Airport traffic up again (Pittsburgh, Indiana: marketplace, stats, oil)

[Craziaskowboi]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

By the way, starting in 2016 PIT's debt service will be going down substantially each year as it gradually pays off long-term debt. So landing fees should start becoming more competitive in that period as a result.

Only four more years in the desert.

[greg42]

Going to use this thread, since earlier in this one there was some discussion of the end of Southwest's PIT-PHL flights.

So get this, a fair amount of the seats on those flights were taken up by...commuting US Airways employees! With no base here for the last few years any pilots and flight attendants still living here have to commute to Philly to start their duty shifts. This is not at all uncommon in the airline industry, but the sheer number of such US Air employees still living here might be unusual in general. Not so unusual when you consider there used to be a crew base here, of course. There are as many as 1200 such US Air employees in the Pittsburgh area who haven't chosen to move or find a different job or whatever.

So, when Southwest's flights ended, you can gather what the scramble would be like for however few empty seats there are on US Air's flights. But a new service from Lenzner Coach began on the same day the Southwest flights stopped. They have twice-daily buses between PIT-PHL. Anyone can ride, not just crew. Costs $38 in advance or $50 walk up, each way. So that's more than you might pay for Megabus most of the time, and probably less convenient for many. (If you're going to Philly for other purposes, who needs to arrive at their airport, or leave from ours?) But it is interesting nonetheless. I'm guessing the reason it runs from the airport is because crew commuting flying is on a standby basis so this way the crews can attempt to stand by first, then if they don't get on a plane they can catch the bus. Also, their car would be at the airport if they manage to get a flight back, etc. The service will run for 3 months and then will be evaluated. It was suggested to Lenzner by one of the flight attendants.

Lenzner Coach Lines offers daily service from Pittsburgh to Philly - Pittsburgh Business Times (Most of you will probably only be able to see part of this article until the end of the week, but I think I pulled out all the major points in the above paragraphs.)

[pman]

actually tickets often sell for more than 38 bucks

[greg42]

Originally Posted by pman

actually tickets often sell for more than 38 bucks

You mean on Mega I assume? I know it goes up higher sometimes. Depends upon what days and how far ahead you plan I'm sure.

[pman]

Originally Posted by greg42

You mean on Mega I assume? I know it goes up higher sometimes. Depends upon what days and how far ahead you plan I'm sure.

more often than not, in my experience, the fare on that route (Pitt-Philly) is $43 each way. the new service is actually a little cheaper in advance, more expensive walkup. a lot less convenient though since you'd still need a train to the city. otoh, I guess it could be convenient since it eliminates a transfer if you were taking a european flight out of philly. I wonder what route they'll be taking, turnpike to 76?

[greg42]

It doesn't say what route, just says it takes 5.5 to 6 hours. Leaves at 6:30am and 10:00am from PIT, returns at 2:30pm and 7:30pm from PHL.

I don't think it would be that useful for international flights, although you'd have to price it. In my experience, which admittedly isn't recently but generally holds true, it doesn't necessarily cost a lot more to tack on a Pittsburgh leg to an international flight. Plus, if you start from here you actually have additional choices with just one connection, as opposed to taking the bus to Philly where more choices would need an additional airport connection. I suppose it could be a little useful coming home if you avoid an additional security check; that depends upon PHL layout for international arrivals which I'm not familiar with.

I think I may be the only person whose been in Pittsburgh for 20 years who flew fairly regularly (a few times a year at least generally) and didn't rack up a bunch of US Air miles, so I've never cared about sticking with US Air. I flew mainly on other carriers, and the few times I did take US Air flights I credited them to United (once that was allowed, which it has been for a decade or more now I believe). I flew all my transatlantic on United and on the one flight to Japan I ended up on Delta (award flight combo of some flown miles on DL and some points from Amex or somewhere, not sure where the rest came from, but it worked). So although I've flown several international segments I never flew them out of or into PHL. (Most were IAD, although I did fly Icelandair once out of BWI. The DL Tokyo flight was out of PDX and I came back through LAX.) Oh and I'm forgetting the couple of Caribbean flights. One was on US via CLT. The other was some kind of direct charter if I remember right.

[Velvet Jones]

Some good airport news for once. I'm surprised they would pick Pitt as an initial destination, but apparently someone smells opportunity.



Low-cost airline with familiar name hopes to fly - Yahoo! Finance

[BrianTH]

Nice to see someone trying to fill AirTran's shoes.

[acenturi]

Originally Posted by greg42

It doesn't say what route, just says it takes 5.5 to 6 hours. Leaves at 6:30am and 10:00am from PIT, returns at 2:30pm and 7:30pm from PHL.

I don't think it would be that useful for international flights, although you'd have to price it. In my experience, which admittedly isn't recently but generally holds true, it doesn't necessarily cost a lot more to tack on a Pittsburgh leg to an international flight.......

The Bus schedules are very compatible with most European arrivals and departures, except for Israel and the late BA flight. Price wise, It all depends on where you're going. Some European destinations are slightly less from PIT, via PHL, and some occasionally considerably more (e.g., $200+ for Rome, etc..), making the $90 RT bus fare worth while. On the other hand, who wants to fly for 8-12 hours on a plane and then spend 5+ more hours on a Bus to save say $100 ? Maybe a backpacking student.

[BrianTH]

More details on PeoplExpress plans for Pittsburgh:

Pittsburgh is PeoplExpress Airlines' 'major focus'

Pending government approval, Pittsburgh will be among the first cities served by the start-up carrier. Others include Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport, the airline's headquarters in Virginia; Providence, R.I.; West Palm Beach, Fla.; and Newark, N.J. Of those, only Newark now is served nonstop from Pittsburgh. Other markets under consideration include Orlando, Fla.; Fort Myers, Fla.; Kansas City, Mo.; and St. Louis.

"I think that what we will do is pick up markets [other airlines have] abandoned and build a very successful operation in those markets," Mr. Morisi said. He added that he envisions PeoplExpress starting in Pittsburgh with four to five nonstop flights a day and building from that. "I think you will see that grow pretty significantly in the first year," he said.

Sounds good.