here it is folks finally pit is very slowly growing:

US Airways flying back to Pittsburgh


By Bryan Benner
For The Collegian
US Airways is resuming flights between Pittsburgh and State College effective today, nearly one year after discontinuing service.

"A lot of people requested this," said Dave Neufer, manager of the State College US Airways Express operation. He said reinstating the flights is a "response to the public."

The last US Airways Express flight between State College and Pittsburgh was Nov. 7, 2004.

One daily arrival and departure are scheduled; the arrival is at 2:15 p.m., after leaving Pittsburgh at 1:20 p.m., according to the US Airways Web site. The aircraft has a twenty-minute turnaround and leaves for Pittsburgh at 2:35 p.m., arriving by 3:35.

Flights will be piloted by Piedmont Airlines, a subsidiary of US Airways and one of 10 airlines operating as US Airways Express.

Piedmont will operate the de Havilland DHC-8 "Dash 8," a high-wing, turboprop aircraft that seats 37 passengers and a crew of three, between State College and Pittsburgh.

State College Mayor Bill Welch noted that the cancellation of flights to Pittsburgh was "only a recent interruption ... I'm glad to see that [US Airways] came to its senses." Airline access to major metropolitan areas is "certainly a major factor" in potential business growth, Welch said.

Recently, US Airways has shifted more flights away from Pittsburgh. In 2004, there were 56 daily departures by US Airways mainline; US Airways Express accounted for 155 more, according to the US Airways Web site.

Mainline flights have been cut by more than half since US Airways demoted Pittsburgh from a hub to a "focus city," which is a city with less air traffic. By comparison, US Airways (mainline and express combined) flies 528 flights daily from Charlotte and 472 from Philadelphia.

US Airways spokesman David Castelveter said they were adding one flight per day.

"[It will] just provide more connecting opportunities," he said.

The cheapest price available for a roundtrip flight from State College to Pittsburgh is about $461. By comparison, a flight to Los Angeles and back costs just under $439, Castelveter said.

Alaina Scalercio, an STA Travel agent, approved of the newly restored flight service as "another option for travelers." As Pittsburgh native, she said, "It's good to be able to get home."

This isn't growing - this is resuming services.

"Coming to their senses" is probably the best way to phrase it.

-JC

Did the Feds subsidize this route in the past? If so why did they give it up?

And no one in their right mind is going to fly SCE to PIT unless it's to destinations outside of PIT. The airfares btw the 2 cities is over $400. Hell?!
Even SCE to PHL is over $400.00. And in a DASH 8 to boot?! UGH!!


US will not make any money on this route if it's strictly to get to PIT from SCE.

An SFO-SMF round-trip of 80 miles each way is $380 on UA/Skywest. $460 for a 135-mile trip each way doesn't seem out of line.

Look, nobody has cheap airfares on point-to-point prop flights. These flights are extremely unprofitable unless you're also filling a seat and paying a fare on a connecting jet. US Airways doesn't want to fill the limited seats with a local passenger - they'd rather hold it open for a connecting pax. The number of O&D pax who are going to fly SCE-PIT is probably tiny. You can drive it in a couple hours.

Short-distance air travel CASM is not recoverable unless there is high capacity and high O&D - LGA-DCA, for example, or LAX-LAS. Small-town prop service doesn't fit the model.

Hmmm... $450 on a Dash-8 vs. two and a half hours driving.

And I'd have to believe there are better connection options through PHL.

Strange.

Welcome to irrational pricing. Fly through, save a bundle. Fly to, save the money and drive.

One thing interestingly enough, for a few months they had a Y8 fare SCE-MDT/LNS for $160RT. Gone nowadays, though.

It's not irrational... it's economics. Prop service to tiny towns is unprofitable unless you're connecting elsewhere, so the fares are designed to discourage local traffic.

US is not going to make money on 37 SCE-PIT O&D customers a day paying "Southwest"-style short-hop fares to fly a turboprop. Ergo, they want connecting traffic paying bigger bucks to fly through PIT to somewhere else.

Good to hear that some cities are coming back to PIT, but I don't understand US's logic here. Where do they expect these people to connect to? So many cities have been/will be cut that there are only so many places you can go from PIT now.

IE: SAN, ATL, MHT, DAY, BNA, FRA, LGW, etc etc are all gone.

Good to hear that some cities are coming back to PIT, but I don't understand US's logic here. Where do they expect these people to connect to? So many cities have been/will be cut that there are only so many places you can go from PIT now.

IE: SAN, ATL, MHT, DAY, BNA, FRA, LGW, etc etc are all gone.


I don't think PAX like to backtrack to PHL when flying westward to cities such as ORD, DEN, LAX, SFO, PHX, LAS, etc. Maybe this is why Elmira, Binghamton etc. connect in PIT. Also, when US dropped Latrobe, PA, Northwest scooped up the route. Maybe they are protecting the route? Maybe there is some political pressure from somewhere. Who knows.

Given the opportunity, I would connect through PIT (sted PHL) anytime. I wish they would reinstate IPT (Williamsport) - PIT. As mentioned above, I would prefer not to backtrack to PHL on my west coast trips.