I was trying to book travel back to Clarksburg, WV - yes a super small city - but I've always been able to jump on the Beech 1900. US Airways Express was the only carrier to serve the aiport. However, now when I try to book on usairways.com, all the flights are x'd out, and for summer travel it states no PIT-CKB service avialable (since 9/11 Pit was the only avenue to get to CKB). Does anybody know if the connection to CKB changed, or if it has been dropped from the timetable all together?
Air Midwest Service
- Thread starter lovinglcc
- Start date
I have family in Morgantwon WV. Apparently both cities of Clarksburg and Morgantown were disappointed with the reduction of US Airways' presence at PIT. Both cities requested that the DOT award their EAS route to Regions Air who is suppose to be flying Jetstreams 31's from CKB/MGW as a Continental Connection to CLE.
JAXPax
Senior
Actually Air Midwest lost to RegionsAir flying Saab 340s to Cleveland. However, they were supposed to transition within 90 days. It's been almost 250 days and Colgan has yet to put the Saab into service, yet alone file schedules for the routes. Air Midwest filed a petition to the DOT last week begging for permission to cease flying the route (they are forced by law to continue operating the service until Regions takes over) since they need the planes elsewhere. They said either that or revoke RegionsAir's contract award and rebid it.
- Thread Starter
- #4
So has US Airways made a firm decision/announcement about future service? It's sometimes hard to make travel decisions when you don't even know where the airline is/will be flying!
This is a route where the decision is not up to US Airways! It's operated as a government-subsidized service, and right now the government is subsidizing Air Midwest to fly it. As soon as the subsidy gets cut over to RegionsAir, Air Midwest will stop flying it. But nobody seems to know when RegionsAir will take over the route - they should have started operations long ago.
- Thread Starter
- #6
Understood, but Air Midwest is flying the route under the US Airways (ok, US Air - see note below) banner. CKB also shows as a yellow dot on the route map. So, I think US Airways has some responsiblity to communicate if it is going to stop serving the market. Just becuase Air Midwest may be loosing the EOS, doesn't mean another carrier can't fly into the airport. In fact, Comair or ASA does maintenance at CKB and was keeping scheduled service for a while.
Ok, here's the side note. Last week in CLT, there was an Air Midwest Beech 1900 sitting at the gate, in the old US Air white, red/blue logo livery. I made a remark to the agent that it was the first retro livery to be exactly the same. Of course, he didn't get it.
JAXPax
Senior
If it were up to Air Midwest, they'd have stopped flying it months ago. However, they are required by law to continue flying until RegionsAir begins the operation. Air Midwest is basically being held against its will at this point.
Another airline is free to fly there if they want to. In fact, the government would probably welcome it. The problem is nobody wants to fly there without a subsidy. The purpose of the EAS program is to guarantee airline service to smaller communities who wouldn't otherwise receive any scheduled service at all.
Like another poster stated, Air Midwest should have already ceased flying this segment. USAirways can't state the service is going to cease and when because they too are waiting for RegionsAir to get started. So as far as USAirways knows, it's their route. RegionsAir has been actively trying to recruit FAs so it may be sooner rather than later they take it over. However until that happens, it's all wait and see.
Ok, where else does Air Midwest need the planes? They would have enough planes to fly their routes, had they not taken some out of service and leased them to Big Sky.
JAXPax
Senior
New confirmed EAS flying in Nevada/Utah plus additional bids across Nebraska, Arkansas, and Missouri.
Do anyone think that Air Midwest or any other US Express regional will add US Airways service back to Shreveport, LA?
Prince of PAWOBs
Veteran
As of May 21, there is now no service from PIT direct to MGW, CKB or PKB. Unfortunately, no one let cargo or the OA's know this until it was too late. Looks like the odd passenger will have a surprise for most of this coming week until everyone is on the same page. :down:
Looks like US Airways Express is finally out of CKB and MGW.
http://www.wboy.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=11049
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