The Irish airline, Aer Lingus, is again in talks to expand its US footprint, this time at Pittsburgh International Airport.
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Pittsburgh Courting Aer Lingus, Dublin Flights
Pittsburgh is seeking to expand its international footprint and this time, the Steel City is looking toward greener pastures. Officials from the airport and Aer Lingus met to discuss the opportunity and place incentives. The Pittsburgh Steelers (NFL team) are looking to secure a game in Dublin during the regular schedule as the NFL has expanded playing abroad to open the sport to new markets.
“What we have told Aer Lingus as well as every other airline that we’ve spoken to, is that we expect that once a non-stop service is put in… you’ll see that that local market will more than double within one to two years,” [Pittsburgh Airport Authority CEO, Christina Cassotis] said.
Pittsburgh Airport handled 8.1 million passengers last year, of whom just 126,000 were on international flights. In 2019, it handled 9.8 million passengers, with 244,000 of those being international.” – Irish Independent
Pittsburgh’s only other nonstop trans-Atlantic destination is London, England operated by fellow IAG-owned airline, British Airways, six times weekly on a Boeing 787-9 aircraft.
Prior to the pandemic, Pittsburgh had nonstop flights to Reykjavik, Iceland on WOW!, Frankfurt, Germany on Condor, and Paris, France on Delta Air Lines. In the heyday of Pittsburgh’s US Airways hub in the early 2000s, the airport operated 633 flights daily on average with a handful of European destinations.
Subsidies Help Attract Foreign Carriers
Pittsburgh is employing a tactic that many other airports have pioneered over the last two decades. The Pittsburgh Airport Authority will create subsidies to guarantee airlines won’t be risking anything at all by flying to the new destination.
“Pittsburgh Airport is prepared to provide millions of dollars in potential supports to lure an Aer Lingus service from Dublin, according to its chief executive.” – Irish Independent
In essence, the airline shares its books with the airport and any shortfall from sold tickets agreed in the deal is covered by PIT airport.
Cleveland (about 139 miles or 223 km west of downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) followed the same playbook to attract Aer Lingus which started flights this year on an Airbus A321. The cost for Cleveland was more substantial:
“The financial incentive that helped lure Irish airline Aer Lingus to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport totals nearly $12 million over three years, considerably more than initially disclosed.” – Cleveland.com
Sometimes these subsidies are successful. Using Pittsburgh in another example, the airport subsidized $750,000 for two charters on a China Eastern 777-300ER to and from Shanghai. The city is home to Carnegie Mellon, a world-renowned university with one of the leading robotics programs in the country, and a large contingent of mainland Chinese students. Those flights landed nearly full, however, no future Asian service has followed since.
WOW! took home $800,000 for its flights to Iceland, and Condor received $500,000 for seasonal flights to Germany. British Airways, however, received just $1.5MM/annually for a two-year contract back in 2019 – a bargain when compared to Cleveland’s Aer Lingus offer. British Airways ended the flights during COVID, but when it restarted it came back at 5x weekly, then moved to 6x weekly. Coupled with the lower guarantee and additional weekly flight suggests the route has been a success and the subsidies may not be utilized at all.
Equipment May Open More Mid-Markets
Pittsburgh Airport Authority leadership cited the new Airbus A321XLR (Extra Long-Range) as the catalyst for being able to offer the long, thin route. The carrier flies an A321neo to Cleveland and Washington Dulles and has them in the fleet now. United Airlines has ordered 50 A321XLR for similar routes. Aer Lingus also operates Airbus A330 aircraft, but the widebody is not suitable for traffic loads at mid-market airports.
Other airports, specifically in the northeast could be ideal targets for Aer Lingus and carriers like it. Buffalo has a significant business presence but is overshadowed by Toronto, a 75-minute drive north but could be an option and may not have the traffic to support it.
Minneapolis is near the max flyable limit of the A321XLR following a range adjustment this week due to EASA regulations at 3,722 nautical miles (new flyable limit likely to be 3,800 nm to account for new weight and wind challenges.)
Detroit, Milwaukee, Montreal, and Columbus could also be an option for Aer Lingus if it can arrange a similar deal. Delta Air Lines doesn’t currently serve any Irish airports from Detroit, and it could offer oneworld a compelling challenge to SkyTeam by connecting passengers through Dublin onward to European destinations.
Travelers in these cities (with the exception of Detroit) have to connect at least once, but often twice, to get to their European destination for an affordable price. If Aer Lingus was able to offer a one-stop service to millions of people that live in these cities and travel to Europe for work and pleasure, it could be a substantial benefit for the carrier, the passengers, and both economies.
Conclusion
Aer Lingus is in talks with Pittsburgh International Airport for a new service utilizing A321 aircraft. Subsidies that airports like Pittsburgh and Cleveland offer coupled with smaller aircraft capable of longer distances could open up additional markets for the Irish carrier.
What do you think?
Aer Fungus offers very limited options to continental Europe (e.g. no flights to Scandinavia, only a couple of destinations in Eastern Europe) and no short haul business class. This might work as a seasonal service if there are lots of Irish heritage people in the Pittsburgh area generating VFR traffic, but, as an airport wanting to develop connectivity, it’s probably the absolute worst choice among all European flag carriers (well, I suppose technically Czech Airlines would be even worse as they all but disappeared and only fly two or three routes). If they are looking at narrowbody flights, they would be much better off subsidising TAP.
The USAir hub in PIT included nonstop flights to London (Gatwick), Paris, and Frankfurt.
Would love to see Aer Lingus return to Minneapolis, was looking forward to flying that as an option across the Atlantic. SOME connections were feasible, MANY were not (either the flight arrived too late to catch or you’d have to wait 6-7 hours for the next flight). Started the route in 2018 or 2019 and seemed VERY popular (first with a 757 then with an A330) but not sure if it was profitable since the fares seemed VERY cheap. I think that the route not restarting is a sign of disinterest on the part of Aer Lingus…
Better question, why in gods name would anyone want to live or visit that absolute hole or a city pittsburgh. Enjoy cold weather? Gray skies for half the year? An imbred, racist population that’s proud of never leaving? Come to Pittsburgh! Hey we have great hospitals and are better then Cleveland!
@Jim – Maybe it allows Pittsburghers to escape.
Yeah, go to San Francisco, LA or NYC and have the homeless throw p*ss at you. Much better!
Have you been to Pittsburgh recently? It’s a gorgeous city and is quickly trending younger & more educated. While it won’t win any weather awards, it has really been having a moment over the last decade (minus the pandemic obviously). The “hellhole” comments are pretty outdated. Pittsburgh is a giant college / tech town now.
PIT’s service on BA is scheduled on the 787-8, not -9. They definitely do not schedule PIT with a First cabin. Occasionally, it gets swapped to a -9 or -10 because of the aircraft availability issues BA is having. But it is definitely scheduled with a -8.
There’s no doubt Aer Lingus are on to a winner with the A21N, their network has expanded significantly Once the longer range versions are in common use it will be interesting to see how much the market in long haul changes. Big planes and big hubs might be under threat.
Maybe IAG will churn PIT subsidies. Get a subsidy EI and coincidentally cancel the BA service a few months later. 🙂
The only way to fly Aer Lingus is if you’re flying to/from Ireland period. If your thinking of using it as a entry point into the Schengen I highly advise not to. The first thing anyone does upon landing is check the departures boards well in Dublin that can lead to a lot of stress as those boards and the one at the inter European terminal do not always match up leading to a mess only exceeded by JFK/ATL. Once you get to the outer terminals your stuck and it’s not a pleasant place to stay for an extended period of time, OH one more thing the Schengen flights nothing is free other than the bathrooms. Water is extra and the seat back pockets are sewn shut !!!!!!! They make Sprint seem like EK first class!!
It may well work for the UK, not sure about the layout at DUB as I have never been there, but they do fly to BHX and a few smaller airports with no BA flights, there’s no passport control at arrival, plus one gets to avoid the operational mess that is LHR. But I definitely wouldn’t choose them if flying to continental Europe.
Yes that makes more sense because Ireland and the UK form the Common Travel Area, sort of their own little mini-Schengen visa-free zone.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Travel_Area
Not sure why you would think of flying through Dublin as an entry point to the Schengen Area, when Ireland is not a part of the Schengen Area.
https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/schengen-visa-countries-list/
There’s no reason for PIT to get another flight to Europe.
I’m sure you are much smarter and knowledgeable than the airline route network teams that weigh the viability of a new route.
To be fair, it does look like there is consensus among the airlines on the viability of potential routes- if there was a healthy level of demand, there wouldn’t be a need for subsidies.
I fly to Pittsburgh often from out west. I find Pittsburgh to be a nice city. I’ve never had reason to complain. I think Pittsburgh deserves more international service and think that Aer Lingus is a great way to go. Hope it all works out. P.S. There are places with worse weather, it just depends on your attitude toward it.