Article in PIT paper......

Funny, as I was driving around the extended term lot at the PIT airport this morning, I was thinking about this. I was out in the new section and was farther away from the terminal when I finally found a spot, than I have ever been in 12 1/2 years of frequent traveling. Yeah....but nobody is starting travel in PIT....to use US' old excuse...'it was all connecting traffic'. So I guess people are just filling the now expanded lots at the airport and taking busses elsewhere. Also, the long term lot was full and blocked off, diverting cars to the extended lot. But nobody is traveling from PIT....yeah right!! US was blowing smoke up everybody's a$$es.


you should have called me!! I got a good spot in long term this morning. We could have carpooled....... :blink:


B)
 
But nobody is traveling from PIT....yeah right!! US was blowing smoke up everybody's a$$es.

No, they were pricing like a monopoly hub, and wondering why they could not drive this kind of O&D and why the occasional discretionary traveler either did not go or drove to CAK/CLE.

US could have had all of the traffic, but chose instead to keep fares cranked to the roof (which we shall henceforth call "CLT style") and then wonder why the O&D sucked.

If you look at the markets that the "old" US had "success" with, they were either monopoly at the time (PHL/PIT/CLT/BWI) or big enough that it did not matter (DCA/NYC/BOS). In every case, the eastern entity was either driven out or bankrupted with anything even approaching competition (BWI/BOS/PHL).

What's really amusing is that the downfall of US is going to be this "hybrid" crap in markets that are not in the top 10 or 20 O&D markets. If one is flying from LAS and wants something approaching an F seat, HP has a win. Same thing for PHX. More than enough O&D to go around.

Not the same deal in PIT/PHL/CLT/LGA/BOS. Want to know why US is going to fight B6 at CLT tooth and nail? It's because if CLT falls they will lose monopoloy pricing power in the last place that US really has it. If B6 gets a handhold and has anything even approaching success, look for LUV in very, very short order.
 
Since the second bankruptcy, PIT has added B6, LUV, and would probably have F9 had UA not started Denver flights.

O&D traffic, which US complained so much about, has skyrocketed. The airport had to add a second security checkpoint and is in the process of expanding on-site parking. This is bad, how?

From USA Today:
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/200...king-usat_x.htm

•Adding spaces. Pittsburgh's airport is converting extended spaces into long-term spaces closer to the terminal to handle new demand from Southwest and, in June, JetBlue. Last year, it converted employee parking into long-term spaces.