Pittsburgh International Airport has Lots of Airlines, But Few Want to Fly to Philadelphia

Oct. 28—To paraphrase W.C. Fields, few airlines would rather be in Philadelphia — at least in terms of service from Pittsburgh.

For decades, the route between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's two largest cities, has been dominated by a single carrier — the former US Airways, now part of American Airlines.

And despite the emergence of ultra low-cost alternatives like Spirit, Allegiant, Frontier, Breeze and Contour in recent years, no one sees that changing anytime soon.

"There are far better places to put an airplane if you're a competitor," said Michael Boyd, a Colorado-based aviation consultant.

The last airline to try to cut into the US Airways/American monopoly between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia — Southwest — ended up scrapping its flights after seven years.

Southwest CEO Gary Kelly has described the decision as a "personal disappointment." Philadelphia was one of four cities Southwest flew to when it first launched service from Pittsburgh International Airport in 2005.

With one-way fares starting as low as $29, it went toe-to-toe with US Airways to try to carve out a slice of the market. But in the end, it found demand to be "extraordinarily weak," as Mr. Kelly put it in a 2011 earnings call.

That's despite the fact that Philadelphia was the second top destination behind Orlando for Pittsburgh travelers at the time. Still, Southwest couldn't fill its planes much more than halfway.

One reason: To counter the Southwest gambit, US Airways slashed its own fares to match those of its rival.

As a result, many business travelers with US Airways frequent flyer miles chose to stick with that airline rather than switch to the upstart.

Given what happened to Southwest, some airlines still may be hesitant to take another shot at the market, said William Swelbar, chief industry analyst at the Swelbar-Zhong consultancy in Virginia.

"I think that caught everyone by surprise," he said. "If Southwest can't do it, nobody can do it, right?"

That doesn't mean the airport has given up.

"We are always talking to carriers about additional service at PIT, whether that's Philadelphia or any market. We've seen growth from both ultra low-cost carriers and legacy carriers in the past year based on our strong market demand," spokesman Bob Kerlik said.

"As we recover from the pandemic, we continue to work toward new opportunities for travelers to a wide variety of destinations."

During a 2016 interview, Mr. Kelly said Southwest might give Philadelphia another shot at some point. But right now that does not appear to be in the cards.

A Southwest spokesman said the airline doesn't "speak speculatively about routes that aren't published and available to our customers."

Likewise, ultra low-cost Spirit, which has risen to become the Pittsburgh airport's fifth-largest carrier, has no plans to start service between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in the near future, spokesman Erik Hofmeyer said.

"However, we're always monitoring and looking for opportunities to provide new service to our guests," he said.

American flies four to five times a day between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. With no competition, fares haven't exactly been a bargain for travelers.

The average one-way fare in 2019 before the pandemic was $274. It was $172 during the 2021 second quarter.

Beyond the Southwest experience, there are other reasons airlines haven't jumped at the chance to serve Philadelphia, experts said.

Over the past decade, even before the pandemic, demand in business markets like Philadelphia had declined 40% to 60%, Mr. Boyd said.

"It's a dog market," he said. "It's not a big enough market to attract anybody else in their right mind."

With the emergence of Zoom and other technologies, businesses have found less of a need to fly their employees across the state.

"Thirty years ago, I had to go to Philadelphia to meet with the rest of the team and to exchange documents. Today, it is all done online," Mr. Boyd said.

In 2019, before the pandemic, the Pittsburgh- Philadelphia route generated 178 passengers per day each way, excluding those connecting to another destination, international or domestic.

While that number was healthy, it "could not support multiple carriers unless fare cuts stimulated demand," Mr. Swelbar said.

"Given American's strength on both ends, the staying power of even a low-cost carrier to operate at a loss would be on the short end," he said.

With business travel still down significantly because of COVID-19, the route produced only 32 passengers a day each way in the second quarter of this year.

Furthermore, even in the best of times, the Pittsburgh- Philadelphia route is typically not one that would attract ultra low-cost carriers, which are geared more toward leisure markets.

"There's a lot of business traffic, people going back and forth. That is not who the really low-cost carrier caters to. You need multiple frequencies in that market. That's typically not what [ultra low-cost carriers] do," Mr. Swelbar said.

Mr. Boyd pointed out that markets also can change over time. He said the Boston-Albany route, for example, at one time generated 40,000 travelers a year.

"Today, there's nobody there," he said.

As for Pittsburgh- Philadelphia, neither he nor Mr. Swelbar sees any other airline trying it soon, no matter how much local travelers would like to see more competition.

"Right now, people are going to be a little risk averse as they rebuild their networks. If American was strong pre-pandemic, they're going to be strong post-pandemic and that's probably not where I should put my toe in the water," Mr. Swelbar said.

" Pittsburgh- Philadelphia would come with some risk."

Mark Belko: [email protected] or 412-263-1262.

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