This all seems way too rosey for me to swallow, except of course the part about PIT.
What I'd really like someone to interpret (to see if I'm reading this correctly), is the section about PHL -
"Even if Pittsburgh suffers, Pennsylvania will benefit from the merger because US Airways' Philadelphia hub should grow. "Philadelphia becomes a bigger player in a bigger airline," Parker said. Negotiations with the Allied Pilots Association, which represents American pilots, provide an indication of Philadelphia's potential. The bankruptcy reorganization plan once backed by American CEO Tom Horton envisioned a code-sharing deal with
JetBlue(
JBLU), which could feed American's international flights at New York Kennedy.
As a result, American originally sought an APA contract enabling code-shares equivalent to up to 50% of domestic available seat miles. But an initial tentative contract with US Airways reduced the amount to 4% and the eventual memorandum of understanding settled on 15%. With a merger, "they decided to use US Airways as the code share partner," said aviation consultant Mann. That means more international traffic can flow through Philadelphia."
Specifically, the last sentence. Is this saying that there is now a code share agreement with Jet Blue to code share with flights through PHL as the primary international connector, rather than JFK? If that's true, then (mine and a very few other's) speculation that JFK will indeed be used primarily for international O&D and most connecting will flow through PHL is likely correct.
