Pittsburgh International Airport is serving as a shelter in the storm — for airplanes.
As airlines slash flights to deal with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Findlay airport is becoming a favored landing spot for unneeded jets.
So far, American Airlines, one of Pittsburgh International’s largest carriers, has parked six Airbus A330 planes at the airport, with more on the way. Christina Cassotis, CEO of the Allegheny County Airport Authority, expects more to follow suit.
The authority, which operates the airport, has been talking to several other airlines about parking planes in Pittsburgh.
“We only have six right now but we’re expecting a lot more in the coming weeks,” Ms. Cassotis said.
Once a major hub for US Airways, now part of American, Pittsburgh International has plenty of space to handle the traffic. Ms. Cassotis estimated it could park “well over 100” planes, depending on their size.
With the hub gone and abundant excess capacity, the airport could use one of four runways and taxiways and ramps to store planes without affecting normal operations, she noted.
It’s not as if the facility lacks experience in such situations. During the G-20 economic summit in Pittsburgh in 2009, it parked dozens of planes of various shapes and sizes at the airport.
In recent years, the airport also has become a popular spot to land planes when bad weather, particularly on the East Coast, causes diversions. Besides the available space, the airport also has the advantage of being close to major hubs on the East Coast and in the Midwest.
While American is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, parking jets in Pittsburgh makes sense since it still operates a maintenance base here for some Airbus models.
“Currently, we are parking aircraft with some of our maintenance bases, including Pittsburgh, Tulsa and Dallas, as well as with long established vendors,” spokeswoman Linda Brock said in a statement.
The airline, she added, plans to park six more Airbus A330s in Pittsburgh this week along with 12 Embraer E190 regional jets.
“This remains fluid and could be subject to change. Parking will be taking place across American’s system over several weeks as our flight schedule is adjusted, so we don’t have a complete total for Pittsburgh right now,” Ms. Brock said.
The wide body A330, which seats nearly 300 passengers, is used fordomestic and international flights. Earlier this month, American announced that it was cutting 75% of its international flights through May 6 and grounding nearly all of its wide-body planes because of the dramatic drop in travel demand caused by the novel coronavirus.
Other airlines are taking similar actions in the face of the pandemic, potentially meaning more business for Pittsburgh.
Demand, Ms. Cassotis said, has “dropped off a cliff and [the airlines] need to make sure they’re being cost conscious.
“We want to make sure we can be part of the solution as everyone is figuring out where to park aircraft.”
Authority officials worked with the Federal Aviation Administration to get approval for a plan to park planes.
The airport charges for the parking but the revenue it generates is not significant, Ms. Cassotis said.
“It does not come close to offsetting what we’re expecting to be down from planes not landing here and passengers not being here,” she said.
Once a plane has parked, it is secured on the airport grounds until it is ready to return to flight.
Mark Belko: [email protected] or 412-263-1262.
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