Pittsburgh Int'l Airport slipping slipping slipping.. (Butler, Denver: how much, restaurants, shops)

[ditchdigger]

I have more thougts on the subject that I will share in the morning. In the mean time, I have to go keep the airline flying.

The following isn't any form of personal criticism or challenge to you, South, just an observation--From my experience, it's rare to find anybody connected with USAir that has anything nice to say about them, so this should be interesting.

[Heit]

Originally Posted by Hopes

Our politicans should be actively working on finding replacement airlines. It's going to hurt Pittsburgh's economy to no longer be a transportation hub for the region. For example, I recall American Eagle stating in a newspaper article that the airport and the fact employees could easily fly out to stores across the US was a main reason for locating the company in Pittsburgh.

HA! If this situation or ANY other is left up to ANY politician it will be a LOST CAUSE.

[South Range Family]

I guess the easiest way to keep my thoughts organized is to start with the past, and work through the present, and future.

When all of the crap was hitting the fan, I always heard that most if not all of the debt was repaid, and then the County refinanced it. That was from casual conversations with union officials. How the details were worked out, I don't know.

Let's start out in the late 70's early 1980's. Our CEO was a visionary named Ed Colodny. He loved Pittsburgh, and was willing to spend every penny here. His plan was to grow the airline, and the station. He is the one that came up with a new airport design to meet those needs. It took all of the 80's to get the plans, financing, and then the actual construction. The new airport opened in 1992. As the dominant airline we took on many responsiblities. We paid for security at every gate and entrance to the airport. We paid for, and maintained the miles of baggage belts that everybody used. We built, maintained, and manned the de-icing booms that everybody used. We were the ones that were called for mandatory overtime in the booms. That was the only time that we could be forced to work overtime.

Pit was our fortress hub. Just like Atlanta is for Delta, and Minneapolis is for Northwest. All airlines have a fortress hub. The ticket prices are higher there, but there is the convenience of nonstop flights several times a day to any city in the Country that make the extra price worth while. For some reason Pittsburghers thought that they were special, and were the only ones paying premiums at a fortress. Your own lousy Mayor made a big show of driving to Cleveland to save a few bucks. He didn't mention the cost of a driver, gas, parking, and time, but he still put on a big show. That's when the USAir bashing became a favorite passtime for the locals.

Anyhow, Colodny was forced to retire when he turned 65. Our hopes, and dreams pretty much retired with him. His replacement was a baggage smasher that was being rewarded for marrying a board member's ugly daughter. He didn't have enough business experience to run a billion dollar company. He also owed favors to the State of North Carolina. He started closing our shops in Pit, and moving the work to Clt. This is where I should point out that an airline is actually two companies under one name. There is the actual flying, and passenger side of the company, and then there is the maintenance side.

Pilots, and flight attendants are a small portion of transient employees in a city. They don't do much for a tax base. Mainteneance is where the money is for a city. In 1995 there were several thousand of us making $30 an hour living right here in the Pittsburgh area. We were a tremendous financial force that supported thousands of local businesses. When the locals were bashing the airline, and calling for competition to be brought in, they didn't realize that they were cutting their own throats. The competitors brought in a few flights with a handful of gate agents/ baggage handlers. They didn't bring any high paying maintenance jobs. The area lost again.

After Schofield started moving jobs, and brought on the financial hardships through his ineptness, Wolfe, and Gangwall were brought in to run the company. Their job was to steal as much as they could, and then sell the ashes to United Airlines. They were not here to actually fly an airline. That's when the lies, and distrust started with the County.

Somehow, after those two, we still managed to stay in business. A new CEO named Siegle was brought in to liquidate what he could, and burn the rest. He shipped all of our work to a 3rd party vendor in Alabama. There were still enough remains for another scavenger after him, but I can't remember his name. I think it may have been Bruce Aubin. None of them were here to actually run an airline. They were all here to get what they could, and leave.

Today, we are merged with America West. Our current CEO has a big enough ego that he actually wants to run an airline. He's doing a fairly decent job. That's the good news. The bad news is that he is from Arizona. He's not quite sure what to do with us in Pit. The area can't support that many flights. Burghers just don't travel that much. He would like to move the maintenance to Phoenix, but he doesn't really have the talent pool out there. The West had a very young work group that just doesn't have our experience. The Junior mechanic in Pittsburgh has 21 years with the airline, plus all of us had previous experience at other airlines, and manufacturers. They have ferried planes in from Phoenix because they were afraid to take on certain jobs. You have no idea what it means to ferry a plane from one maintenance station to another. That is unheard of.

Airbus has a dedicated team of 30 people that travel around the world to replace landing gear fittings. They charge one million dollars for every fitting. It's such a precision job that nobody else at Airbus is allowed to do it, and the rest of the world is afraid to try. We are the only airline that changes our own fittings. There are 15 of us that have changed all of our fittings so far at $250k each. Our experience is the only thing keeping maintenance jobs in Pit.

That brings me to our future. We really don't know what is in our future. They cut more jobs every few months. They threaten to close the hangars, and then all of a sudden bring more work. It's an emotional roller coaster. I made plans to retire at 55 while sitting on a mountain of cash. That all changed in bankruptcy. I never planned on being stuck working midnights, and weekends after all of these years, but plans change. Just like the plans USAir had for the new airport changed.

There are 400 of us still in Pit. We all have the seniority to work daylight with weekends off in any other station. We choose to stay here because this is home. This is where we want to be. We ride the roller coaster by choice. I'm disappointed in the way things turned out, but I'm not bitter with the company.

Maybe if the Allegheny County politicians did a better job at enticing new businesses to the area, we wouldn't be in this boat.

[Copanut]

Great post, you should send it to the Post-Gazette.

I guess when I first started to notice how lousy the pay was getting for employees was about 5 years ago. We parked off site and on the way to the lot we dropped off a stewardess at a Motel 8. I guess the glamour of that job is gone.

[ditchdigger]

I agree, great post.

I'm disappointed in the way things turned out, but I'm not bitter with the company.

You may not be bitter, but consistent with what I said above, you really didn't say anything nice about the airline, at least as it exists today.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by ditchdigger

You may not be bitter, but consistent with what I said above, you really didn't say anything nice about the airline, at least as it exists today.

I thought South Range's post was very balanced. There was praise for USair until Colodny retired.

And South Ranges didn't put all of the blame on the newer airline management, but split the blame with local politicans.

IMO, our politicans were crazy to not do whatever they could to keep the USair hub in Pittsburgh.

It doesn't matter if USair was raping us. We're going to have a harder time attracting new businesses now.

It would be great if South Range sent it to the Post Gazette; however, that could put South Range's job at risk since the newspaper won't publish it annonymously.

[Copanut]

I am amazed that when I do fly USAir, the employees are still helpful and friendly despite all the crap they are going through.

I picked this up on the net:

As of 2009, Pittsburgh is simply considered a US Airways destination with an average of 50 departures a day, compared to 2001 when it was a hub with 500+ flights a day with service across the United States and to Europe.

Pretty much says it all.

[ditchdigger]

I thought South Range's post was very balanced. There was praise for USair until Colodny retired.

I agree that it was balanced, but as I said, as it exists today, there aren't many who have anything nice to say about it. Indeed, there are some folks I've talked to, who once worked there, who despise the company. And I think South range stopped short of saying anything "nice" about it, except in the past tense.

The West had a very young work group that just doesn't have our experience. The Junior mechanic in Pittsburgh has 21 years with the airline, plus all of us had previous experience at other airlines, and manufacturers.

Perhaps South Range would care to comment on this question--what happens in 10 years, when the guys out west have that much more experience, and your group is retired, or nearing retirement? (I bet any one of us can predict the answer...)

[South Range Family]

Originally Posted by ditchdigger

Perhaps South Range would care to comment on this question--what happens in 10 years, when the guys out west have that much more experience, and your group is retired, or nearing retirement? (I bet any one of us can predict the answer...)

I'm highly doubtful that it will last anywhere near 10 years. They don't want us. They just haven't figured out how to get rid of us yet.



On Easter Sunday 2005 thousands of us were sent out the door. I was lucky. Besides collecting unemployment, I collected 15 weeks severence, 4 weeks vacation, and 5 grand in sick time. My timing was perfect, and I was only out for a few months. It was the best Summer I ever had. Others weren't so lucky. They commuted to other stations, or they found other jobs in steel mills, power plants, and construction companies.

Over the past few years about 50 of them have been able to come back. They all have the same story. The outside world sucks. There aren't any jobs out there that pay our wages, and the sweat shops work you to death. They have all had extreme attitude changes. They were humbled, and they are glad to be back home.

[Dream Rainbow 24]

I will contribute to this post and then if you want, I will keep my mouth shut.

I have two family members that works for different divisions of Siemens.
Between the two of them, they fly more then 50,000 miles a year.
I would say that I have some experiences with flying and some observations because of their comments.

Now A EDUCATED PERSON, would think that you should be able to fly from say Dubois PA to Pittsburgh with no problems, but - guess what? You can't fly there from Dubois. All because of the name on the side of the airplane and where there terminals are located.

The same holds true with Latrobe. When my brother could drive from his home in Greensburg and then go through security at Latrobe and then fly to Greater Pitt and then fly out to his destination from there - he could usually cut one hour off his travel time both directions. With the government subsidies - he could actually fly cheaper out of Latrobe than directly out of Greater Pitt. to his destination.

So what do they do? They build a new airport that the city doesn't need and then they make you fly first someplace you do not want to go - to get to where you need to go - such as Detroit Mich.

My one brother fly's on Continental out of Dubois / Jefferson and he has to go to Cleveland Ohio - no matter where he needs to go.

With limited or no direct flights out of the place, it is a real joke when you want to go to Atlanta and you first have to fly to Detroit or Cleveland. Then get off one plane late, run clear across the airport to get on the next plane which is taking off in 5 minutes. It reminds me of the old OJ Simpson commercial for AVIS where he said "before I ran through airports, now I fly through them!"

My only opinion is that there is too many airports in this area, and the county / state does not need all these little local airports - such as Johnstown - that has 20 people collecting a check and 10 people a day flying out of there - if they have any flights at all that day.

If a airport could have a road where you could drive right up to the place - such as a little airport like Latrobe or Dubois / Jefferson, which is right off a main route, where you do not have to drive through the city of Pittsburgh to get to it, then you would have a airport that everyone could and would use.

My opinion is that it should have been built up near the Cranberry Mall or someplace else then to build it where they did. It's just plain stupid.