Does PIT really need a new terminal?
 

I have only been through the present Pittsburgh International Airport once, in 1995, just a few years after the new complex opened. It consists of a landslide building and an X shaped airside building (with airside mall) connected by an underground tram system. The four arms of the airside building have 75 gates.

The airport authority is embarking on a plan to demolish the existing landslide building and move it up against the airside terminal. This would eliminate the underground train and also a number of the gates.

The airport authority claims that the existing airport design was built to the specifications of US Air when that airline had a hub there and as that airline withdrew from using it as a hub in favor of PHL and CLT, the design no longer "works". The airport had 21 million annual passengers at the height of hub status in 1997 but had 9 million passengers in 2018.

Just curious for any more recent perspectives on this. What are operational flaws or problems at the existing PIT? It seemed like a perfectly functional design to me.

Wikipedia article on airport: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh_International_Airport

Moving thread to the FT Destinations-- Mid-Atlantic Forum
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

The authority "claims" is was built to USAir's specifications because it was.

If you haven't been there since 1995 then you'll need to imagine what a facility built for 21M passengers looks like with 9M passengers. One terminal is shut down, others are closed off/boarded up half way down the hallway. The infrastructure is similarly underutilized.

If they can sell/lease the recovered land to pay for the investment, and improve security flow, remove the need to take a people mover from one terminal to the other, etc., it seems like a logical move to me. (I haven't analyzed the numbers, but if they're correct, it makes sense).

Does it "need" it? No, it can function as it does today. But I have no issues making it better.

The airport functions at roughly 42% of its design. Why on earth would it not try to staunch some of the expenses?

Sometimes, one has to spend some money to save more.

I would guess they will sell or lease some of the land for a hotel.
Exactly.

I believe it can be fixed for much less. A new landside terminal is not cheap. Furthermore, the land is not flat so there's some grading that will need to be done to bring the traffic up to the X structure.

I think they should just fix the roof if it is leaking, close off one or two of the concourses, leaving 2 left and consider whether it's cheaper to keep the train or convert it to a walkway with moving sidewalks.

If you close off concourses, you still have some expenses with them and you can't "earn" any revenue from them. If they can demolish the existing landside building and lease the land to hospitality companies or other corporations, they can earn revenue, even as a one time payment.

MDT tore down their old terminal and it seems to have opened up opportunities.

https://www.pennlive.com/midstate/20..._airpo_33.html

Avflight opens new 5,000-square-foot home at HIA; It runs many airport operations | Press & Journal

I’ve read there is a quirk with the design of the existing PIT terminal whereby some arriving passengers (international flights, if I recall), have to pass through TSA security in order to exit the airport?

if this is the case, what makes it so?

I don’t think you have to pass through TSA on returning from another country if your final destination is Pittsburgh. I have returned to Pittsburgh on the BA nonstop from London several times & did not have to go through TSA.

There was once such a system in place when PIT was a US Air hub. Passengers arriving into PIT on an international flight would do this:

1) go through immigration
2) pick up baggage
3) go through customs (declare or nothing to declare)
4. recheck their baggage at U.S. Air desk located just after customs. They would have to recheck baggage whether they were continuing on a connecting U.S. Air flight or had Pittsburgh as their final destination.
5. all passengers would then have to go through security screening to enter the airside terminal.
6. passengers with Pittsburgh as their final destination or making a connecting flight on another airline would have to then take the train to landside to claim their bags.

Here is a U.S. Air video from the mid-1990’s depicting this process of arriving internationally at Pittsburgh in that era.


(relevant part starts at 1:06:35)

Today, the steps are the sane but instead of having TSA to get into Airside, they put everyone on the train to Landside. If you need to connect to a flight, you go through TSA at Landside & catch train to airside.

I am sure that it will change later this year when they close Landside.

Ah, memories of flying through PIT (and PHL and CLT) as one of Stephen Wolf's cockroachs.

In very similar form, though there was tweaking around point 5, SEA was also like this until the new international arrival facility opened. IIRC, wasn't ATL similarly like this until the international terminal fully opened?

Hoping they get rid of the tiles that make your wheel back click annoyingly as you go through the terminal, speed up baggage claim, and get some more routes.

Wow. I just watched the PIT arrival video. And people are complaining about taking moon bugie at IAD.
Talking about insanity. Whoever did the design at PIT should be put in prison for very long time.