Shuttle America Pulls Plug On Pit

[ITRADE]

They may have the attrition rate, but other pilots are steadily flowing up.

Colgan seems an option. Looking back on some stuff, they operated only about 11 aircraft about 3 years ago. They're up to 27 now - even after losing one off MVY.

 

[ITRADE]

OK.....SA is running about 100 flights on the high days. 47 or so departures out of PIT. That would require the coverage of at least 15 or 20 planes.

As I mentioned earlier, I'd look for some additional pickup by TSA and Colgan.

Kinda sad. I think that the DO-328s would be a perfect aircraft for a start up carrier.

 

[Rob]

Many of the comments seem to indicate that service will be replaced. This report from the P-G says service to the smaller cities will simply go away.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04148/322410.stm

I don't know SA's costs relative to Colgan's; but from DOT filings, we do know that Mesa (Air Midwest) is cheaper on a seat-mile basis than Colgan, with both operating B1900s. If anybody takes over the small cities, it would most likely by Mesa, no?

 

[dfw79]

If US Airways is considering replacing some cities like Toledo with just Beeches to PIT, they might as well just pull the plug on the whole thing. Since mainline pulled out in 2001 - the market has gone completely down hill. They were doing okay when they went from 2 F-100s and 2 D328s to 4 ERJs and 2 328s, and managed okay when they went to 5 DH8s and 1 ERJ...but when they went all prop (read: all Shuttle)...the market just completely fell apart. Their unreliable nature drove most of the passengers to Delta or ATA. During the time period when they had just the one jet...it had the highest load factor of any other flight, including ones in the morning or during other peak times. People here wanted jets...when US took them away, the passengers went as well.

US went from the largest airline here to one of the smallest...seems to be a typical experience. Delta is king now and the airport is working with them to start service to New York and Dallas. They have also started talking with Indy Air and JetBlue...only a matter of time I guess.

 

[airbiiguy]

They wont bring beeches, theres no point , as u said pull the plug save the pax and workers the embarassment of that.