Reader comments
Coping with a Delta merger

I'm glad Mayor Becker is leading the charge on this.

Ignore the rosy platitudes about falling fares - in Pittsburgh we more than pay for it in inconvenience. Believe me, you will miss the direct flights. The only "discounts" occur if you fly off peak hours via a hub city - i.e. I fly to Philadelphia or Charlotte to get to Denver. Imagine flying to Detroit to get to Seattle - that's what every flight is like here. I fly often for business and it costs our company much more. I can't fly to DC or NY and get back in the same day. I end up paying for a hotel room also because one day trips now take two days. And don't get me started about missing connecting flights due to delays . . .

One of the downsides of being a hub is that all of those extra airplanes that bring people here just to change planes also bring in a lot of pollution. Commercial airliners don't have any pollution controls like catalytic converters, EGR, etc.

Pittsburgh has a major problem trying to repay the bonds that were issued to build their new airport. They planned to pay off the bonds with revenues from landing fees. Since USAir pulled out, the number of flights have been reduced as have landing fee receipts. One-quarter of the new airport's gates have been mothballed.