There's only one way to get more service back to PIT...

As for for a sweatheart deal....honestly? I think US pulling back was a sweatheart deal enough. Southwest and Jetblue....Hmmm US has pulled back and the county feels screwed. Lets start service from there and make some cash. Now when your at the airport you have to park in OHIO practically in the extended lot. They have to add parking and made the old "E" gates into overflow security. Yep....US leaving sure showed the city of Pittsburgh and surrounding area. True it was a punch in the gut to lose the international service but for the most part more people are flying. Ya know, the ones that US said wasnt there. Well they were but not willing to pay zillions of dollars to get somewhere. Some people think that Southwest and Jetblue adding flights out of PIT on existing routes that US has is no threat. Think BWI and now PHL. Maybe not on that big of a scale but it will grow and grow. Why not just pull out all together?
 
Actual landing fee's are only around $2.70 per 1000 lbs. Not sure what other airports are, but that doesn't seem like it would break the bank. Maybe the other fee's at PIT are more expensive.
 
hula-flyguy said:
I agree 100%. The facts speak for themselves.
Click to expand...


If US Airways never made PIT profitable when they had a near monopoly, that says VOLUMES about management.

BoeingBoy said:
The "urban myth" that PIT is expensive continues to amaze me.....

Here's a simple example to illustrate what happened:

Say a gate costs $1 million per year to lease. Also say you utilize that gate a lot, serving 500,000 passengers a year with that gate. The cost per passenger is $2.

Now you decide to cut back - less utilization of that gate plus using it for RJ's instead of mainline aircraft. This results in only serving 200,000 passengers a year with that gate. The cost per passenger is now $5 - 2.5 times what it was before while paying the same for the gate.

Admittedly, this is very oversimplified but it is effectively what happened in PIT. We cut back, the airport served 1/2 the number of passengers, and the cost per passenger doubled - all without any change in the rates/fees charged.

Jim
Click to expand...



Oversimplification is the best thing to do.......
 
You know what just cracks me up about PIT....they all whine and cry about all the service they lost when US took away the "hub" status....but we still have 170 flights a day here. WN and B6 enter PIT and serve the SAME markets as US - offering no serivce to the destinations that we dropped - and they are the be all, get all. I swear if I have to see Onorato's face on the TV one more time touting all the great things they have done, I am going to puke!
 
Come on Mark, let them enjoy their world class service to 6 brand new destinations on the 2 brand new entrants into the market. Oh wait, there ARE NO NEW DESTINATIONS, they are overlaps of the STILL DOMINANT carrier at PIT.

We enjoy high load factors since we right sized and de-hubbed PIT. Adding US metal to the existing markets would make no sense, keep the commuters on them. Let B^ and WN carry commuter loads on their abs and boeings.
 
It's that kind of attitude and and stance that US has had and see where they are now....Yep loosing market share. If they didn't gouge passengers to begin with there would be no Jetblue's or Southwests entering the market. What were the fares in markets before these low cost carriers came in to compete on these "existing" routes? For US not to worry about what southwest will take away in PIT is silly. Oh I guess they don't need PIT at all right? Again, loosing the few int'l flights and a few flights to podunk towns was a punch in the gut but not the end all. Again, when you go to the airport you have the longest security lines filled with people that now DO fly from PIT and the parking lots are so full they are building additional spaces. YEP...US pulling flights sure showed the city and Onorato....too funny.
 
hula-flyguy said:
We enjoy high load factors since we right sized and de-hubbed PIT. Adding US metal to the existing markets would make no sense, keep the commuters on them. Let B^ and WN carry commuter loads on their abs and boeings.
Click to expand...

No, you enjoy high load factors because the competition is finally making US compete. It has nothing at all to do with right sizing or dehubbing.

US could have done this a long time ago. The issue is not "new destinations" it's driving traffic to the top 40 or so. US never, ever did that until it had competition.

What does it tell you that Southwest is up to like 7 or 8/day PIT-PHL? That's former hub to hub for US, and traffic on the route doubled and then some when LUV came in. It tells you that US gouged the living crap out of both cities and would continue to do so were it not for competition.

It's like the annoucement of how PIT-LGA and CLT-LGA fares are suddenly dropping. NEver happened absent B6 coming to both places.

MarkMyWords said:
You know what just cracks me up about PIT....they all whine and cry about all the service they lost when US took away the "hub" status....but we still have 170 flights a day here. WN and B6 enter PIT and serve the SAME markets as US - offering no serivce to the destinations that we dropped - and they are the be all, get all.
Click to expand...

Look at the O&D jump. The difference (and that which Onorato is touting) is that people are finally flying in larger numbers to the top 40 or so destinations. This never happened during the monopoly hub days.

The only thing PIT really needs now is a european flight. And increased service to the west coast--you can look for LUV to start running PIT-OAK/SJC and/or PIT-LAX if US does not sanify those fares and/or upgauge the equipment and frequencies to something reasonable.
 
MarkMyWords said:
You know what just cracks me up about PIT....they all whine and cry about all the service they lost when US took away the "hub" status....but we still have 170 flights a day here. WN and B6 enter PIT and serve the SAME markets as US - offering no serivce to the destinations that we dropped - and they are the be all, get all. I swear if I have to see Onorato's face on the TV one more time touting all the great things they have done, I am going to puke!
Click to expand...
Yeah and it's only the PIT supporters on this message board that whine and cry......none of the folks from other parts of the country....and of course no employees EVER whine and cry on here either.......yeah right!!

And it's very simple....the reason PIT traffic is up is that people can now finally afford to fly thanks to the likes of Southwest and JetBlue, and even Air Tran. Regardless of who's paint job they are on, there are many more passengers than in the past.
 
when you go to the airport you have the longest security lines filled with people that now DO fly from PIT and the parking lots are so full they are building additional spaces.



Hence, the 83% load factor....it's all good on for US
 
Please don't get me wrong, we have all said it is the fares that are the problem for a long time. And the whining and crying I am referring to is the pissing and moaning about PIT not being a "hub". What the heck do you call a 170 flight a day operation? There is no "gratitude" (for lack of a better word) for the service that we do have. Instead the entire city of PIT is wrapped around the fact that we aren't a "hub".

Funny, it banks like a hub, it ops like a hub, it must be a hub!

The days of 550 flights a day are long gone. We still offer non-stop service to the top destinations that Burghers want to travel to. Fixing the fares is being done either via competitve forces or voluntarily in certain markets. We are not the same airline we were a year ago. People in PIT need to let it go already.
 
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