Specter Decries Us Airways' Service Cuts

[BoeingBoy]

Specter decries US Airways' service cuts

Tuesday, August 17, 2004
By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter plans to ask US Airways Chief Executive Officer Bruce Lakefield to reconsider the decision by the airline to end daily nonstop service between Pittsburgh and Frankfurt Nov. 7.

Article

Jim

 

[bofie]

That's old election year Arlen for you. Always good for the empty gesture unaccompanied by action.

 

[FM2436]

Specter -- What a jerk. And I'm a Republican. Just because Pittsburgh has a big airport, Specter expects US Airways to keep operating a money losing hub. Unfortunately, this is typical. From elected officials of those like Specter who expect a large hub operation at PIT to the small town city council representative who can't understand why Southwest isn't operating at the airport with maybe 35,000 enplanements a year. They have no conceptual understanding of airline operations and more importantly, simple airline economics.

Maybe Specter should have the Pittsburgh and Frankfurt route included in the Essential Air Service Program.

 

[EyeInTheSky]

Specter -- What a jerk. And I'm a Republican. Just because Pittsburgh has a big airport, Specter expects US Airways to keep operating a money losing hub. Unfortunately, this is typical. From elected officials of those like Specter who expect a large hub operation at PIT to the small town city council representative who can't understand why Southwest isn't operating at the airport with maybe 35,000 enplanements a year. They have no conceptual understanding of airline operations and more importantly, simple airline economics.

Maybe Specter should have the Pittsburgh and Frankfurt route included in the Essential Air Service Program.

[post="169645"][/post]​

By definition a "Senator" is an advocate for the area in which they represent. Don't forget Specter went to bat for this company big time for the ATSB loans and got screwed over when the company filed Chap. 11. There's more to the story here. I think he received a lot of calls from his constituents at Bayer, PPG, Mellon to name a few regarding the cessation of the FRA route.

 

[LaBradford22]

This is so wonderfully ironic, and will become a larger trend throughout the industry in the near future as the hub-and-spoke majors continue to shrink hubs.

People hate big, bad, hub-and-spoke airlines.

People wonder why everyone can't have simple, cheap, point-to-point service like Southwest.

People fly Southwest for cheap fares.

Big, bad, hub-and-spoke airline starts bleeding red ink.

Big, bad, hub-and-spoke airline downsizes hub.

Hub no longer has enough connect traffic to support an international destination like Frankfurt.

So big, bad, hub-and-spoke airline ceases serving Frankfurt.

Senator from big, bad hub-and-spoke airline's state urges big, bad, hub-and-spoke airline to reconsider.

Okay, people - if you want service to places like Frankfurt, there is an added cost in the market associated with supporting this - i.e. the hub-and-spoke system. If you don't want to pay the cost to support the hub, then you no longer have all the juicy destinations from the hub that you once had. This is the exact reason why there will still be legacy carriers (hub-and-spoke) alongside the LCC's well into the future. The LCC model is not a comprehensive transportation model. Never has been, never will be.

 

[N924PS]

In checking USAirways.com it seems the only connecting service on U metal is through PHL. All others are code share Lufthansa. Welcome to the Star Alliance Pittsburgh.