PITTSBURGH AIRPORT US Airways: Reduce debt or watch us leave facility

IMPERIAL, Pa. (AP) -- US Airways has threatened to leave Pittsburgh International Airport if its debt payments at the facility aren't reduced, but the airport's new budget is based on the assumption that the carrier will be staying put next year.
The $134.8 million spending plan for 2004 that was adopted Friday by the Allegheny County Airport Authority assumes that 7 million passengers will board planes next year, about the same number as this year.
Arlington, Va.-based US Airways has threatened to pull out of Pittsburgh if its $50 million in annual debt service payments at the airport are not cut, along with other cost savings it wants at that airport and Philadelphia International Airport.
The authority has offered to cut those payments in half, assuming it can get that money from the state or other sources. That proposed cut is not included in the budget because the authority does not have that money yet.
The airline is still negotiating cost cuts with state and airport officials, but has said it will commit to a similar level of service at the Pittsburgh airport, where it controls about 80 percent of the gates, through at least September.