We said, 'There has never been an airport that has gone into bankruptcy . . . and we are not going to be the first,' " said Jeff Letwin, solicitor for the Allegheny County Airport Authority, which manages the airport.
Airport officials, led by Allegheny County Airport Authority director Kent George, clawed back by recruiting US Airways' low-fare rivals to fill some of the empty space. The first victory was the arrival of Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, which now has 12 percent of the airport's traffic two years after starting service here, making it No. 2 after US Airways. JetBlue arrived last June.
The new competition forced US Airways, still the No. 1 carrier with more than 40 percent of all traffic, to lower its fares on select routes.
Average ticket prices at Pittsburgh International fell to $136 one way, lower than the national average, contributing to a steady rise in so-called "origin and destination" passengers -- those who begin or end their trip in Pittsburgh.
In 2006, there were 8.2 million of these passengers, a record for the airport and up 9 percent from 2001. These passengers now account for 82.6 percent of all traffic at the airport compared with 37.5 percent in 2001, when US Airways used the airport as a place primarily to connect people from city to city. Meanwhile, the airport's debt is due to drop below $500 million this year.
"The real story is the Pittsburgh airport not only survived the demise of the hub, but it's thriving," said Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato.
Mr. George argues this piece of the airport story does not get enough publicity. "Passengers are going up," said Mr. George, and "fares are going down.
"I bet people don't know that."
But there is a trade-off, said Sean McCurdy, vice president of the Pittsburgh Business Travel Association and global director of worldwide sales for hospitality operator Interstate Hotels Inc.
The era of monopoly pricing -- a system that drove some local travelers to Cleveland in searching of lower fares -- is over. But in its place is a system of fewer nonstop destinations (dropping from a pre-9-11 high of 110 to today's 64) and daily departures (dropping from 600 to 244) and no direct flights overseas.
"You can feel the loss of those direct flights," said Mr. McCurdy, zipping up a suitcase for a business trip last week to New York.
A "road warrior," Mr. McCurdy likes the lower prices now available at Pittsburgh International, but as a business traveler who needs to get places quickly and efficiently, he had been willing to pay the higher prices in exchange for the convenience afforded by many more flying options to all parts of the country, including the West Coast. "Can I still get to where I need to go?" he said. "Absolutely."
"But it does take more time and a little more work."
When he flies to New York, Mr. McCurdy still chooses US Airways, which lands at LaGuardia International Airport. He has yet to fly JetBlue in the year since it started service to John F. Kennedy International.
Many other business travelers are making the same buying decision, said Mr. Luceno, JetBlue's manager of national sales. Consider the route from Pittsburgh to Boston. Before JetBlue arrived, the average one-way fare was $178, with US Airways the only major option. After JetBlue's arrival, the average fare dropped by 46 percent to $97, according to JetBlue, and the total number of daily passengers doubled to 409. While JetBlue netted 109 of the new passengers, US Airways got 96, bringing its overall share of that route to 62.9 percent, or 257 total passengers.
JetBlue, with two flights daily to Boston, now has 26 percent of the passengers on that route.
"Changing buyer habits is not going to change overnight," Mr. Luceno said. "We definitely understand that." But more needs to be done, he said, to educate business travelers and CEOs "on the significance of our existence in the marketplace. Had we not started flying to New York and Boston, that average fare wouldn't change." Having JetBlue in Pittsburgh and supporting it "is like your insurance policy that low fares are there to stay in the marketplace."
Pittsburgh International is littered with the past failures of low-fare upstarts that came and went due to US Airways' market power and its ability to match prices on certain routes. A decade or so ago, ValuJet, Nation's Air and JetTrain all started and then ended service. Independence Air followed in the early part of this decade only to fold in early 2006 amid a larger industry slump. ValuJet later changed its name to AirTran Airways and, amid high expectations, launched service to New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Atlanta, but due to a lack of local support, it dropped the flights to New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. Southwest has expanded three times and now offers 23 daily flights, but it also struggled with competition on the Philadelphia and Chicago routes, and a local group known as the Regional Air Service Partnership dipped into a $250,000 marketing budget to help Southwest with some radio ads to publicize those routes.
"You have to empathize with the airport authority in trying to build back momentum after a devastating loss," said Kevin Mitchell of the Business Travel Coalition, which represents business travelers. "They are doing everything that is part of the playbook to get carriers and service back in there. There is no glossing over the fact that it is a long and uphill battle
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07175/796510-28.stm
Airport officials, led by Allegheny County Airport Authority director Kent George, clawed back by recruiting US Airways' low-fare rivals to fill some of the empty space. The first victory was the arrival of Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, which now has 12 percent of the airport's traffic two years after starting service here, making it No. 2 after US Airways. JetBlue arrived last June.
The new competition forced US Airways, still the No. 1 carrier with more than 40 percent of all traffic, to lower its fares on select routes.
Average ticket prices at Pittsburgh International fell to $136 one way, lower than the national average, contributing to a steady rise in so-called "origin and destination" passengers -- those who begin or end their trip in Pittsburgh.
In 2006, there were 8.2 million of these passengers, a record for the airport and up 9 percent from 2001. These passengers now account for 82.6 percent of all traffic at the airport compared with 37.5 percent in 2001, when US Airways used the airport as a place primarily to connect people from city to city. Meanwhile, the airport's debt is due to drop below $500 million this year.
"The real story is the Pittsburgh airport not only survived the demise of the hub, but it's thriving," said Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato.
Mr. George argues this piece of the airport story does not get enough publicity. "Passengers are going up," said Mr. George, and "fares are going down.
"I bet people don't know that."
But there is a trade-off, said Sean McCurdy, vice president of the Pittsburgh Business Travel Association and global director of worldwide sales for hospitality operator Interstate Hotels Inc.
The era of monopoly pricing -- a system that drove some local travelers to Cleveland in searching of lower fares -- is over. But in its place is a system of fewer nonstop destinations (dropping from a pre-9-11 high of 110 to today's 64) and daily departures (dropping from 600 to 244) and no direct flights overseas.
"You can feel the loss of those direct flights," said Mr. McCurdy, zipping up a suitcase for a business trip last week to New York.
A "road warrior," Mr. McCurdy likes the lower prices now available at Pittsburgh International, but as a business traveler who needs to get places quickly and efficiently, he had been willing to pay the higher prices in exchange for the convenience afforded by many more flying options to all parts of the country, including the West Coast. "Can I still get to where I need to go?" he said. "Absolutely."
"But it does take more time and a little more work."
When he flies to New York, Mr. McCurdy still chooses US Airways, which lands at LaGuardia International Airport. He has yet to fly JetBlue in the year since it started service to John F. Kennedy International.
Many other business travelers are making the same buying decision, said Mr. Luceno, JetBlue's manager of national sales. Consider the route from Pittsburgh to Boston. Before JetBlue arrived, the average one-way fare was $178, with US Airways the only major option. After JetBlue's arrival, the average fare dropped by 46 percent to $97, according to JetBlue, and the total number of daily passengers doubled to 409. While JetBlue netted 109 of the new passengers, US Airways got 96, bringing its overall share of that route to 62.9 percent, or 257 total passengers.
JetBlue, with two flights daily to Boston, now has 26 percent of the passengers on that route.
"Changing buyer habits is not going to change overnight," Mr. Luceno said. "We definitely understand that." But more needs to be done, he said, to educate business travelers and CEOs "on the significance of our existence in the marketplace. Had we not started flying to New York and Boston, that average fare wouldn't change." Having JetBlue in Pittsburgh and supporting it "is like your insurance policy that low fares are there to stay in the marketplace."
Pittsburgh International is littered with the past failures of low-fare upstarts that came and went due to US Airways' market power and its ability to match prices on certain routes. A decade or so ago, ValuJet, Nation's Air and JetTrain all started and then ended service. Independence Air followed in the early part of this decade only to fold in early 2006 amid a larger industry slump. ValuJet later changed its name to AirTran Airways and, amid high expectations, launched service to New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Atlanta, but due to a lack of local support, it dropped the flights to New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. Southwest has expanded three times and now offers 23 daily flights, but it also struggled with competition on the Philadelphia and Chicago routes, and a local group known as the Regional Air Service Partnership dipped into a $250,000 marketing budget to help Southwest with some radio ads to publicize those routes.
"You have to empathize with the airport authority in trying to build back momentum after a devastating loss," said Kevin Mitchell of the Business Travel Coalition, which represents business travelers. "They are doing everything that is part of the playbook to get carriers and service back in there. There is no glossing over the fact that it is a long and uphill battle
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07175/796510-28.stm
