Do you think that Pittsburgh will ever be a hub again (from any airline, not necessarily US [well, US is never coming back, I’m guessing])? Everything is in place for PIT to be a hub again. Because of passenger satisfaction with the airport, I really think it is a mistake for a major airline not to rehub PIT. The airport was designed back in the 80’s as a major hub for connecting passengers, not for regional travel (as it is now).
As it is now, $1,300,000,000 was thrown out the window, because, for what it is being used for, PIT doesn’t need to be anywhere near as big or as nice as it is now with no connecting passengers.
Well comparing customer satisfaction between a hub and a regional is a little bit like Apples to Oranges. Increased traffic brings more problems and would drive satisfaction down a bit.
If the infrastructure is there, I’m sure its still a possibility, but it lends to what the market can handle, and still make a profit.
We’re going to see fewer hubs in the future, not more. Maybe Southwest or Airtran will slowly increase their presence there to a point where some people use it to connect, but I think that’s all that’s really possible.
The best Pittsburgh will see is increased service from Southwest. More hubs will be dehubbed in the future (many with a bigger population and traffic then Pittsburgh).
I once did a round trip thru KPIT, jumping from a 757 onto an automated underground train that took me to the Dash 8. So I wonder what’s gonna become of that train line and the commuter terminals? Seems like a waste to me after building all that. Was USAirways on the hook for any of that?
Yeah, this is also what I’m thinking. As long as PIT sees increased traffic in any airline, I think I’ll be happy.
Quickburn: that commuter terminal is gone. But the train will never leave because it connects the entire airport; the landside terminal to the airside terminal (the ticketing counter, or the landside terminal, to every gate, which is called the airside terminal).
Same thing happened to STL w/ the fall of TWA. Once a major hub with flights to Europe and direct to the Middle East. The C concourse once was gates for 767, L1011,747 now home to EMB-145’s and several MD80’s. Unfortunately STL and PIT are in the same boat, and with the latest happenings they don’t stand much of a future as a hub, at least to the extent they once did.
I guess though, in the distant future when new sources of energy are designed and/or the oil situation changes, you can never say never. The facilities are there.
I don’t know too much about PIT but STL just built a brand new runway, and has a whole 35 gate concourse sitting empty. So the infrastructure is there, just not the correct economic conditions.
haha, is this a continuation of the hub or no hub thread?
That is what they did in STL, I don’t know how many additional cities they picked up, but they added flights to existing routes such as MCI of which in the heyday, TW had 14 flts a day. WN is now the only airline to serve those city pairs these days. Maybe they’ll build up PIT a bit.
Oh to be an airport infrastructure planner in this day and age!
What airlines will be operating tomorrow? What planes will they be flying? Will they be hubbing? Where will the airport authority find financing? Barely can plan for one day to the next, let alone 10-20 years down the road.
Well, it does make it kinda hard to sound wrong! 20 years ago, who (besides maybe Herb) would have guessed that WN would not only be the busiest domestic carrier, but would outlive TWA, PanAm, Eastern, etc.?
The problem with Pan Am, TWA, and Eastern is that they didn’t know how to operate outside of deregulation and had some poor management. To make matters worse, they started selling their most valuable/profitable assets while they were losing money. So not only did they lose more people/market share but they lost even more money because they sold some of the only things making them money. They all had high cost airlines to maintain while other airlines came up from behind and took over market share.
It is sad that US Airways all but abandoned PIT which is a far nicer and has much less airspace congestion than PHL. At least Southwest is stepping up here. Hopefully they continue to do so.
Pittsburgh didn’t have the local traffic to support it. Pittsburgh is more of a blue collar city then a city with tons of business travelers. I agree that I would rather go through Pittsburgh (which has one of the best skylines), then the concrete warehouse they call a terminal.
Hey at least at Philly, you get the city of criminal love… I didn’t say that
