US Airways to Demote Pittsburgh

Now WN is too busy with PHL on its hands to consider PIT.
I have mixed feelings about whether PHL is a good choice for WN.

Seems to me the real answer to "why PHL" is where else can they go if
they want to expand service in the northeast? They need airports that
are big enough to take a lot of 737 traffic and have a big enough O/D
market to be worth serving, since WN doesn't do hubs.

They cover New England pretty well with MHT, PVD, and BDL. BOS is out
of the question, too expensive and crowded.

In New York they go to ISP, ALB, and BUF. The three NYC airports are
out, again too expensive and crowded. They could go to ROC and SYR
but they're pretty close to BUF and ALB.

There's a few other possible airports between NYC and Washington, but
none seem as attractive as PHL. TTN's pretty small and it's a pain in
the neck to get to. ACY is a huge airport (jumbo jet pilots take
their drivers' tests there) and right off the Expressway, but it's
over an hour east and south from the parts of NJ where people live,
and the local O/D traffic is the casino bonus crowd. ABE is also an
hour from where people live, ILG is small and getting close to BWI.
TTN and ILG are close enough to PHL that anything that caused delays
at PHL would also delay them, so you might as well go to PHL.

PHL has vastly more O/D potential than PIT. PHL is right on I-95 and
has a good rail connection directly between the airport terminals and
the Phila train stations, making it quite practical to drive or take
the train to the airport from as far away as Newark, Baltimore, and
Harrisburg, They can get travellers from a lot more than just metro
Phila.

Gene J. Yao extrapolated from data available...



The PIT Airmall (official name) would not survive without the
airport traffic. I can't imagine too many Pittsburghers willing to
put up with paying parking fees just to visit the Airmall, especially
since much of what can be had there can also be had just a few miles
away in the big box shopping and entertainment facilities in the PIT
airport area. Also, the mall rugrats are more likely to prefer being
dropped off at the nearby Mall at Robinson instead.


I've been in one (down by the old RR station) and find that Pittsboogers
didn't flock there either, although there wasa decent resturant. Nor do
they flock to see the Pirates, who are worth flogging if not flocking to.

Perhaps the hub/core can be partially converted to a Theme Part Electronic
Entertainment Complex, and folks desperate for Virtual Reality stuff can
fly in from all over except furrin points.

TMO