Originally Posted by
jucundus
Hello, everyone!
As a CP who's flown out of PIT a lot since 2003, I can lay a large part of the blame (or credit, I guess, if you hate PIT) at the feet of Allegheny County. True, the post-9/11 downturn in revenue at the AirMall shops made it hard to keep paying for the "new" airport, but the people on the Airport Authority Board did very little to try and keep US Airways in Pittsburgh. I guess the job losses have been hashed through again and again on this and other forums, but the pre-merger corporate people were certainly not alone in their responsibility for trashing what (I thought was) a good hub. The county itself bears a huge burden of guilt on this one, IMHO, for their rather pricey terms on the lease renewals. (Correct me, please, if I'm wrong.)
As a former resident of the area, I can tell you you are wrong.
US dumped the leases on an airport that was
built to their exact specifications in the early 1990s. The board, properly, did not bend over and take it from US twice: they threatened to leave in the early 1990s if the hub was not built to their needs, and then proceeded to dump the leases in BK at literally the 11th hour and 59th minute (the last day of the first BK)--after assurances were made that the leases would be assumed.
Entirely on US.