Should Old Acquaintances Be Forgot

Just an end of the year musing on something that Pittsburgh has admirably and fully now moved past: the loss of US Airways’ hub.  It was much more than an acquaintance.  US Airways and Pittsburgh were akin to a married couple.  But this relationship definitely deserves to “be forgot”.

For me, the blessedly last insult came when US Airways final scheduled flight made stops in Phoenix, Charlotte and Philly, bypassing Pittsburgh, the city that gave birth to the airline.  But that shouldn’t have surprised anyone knowing that American Airlines’ CEO Doug Parker was at that point in control of the corporate joystick.  A convicted drunk driver, (one of his arrests was related to festivities celebrating America West Airlines – “America’s worst” in my deliberately limited experience with them - takeover of USAir), Mr. Parker was considered a wunderkind at the start of his career at American Airlines but the path to corporate dominance would have required patience so he left for Lufthansa and then did a midair turn back to America West. Thus began his ascent to claim his place back at the top of his ultimate goal, American Airlines.  Along that flight path he jettisoned assets [workers, airport hubs, prior corporate agreements with government entities] as if they were excess fuel.  Pittsburgh and Greater Pitt was his biggest dump.

So now there’s no more US Airways [Useless Airways to many frequent fliers] on which to focus our opprobrium.  PIT now has the line-up of air-carriers standard at mid-sized, non-coastal airports [although I would like to see Alaska and Virgin added] with American in a somewhat outsized role due to history.  I know that frequent flier rewards programs are what inextricably bind many travelers to a particular brand, for better and worse. [Full disclosure: I’m a Million Miler on Delta.  Please know that MM status, along with an advanced booking, will get you ….maybe an exit row seat.]  So with American’s full transfer of US Airways FF program miles over to their own, the tendency in Pittsburgh’s frequent fliers flock, especially business travelers, will be to stick with American.  We should hope that tendency gets diluted over time.

Delta is the airline that, admittedly with local government subsidies that are, in turn, fairly standard at smaller airports, brought PIT back to having a non-stop European route.  OK, understood that it’s not a year round route but it’s a solid start.  Globetrotting Pittsburghers, especially higher-fare business travelers, should go out of their way to patronize that service.  And Southwest seems to be cautiously but continually adding to their routes from PIT.  I’m sure it caused some head scratching at SWA’s Love Field HQ when Pennsylvanians did not embrace Southwest’s PIT to PHL service.  It was that very route type, so similar to DAL-HOU or DAL-AUS, which built Southwest: intra-state city pairs that are many hours of driving time apart.  Sorry, US Airways frequent flier program had hogtied Pennsylvanians and consequently sucked more of their travel dollars to Phoenix HQ in order to finance Parker’s larger vision.  A vision where Pittsburgh now gives no whiff of competition to Philly.  Or Charlotte.  And as inside the company rumors have it, both those current hubs are about to be supplanted by Miami, a gateway almost equidistant from Europe, Latin America and Africa.  [Please don’t forget about the southern hemisphere where the world’s future is being born, literally.]

So wise up Pittsburgh.  Shake off old habits. Ring in some new.  You’ve now got more options than most mid-size airports.  Use them.  Or ultimately lose them and pay the price with higher fares and lower regional economic growth.

Let’s Note This One

It’s sometimes a good thing to look back, compare and then cogitate over events.  In the December 2, 2015 Federal Reserve “Beige Book” report, it was noted that for the Fourth Federal Reserve District, which includes western PA, sales of “new and existing homes rose almost 10%” compared with a year ago.  And “nonresidential contractors reported continued strong activity” in the commercial building sector.

On the same day, the National Association of Realtors in its 2016 forecast predicted Pittsburgh would be the second hottest housing market for millennials, pushed out only by Atlanta and ahead of Austin, Boston and Nashville.

The “Post-Gazette” reports that the millennial population of Pittsburgh is growing faster than the national average, with researchers at Cleveland State University’s [Cleveland!] Center for Population Dynamics saying “you could argue that Pittsburgh is the fastest-rising metro in the country in its population of college-educated 25-to34 year olds”.

And WalletHub, one of those popular sites that provides so many “best of” lists, has Pittsburgh pegged in the top 20 of Best Cities to Live ahead of Minneapolis and Charlotte and right next to Washington, D.C. and Portland.

At the same time, the Beige Book report quoted above also notes the following in the Fourth District economy: “The steel industry continues to struggle against an array of headwinds …”

How many years ago was it that if the steel industry struggled, Pittsburgh was on its knees.  Increased housing sales?  Growing population?  Forget it!  Remember a generation ago when the expression was “if the US economy gets a cold, Pittsburgh gets the flu”?  What a remarkable change has occurred.

Pittsburghers have always been proud of their city – and with good reason – but I also contend not proud enough.  Now let’s take some note of what has been wrought from our hills and river valleys.  And note it with real pride.