Where Would US Air Go?

ntspelich · Tue Aug 05, 2003 2:58 am

While it appears that the state, Allegheny County Airport Authority and US Air continue to negotiate US Air's leases at both PIT and PHL, I remember in the past David Siegel, rather rudely, saying that US didn't need the city of Pittsburgh or the airport since plenty of other airports wanted US to establish a hub there. I know that Siegel later apologized to the governor and mayor for making this comment, but he didn't retract the part about moving. Where would US go if they did leave PIT?

luv2fly · Tue Aug 05, 2003 3:46 am

STL would be my first bet. Maybe IND tho that would be a long shot. Also maybe they would operate with the hubs of PHL, CLT and DCA and the strong focus cities that they have? Who says they have to replace PIT with another hub per say. Remember they now have a code share with UA and are or soon to be part of the Star Alliance.

ntspelich · Tue Aug 05, 2003 3:53 am

I was thinking STL since AA is on its way out (for the most part), but then I was thinking that it appears quite a few carriers are at least thinking of increasing STL ops. Additionally, wouldn't it be difficult to go from almost a minimal presence at STL (11 flights today, all ERJ or CRJ and none to their hub at DCA) to running a hub out of it?

But, I agree, if they were to open another hub it would most definetly have to be more to the west than they currently are basing ops.

N670UW · Tue Aug 05, 2003 4:12 am

IMO, I don't think US would ever make it in STL. Running RJ's everywhere against WN (whom I do think will expand if AA abandons STL) isn't going to be the answer.

BTW, STL isn't even a mainline station for US. RJ's from all three hubs is the STL operation.

UNITED777ORD · Tue Aug 05, 2003 4:32 am

USAirways does not need to establish a hub at STL...They need to focus on the cities that they already serve. Maybe add 2 or 3 more flights each to PHL, PIT, and CLT.

-United777ORD-

contrails · Tue Aug 05, 2003 4:55 am

I don't think US will ever challenge WN again. Every time in the past they've tried WN has whipped them.

If I were the big guy at US, I'd think "outside the box". There are several places where WN doesn't go that US might make work. One that comes to mind is Witchita, KS. There's also Colorado Springs, and Tallahasse, to name a couple. There are undboubtdly other airports besides these.

I'd love to see them try something like this.

gigneil · Tue Aug 05, 2003 5:07 am

I dunno about COS as a hub airport for a full service carrier. There just aren't open gates in the main concourse, and only 6 in the East concourse, which US could take, but what about ticket counters?

There's also almost nothing to do in terms of food or shopping.

I thought about COS being a great place for US in the past... but with Star Alliance partner UA at DEN, and relatively weak O/D from the city to nonleisure destinations, who knows.

WP only served 22 cities from COS at their height, and while every plane went out almost full, who knows what the yields were.

N

ssides · Tue Aug 05, 2003 6:32 am

US Airways would benefit by simply eliminating their PIT hub. There's no real reason for it -- why have two big hubs in one high-cost labor state, less than 250 miles from each other? It makes no sense. The airline and its passengers can be served just as well with hubs at PHL and CLT.

usairways85 · Tue Aug 05, 2003 8:59 am

With the way US is doing financially they are in no situation to completely close a major hub and move all their facilities to another city such as STL where they will face fierce competition from Southwest. The only reason US wants to close PIT is because apparently they are not seeing it has a money-maker any more and feel they should close it. Their intentions are not to close PIT so they can move somewhere else. If PIT closes PHL and CLT will see an increase in flights along with BOS, LGA, and DCA. You will not see STL has a US hub for a long time, if ever.

N628AU · Tue Aug 05, 2003 10:37 am

I don't think US will ever challenge WN again. Every time in the past they've tried WN has whipped them.

Not quite true. US has historically ran from, not challenged WN.

Bluewave 707 · Tue Aug 05, 2003 12:43 pm

After gobbling up the much loved PSA in the late 80's, you would think that US Air would have such a strong foothold in the West Coast market. They obviously dropped the ball on that one. American and Northwest grew their West Coast ops after devouring AirCal and Hughes AirWest respectively. At least with those smaller carriers, airfare was competitive in routes like LAX-SFO. Now, you have to pay an arm and a leg to fly that route, unless you fly WN. The west coast market is too crowded. US Air basically blew it. True, if they had stayed, it probably would be a more competitive market, and it would truly be US AIR, but they decided to stay on the east.

haveric · Tue Aug 05, 2003 12:53 pm

Bluewave -- that news is about 5-10 years old. I think US made those mistakes about 5 CEOs ago....

Where Would US Air Go?

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