"Traffic at Pittsburgh airport drops 20 percent"

Friday, December 9, 2005

Traffic at Pittsburgh airport drops 20 percent
The Pittsburgh (PA) Business Times


The number of people flying in and out of Pittsburgh International Airport
in October dropped 20 percent from a year ago, which the airport's operator
attributed largely to a precipitous drop in the use of US Airways Group Inc.

 
Although nine of 12 airlines operating at Pittsburgh International saw
increases in passenger traffic this October from a year ago, including an
87-percent jump from America West -- which merged with US Airways in
September -- overall traffic fell 20.6 percent as US Airways lost 40.7
percent of its riders. 

In October, a total of 874,677 passengers boarded or got off planes in
Pittsburgh, down from about 1.1 million in October 2004. US Airways had
476,363 passengers in October, and while that was more than five times as
much as Southwest Airlines, the No. 2 carrier that month, it was still down
sharply from the 803,468 year-over-year. 

US Airways handled less than 55 percent of the total traffic at the airport,
according to the Allegheny County Airport Authority, while Southwest, which
began service from Pittsburgh in May, had about 9.5 percent. 

Southwest is steadily gaining popularity, Pittsburgh airport officials said.


"We have been seeing this trend for some time," said Kent George, executive
director of the Airport Authority. "The gains in traffic originating in
Pittsburgh (from Southwest) are positive for the airport and the region." 

US Airways, now based in Tempe, Ariz., still considers Pittsburgh a
secondary hub, but in recent years has reduced its flights from the city by
more than half to about 200 flights a day.

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