Is the Airport a Money Pit?

For all the griping about the North Shore Connector, how come no one gripes about the Pittsburgh "International" Airport. This money pit has been attempting to sink the county since 2001 when a series of unfortunate events finally conspired to yank the title of major airport hub from this mid-sized city airport. It was inevitable. Yet, in 1992, the airport was expanded??? After years of awful unemployment and folks leaving in droves, someone thought it'd be a great idea to expand this airport? At the time, the new airport buildings were "also being seen as a way to lift the economy." Talk about a boondoggle.

Nowadays, we've enticed (read: spent lots of money on) Delta to operate a non-stop flight to Paris and the powers-that-be have spent millions of dollars attempting to link this mediocre airport to the city instead of actually building a viable downtown to Oakland transit connection. If they were really concerned about inter-city travel, $1 Billion would have been much better spent on having more than one train per day to cities like Cleveland, Philadelphia, Harrisburg and New York.

Pittsburgh needs an airport, but *gasp* I agree with Onorato. Sell off the airport parking garages, make the airport solvent, and let's get the hell out of dodge.

Less Flights = Less Flyers?

Thanks for the intensive investigative reporting from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, we learn that this July there were less flyers than last July. Of course, a helpful and downright useful metric would also involve the difference in flights offered between this July and last July. I'm guessing the drop in capacity was more than the 10% drop in flyers.

It is, of course, hugely unsurprising and highly pleasing that the locally-reviled US Airways saw a 30% decline in their number of passengers while 8 of the 13 airlines that service Pittsburgh saw at least a marginal increase. Since US Airways is on their way out the door anyways, everyone feel free to give them a push in the right direction.

This summer, I've taken Delta and Continental out of Pittsburgh, and I have an upcoming flight from AirTran, and I plan to continue that non-US Airways trend.

(reference: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_586575.html)