If the business is there as the politicians say and we are just "deserting" PIT, why aren't other airlines salivating over the gates like they are in rotten old Philly. The lawmakers may not want to admit that they can't get high interest from any airline and they are scapegoating US for all of the changes in the region and their own lack of initiative.
Who's "salivating" over gates in "rotten old Philly?" Delta's taking a net REDUCTION in one gate. Only WN wants more gates. PIT isn't quite the same story, either -- all of those empty gates at PIT were built expressly for US Airways.
I got the feeling that PA held out the carrot of the retention of the international gates to Doug and then snatched it back at today's meeting because...... other airlines, who are anticipating a forced reduction of JFK flights by the goverment, are making promises and getting these guys into their pockets (without them having to do anything in PIT I might add). Then accuse US of extortion.
What gives you this feeling aside from the delicious Kool-Aid? The Delta move wasn't engineered overnight. They needed to plan the logistics and build out the new Crown Room Club in A-East. The Delta move has been in the plans for well over a year -- the city postponed it because Delta and Southwest agreed to postpone it.
And what on earth would "forced reduction of JFK flights by the goverment" have to do with gates at PHL? Delta isn't going to operate transatlantic from PHL unless they operate AF's PHL-CDG service as part of the upcoming transatlantic joint venture. They're not going to do PHL-London because they don't have the domestic feed at PHL to make it work. If BOS-London, SLC-London, or LAX-London don't make sense for Delta, neither does PHL-London.
Again, I will say that I like Spector, love PIT, but Spector's sarcasm and paternalistic prodding of Doug was pure showboating. "Well did you offer Delta domestic gates? Answer the question, did you? JSee, it is Doug's job to keep our market share in PHL, especially connections for the expanded int'l. If you tell me I must I will give them up but I am not going to offer! Spector mentions Delta too many times..... psychology and lobbyists at work! Spector made it sound like the necessity of sending int'l flights to PHX or CLT, if PHL lacks capacity, was a betrayal. Maybe because the lawmakers intent was to force US Int'l back to PIT and give Delta what they want at PHL? Hmmmmm.......
Frankly, yes, it was US Airways' responsibility to come up with an alternate solution if they didn't like the city's plans to move Delta into A-East or to build an extension to A-West. The city, Delta, and Southwest had been flexible by agreeing to delay the Delta move until after the summer seasonal flights ended. Stonewalling and threats as negotiating tactics often lead to failure. The city had a goal and had identified its preferred plans. If it were really, truly just about international gates, US would have offered a workable alternative.
And, yes, it is a betrayal. Spector and the other members of the Pennsylvania "congregation" threw their support behind US Airways' China application and behind trying to find solutions that would allow US to maintain its presence (and the jobs) in PIT. How were they repaid? US closed the PIT base and chose to use its China award to try to blackmail the PHL airport. The fact is that there are several ways to solve the supposed PHL gate space issue that don't involve the people movers -- like towing arrivals from A to B/C after the passengers alight or operating two or three European departure banks. CO gets at least two or three turns out of each of its international gates at EWR.
Watch it more than once......Doug did display graciousness, and yes stuttering graciousness, after being blindsided, manipulated and introduced in a disdainful and dismissive way.
But you know what? He gets paid the big bucks to handle situations like these. He gets CEO pay to know the difference between "congregation" and "delegation" and to actually have the pertinent facts by having prepared in advance. He claims that the airline doesn't have enough gates and yet doesn't know how many constitute "not enough." Utterly ludicrous. He said they had no plans to reduce PIT and a month later the base closure is announced. Those sorts of decisions aren't made overnight.
