississippi they get their planes painted? Anywhere near Biloxi ?

I have no idea. In fact I can't remember where I heard that the painting facility was in MS. Do you know of one in MS?

BTW, the DC9s, 727s, 732s, and MD80s you saw at LGA in the old colors are/were the planes that are slated for retirement/conversion to MetroJet. I'm surprised you saw an F100 in old colors. I haven't seen one in a long time.
And an interesting note; I flew the US Shuttle to IAD last weekend and noticed that all of the 733s on the route were in new colors with "Shuttle" written on the side.

Yep, I saw F-100's in USAir colors a couple of times, when I was at LGA during the last week of October. I didn't see any of the 733's with Shuttle titles though. That must be a new thing.
On a separate note, did USAir ever fly any 727-100's in the final red/blue/silver livery? I have a pic of a -200 taken during my first trip to PHL in May of '94, but it's not all that great. I was still in "photo training" at the time.

I read this on the US Airways Pilots website:

"According to this projection the fleet count as of September 30 1999 was 405 aircraft which includes 11 727-200s operated on the Shuttle. By the end of 1999 the projected fleet count drops to 392 aircraft. This includes the addition of two A320s and seven A319s and the removal of seven 727-200s, five 737-200s, and 10 DC9s.

"The year-end total projected fleet count for 2000 is 418 aircraft. This projection includes the addition of seven A330s, 13 A320s, and 38 A319s and the removal of the remaining four 727-200s, 11 DC9s, and 17 737-200s.

"The year-end total projected fleet count for 2001 is 434 aircraft. This projection includes the addition of five A330s and 50 A319/320s, and the removal of the remaining 23 DC9s, 12 MD-80s, and four 767-200s."

http://www.usairwayspilots.org/MEC-Updates/Current-MEC-Updates/Nov_12_1999_code-a-phone.htm