US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - PIT B gates reopening

So the PIT ghosttown is about to get a bit more busy... or is it? Any idea what US is using the extra 11 gates for? Are they just parking spaces or are they moving some flights from A to B making more room in the A gates for WN? Maybe they are just parking planes there to keep WN from using them?

http://www.flypittsburgh.com/NewsEventsServlet?option=pressReleases&shortdescp=1

Ideas?

The US operation at PIT isn't getting any busier (in fact they're cutting deeper into the bone up there). Opening the additional gate in the B concourse is so that they can shift flights from the C concourse over to B. Also, there are times during morning and evening rush when mainline jets are backing up waiting for planes to push back from occupied gates. Obviously the snowball effect can be quite profound.

Moving everything from C to B also cuts back on expenses and wasted time having ground and flight crews bouncing back and forth between the concourses. I also wouldn't be suprised if some of the RJs move over to B during slower times of the so the airport can give another gate or two to WN if they decide to move forward with further expansion at PIT.

Remember, O&D traffic is up, but total traffic is down...way down from PIT's pre-9/11 glory days.

US pax totals are way down of course and only going down further. Meanwhile, WN is already boarding the fourth most pax at PIT with just 10 flights a day! Only US, UA and DL are higher, and another couple flights by WN (already suggested in the press release with their quarterly results, but no times or destinations yet) could put them up to number two pretty easily.

I got this info in a chart from the Pittsburgh Business Times that arrived at work today. Compared I think May pax numbers to previous May. Oddly enough, or perhaps not, DL is actually down in pax while everyone else except US is up. Someone at DL was sleeping.