Pittsburgh International Airport Ranked One Of The Best Yet Again (Philadelphia: appointed, transfer to)

[TheYO]

Originally Posted by dastars

But they're exclusively domestic; Wow was a nice option for Europe or actually going to Iceland if cost was a concern or you're a low-frills traveler.

Spirit flies all over the Caribbean and even as far as Lima, Peru. You have a layover in Ft. Lauderdale for all of those though. Frontier flies to Cancun, but not out of PIT. They also recently added a codeshare with Volaris for other destinations in Mexico, but again, nothing direct from PIT.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by amattaro

Spirit, Frontier, and Allegiant still around for now, so the low-cost (until you do anything beside sit on the plane), unreliable airline options are still plentiful.

I'd rather pay the extra $100 or even more to not deal with those shady carriers myself.

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by bradjl2009

I'd rather pay the extra $100 or even more to not deal with those shady carriers myself.

What makes you say they’re shady?

Baggage charges, no free peanuts or drinks, cheap fares, etc...?

Extremely curious as I recently flew Southwest and the seat comfort level was extremely similar to a recent Spirit (claim to have newest planes in the business) flight and the free drink and snack were extremely small. Other than baggage charges I’m not seeing a difference these days. Granted my recent trips have been back and forth from Florida due to me now being a snowbird so I can’t speak for many other recent destinations...and my Southwest flight was delayed due to a mechanical issue.

[WhoIsStanwix?]

Originally Posted by erieguy

What makes you say they’re shady?

Baggage charges, no free peanuts or drinks, cheap fares, etc...?

Extremely curious as I recently flew Southwest and the seat comfort level was extremely similar to a recent Spirit (claim to have newest planes in the business) flight and the free drink and snack were extremely small. Other than baggage charges I’m not seeing a difference these days. Granted my recent trips have been back and forth from Florida due to me now being a snowbird so I can’t speak for many other recent destinations...and my Southwest flight was delayed due to a mechanical issue.

Allegiant is known to have a poor maintenance and reliability record and are flying very old aircraft. In addition, none of the low cost carriers offer much in the way of options should your plans get botched due to either weather or carrier-induced issues.

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by WhoIsStanwix?

Allegiant is known to have a poor maintenance and reliability record and are flying very old aircraft. In addition, none of the low cost carriers offer much in the way of options should your plans get botched due to either weather or carrier-induced issues.

Sounds like a reason to stay away from Allegiant, although I did recently hear about them buying new planes, and I would look into what options are available for plans being “botched”, but doesn’t sound like anything “shady” going on with all of them.

[gg]

Originally Posted by WhoIsStanwix?

Allegiant is known to have a poor maintenance and reliability record and are flying very old aircraft.

I have to go to and from Florida all the time and to be honest this has not been my experience. I have been flying Delta with the damn layover in ATL for years, but I recently decided to fly Allegiant. The plane was newer, the flight attendants were very nice and the flights have been fine. I am now flying Allegiant as much as I can because no layover to SRQ.

I think the media had it in for them for some reason, but they are not trustworthy at all. To be honest my last two trips with Allegiant have been better than my Delta flights for the most part. Although Delta gave me two free drinks because a dog was barking constantly during a flight. I was happy as a clam about that.

[pittsburghaccuweather]

I remember USAirways. They once had 600 flights a day from Pittsburgh. Nearly 12,000 people were employed by them in the Pittsburgh area.

Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy set a good leadership example in the early 2000s by driving to Cleveland airport to take a cheaper flight. The Republican county executive refused to negotiate lowerlanding fees at Pit. Both made local news headlines at the time

The hub was relocated to Charlotte in 2003 and by 2005 nearly 10,000 jobs were lost and moved to Charlotte or Philly. Homes near where my parents live in moon didn’t sell for nearly 2 years. All Usair employees that lost their job and relocated.

In 2018 we want to spend a billion dollars to downsize the airport the same size as the original terminal that was demolished in 1991. Hopefully we can eclipse 200 flights a day in the near future. As long as the low cost cheap airlines such as WOW, allegiant and spirit don’t end flights when the tax payer subsidies dry up we should be ok. Southern airlines leads the airport in daily departures to economic boom towns such as Morgantown, Jamestown, Hagerstown and Harrisburg.

My what a difference and how far we have come since this airport opened in 1992

[gg]

Originally Posted by pittsburghaccuweather

I remember USAirways. They once had 600 flights a day from Pittsburgh. Nearly 12,000 people were employed by them in the Pittsburgh area.

Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy set a good leadership example in the early 2000s by driving to Cleveland airport to take a cheaper flight. The Republican county executive refused to negotiate lowerlanding fees at Pit. Both made local news headlines at the time

The hub was relocated to Charlotte in 2003 and by 2005 nearly 10,000 jobs were lost and moved to Charlotte or Philly. Homes near where my parents live in moon didn’t sell for nearly 2 years. All Usair employees that lost their job and relocated.

In 2018 we want to spend a billion dollars to downsize the airport the same size as the original terminal that was demolished in 1991. Hopefully we can eclipse 200 flights a day in the near future. As long as the low cost cheap airlines such as WOW, allegiant and spirit don’t end flights when the tax payer subsidies dry up we should be ok. Southern airlines leads the airport in daily departures to economic boom towns such as Morgantown, Jamestown, Hagerstown and Harrisburg.

My what a difference and how far we have come since this airport opened in 1992

I believe this is accurate, so it should be noted. I miss those days believe me. I loved having a hub here as you could fly everywhere. USAir is GONE, so it was going to be out of here no matter what anyway.

Our airport is lousy for the most part, but I was spoiled with a hub when I was young and flying everywhere. It sucks now. You never know, it might rebuild. Pittsburgh is doing better and better as it is still cheap and an "in" city. Lets hope for the best.

[pittsburghaccuweather]

Originally Posted by gg

I believe this is accurate, so it should be noted. I miss those days believe me. I loved having a hub here as you could fly everywhere. USAir is GONE, so it was going to be out of here no matter what anyway.

Our airport is lousy for the most part, but I was spoiled with a hub when I was young and flying everywhere. It sucks now. You never know, it might rebuild. Pittsburgh is doing better and better as it is still cheap and an "in" city. Lets hope for the best.

All of that is 100 percent accurate! It sounds jerky, but that is truth. I agree USAir would’ve left eventually anyways. Pittsburgh was a hub due to USAir being born here. It had nothing to do with local demand or business traffic. If you google articles written by airport experts you will see they agree Pittsburgh becoming a hub was a business mistake by USAir. Basically a footnote that other airlines won’t ever follow. The Pittsburgh hub in the new airport never made money for USAir. It was a money loser. Selfishly I miss all of those opinions as well. It was great to have the destinations of Atlanta or Detroit airports right here. Even though it cost more for tickets it was a lot better service

Old Pittsburgh airport was 53 gates. USAir didn’t want a new airport in Pittsburgh and said so in the mid to late 80s. They wanted to pay to renovate old Pitt airport and even stated the gates were underutilized due to age. Tom Forrester and the other county commissioners at the time kept pushing. USAir then got a new CEO and struck a deal for the new airport. They demolished white swan park at the 376 business split which was a local icon to build the hiway currently in place. The ceo agreed to a huge airport where they had 95 percent of the flights and footed the entire bill. Pitt was designed to have 30 to 40 million passengers a year. In 1997 it peaked at 21 million passengers. The highest landing fees in the nation for a long time. Pitt never made money because the local originating traffic couldn’t support all of those destinations. Hence it became a connector for everybody else. And the time it took people to connect at an airport in flyover country cost more than placing the hub in a large city or a growing city that could support the destinations locally. Time was money on that one.

There are a lot of destinations subsidized at Pitt today. Most of them will end when those subsidies run out. Some may stay who knows. I wouldn’t bet on it though. I remember watching the small USAir planes depart from concourse E which was demolished in 2009. Now I see the airlines we have serving the airport and destinations and daily departures. We are a very far cry from the good old days in the late 90s and just pre 911. That airport was buzzing and a big postive for a hard luck city at that time

[Geeo]

I remember how people complained about the high ticket prices from Pittsburgh when it was a hub and USAir had no competition. Yes, you could get to many more cities, but it cost you. Now, prices are lower (and the overall flying experience is terrible everywhere).

You can only have so many hub airports in this part of the country. Within an hour we have hubs in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Newark, JFK, and Washington. Denver, Atlanta, and Charlotte are the only sizable cities for hundreds of miles, so they can be hubs because they have a larger "catchment" area.