Pittsburgh Int'l Airport slipping slipping slipping.. (Indiana, Jacksonville: go bankrupt, construction, casino)

[Bizowner00]

Our airport, once in the group of medium sized airports with better than 20 million passengers served per year, has now fallen to the middle of small sized airports serving fewer than 10 million passengers a year. And at one time the airport was ranked number one overall for passenger services. The latest J.D Power rankings has PIT ranked ninth best for small airports with a overall ranking just above the average. Trailing such places as Indianapolis, West Palm Beach, Jacksonville, and Tuscon.
Pittsburgh holds the distinction of having one of the greatest overall declines in air traffic in US airport history. And the outlook is for yet more fall off in Pittsburgh air traffic. Port Columbus will over take Pittsburgh in air traffic within 2 years. In fact Pittsburgh maybe the largest market served to offer as few flights down the road. How low can u you go ?

[Copanut]

Tip your hat to USAir.

[South Range Family]

Originally Posted by Copanut

Tip your hat to USAir.

No, tip your hat to the airport authority that took the cash cow for granted.

If USAir was truly at fault, all of the other airlines would have swooped in to fill the void. They never did because Pittsburgh doesn't generate enough traffic.

The fact is that Pittsburgh was never able to sustain those numbers. It was artificial traffic that we shipped in from other areas in our hub, and spoke system. When times got tough, the County refused to lower rents, and landing fees. They even went as far as slapping us in the face by openly courting other airlines.

They believed that since we had been there forever, we would always be there. They couldn't come to grips with the fact that an airline is a business that picks up, and moves every day. There is nothing that says it has to come back that night. They also failed to understand that control of our airline changed hands several times. The people in charge had loyalties to their own cities.

When Seth Schofield was in charge, he was loyal to North Carolina. He started shipping the work, and flights down there. A guy named Siegle
was loyal to Alabama. Pit took another hit. Today, the people in charge are loyal to Arizona.

Business is business. You can't expect a company to continue losing money, just because they were there for such a long time. Loyalty goes both ways.


I've also heard a rumor that the Feds are waiting for the County to go bankrupt, and have a plan to run the airport themselves. I'm sure that they will be able to run it into the ground just as well as any other Government entity.

[Copanut]

We built that airport to USAir's specs, then they pulled out. Ok, stupid politicians, oh, and they are Democrats. Surprise Surprise.

[BrianTH]

Their construction debt is why they couldn't lower landing fees. Casino money has helped them negotiate lower fees in a few cases, but that debt is still hanging out there.

[sac86]

To Opinionated Ogre....More true words never spoken..And lets not forget all the employees that Pittsburgh lost as tax paying citizens, employees who lives were changed forever because of the CEO's of USAIRWAYS past and present.

[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.

[dugdogmaster]

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.

They are. I recall reading several articles, and seeing a few interviews, with Onorato about this very subject.

[South Range Family]

"Our politicans should be actively working on finding replacement airlines."

That's kind of like closing the barn door after the horse has already been hit by a car.


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.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by South Range Family

They believed that since we had been there forever, we would always be there. They couldn't come to grips with the fact that an airline is a business that picks up, and moves every day.

Business is business. You can't expect a company to continue losing money, just because they were there for such a long time. Loyalty goes both ways.

.

South,

I will defer to your obvious inside info based on your profile.

But did not USAir request certain specifications to the airport? And weren't they granted those specs because of the "promise" and commitment they made to the Pgh area?

I agree, things change, but it would have been better had things changed BEFORE we built the airport.

As to Mr. Schofield, I loved the race between Onorato and Roddey for County Executive. They both agreed not to debate the airport and USAir because you couldn't trust anything they said.