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US Airways Adds and Cuts Flights

Posted on: Tuesday, 13 September 2005, 21:00 CDT

Sep. 13--For the last four years, local officials have watched helplessly as US Airways cut flight after flight after flight -- hundreds in all -- at Pittsburgh International Airport.

But yesterday, they finally got a bit of good news. The region's dominant carrier will be restoring nonstop service to State College and three New York cities -- Binghamton, Ithaca and Elmira -- over the next two months.

US Airways spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said the flights were restored in part because travelers from those cities did not like connecting through Philadelphia, where the airline has been concentrating service at the expense of Pittsburgh.

"We've heard anecdotally from customers in these cities that they like the Pittsburgh connection, so we're adding these flights back to see how they respond," she said.

But even as the airport gains service on one hand, it will be losing it on the other. Starting Nov. 9, US Airways will be eliminating nonstop service to Altoona, Nashville, Tenn., and Dayton, Ohio, Kudwa said.

The New York and State College trips are the first flights to be added by US Airways at the airport since last spring. It was not immediately known when the airline last added destinations.

It eliminated Pittsburgh as a hub and reclassified it as a "focus city" last November.

"I think it's fabulous. It shows that there's demand to connect through Pittsburgh," Allegheny County Airport Authority spokeswoman JoAnn Jenny said of the restored service.

Starting Oct. 13, US Airways will serve State College with one daily nonstop flight. On Nov. 9, it will start one flight a day to Ithaca and two a day to both Binghamton and Elmira.

Before the flights were cut last fall, US Airways offered three flights a day to Elmira and Ithaca and four a day to Binghamton and State College.

"I think it is an important turn of events for us as well as for the airline and those airports in New York and State College," Airport Authority Executive Director Kent George said.

On Nov. 9, US Airways also will increase the number of daily flights to Johnstown and White Plains, N.Y., from three to four.

When all is said and done, US Airways, as of Nov. 9, will have 206 daily flights out of Pittsburgh, down five from the current 211.

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Copyright (c) 2005, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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