US AIRWAYS Pittsburgh airport loses hub designation

US Airways' flights from Pittsburgh have been cut in half.
IMPERIAL, Pa. (AP) -- Pittsburgh International Airport has officially been downgraded from a US Airways hub to a "focus city" -- with a corresponding cut in flights and reduced hours for the businesses in the facility.
US Airways offers just 229 daily flights out of the airport, which is still the most of any Pittsburgh carrier but is down from 373 daily flights offered as late as July and more than 540 daily flights offered before the September 2001 terrorist attacks.
The airline also eliminated 195 full-time and 54 part-time workers at the airport because of the reduced schedule.
When it changed
The hub designation lapsed Sunday, prompting the airport to close its commuter terminal Monday and cut back hours at the airport's Airmall, a grouping of shops and eateries that has drawn international kudos. Shops that had closed at 10 p.m. now close at 8:30 p.m., coinciding with the time of the last US Airways flight each night.
Bankrupt US Airways is shifting away from a hub business model, with flights radiating from airports in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Charlotte, N.C., to point-to-point service meant to serve the Pittsburgh market specifically. Still, about 40 percent of all US Airways passengers at the Pittsburgh airport will be making connecting flights.
"This company has a lot of problems," Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato said. "It's a shame. It's a once-great company that has made a decision not to hub in Pittsburgh."
US Airways, which began flying out of Pittsburgh in 1949, is in Chapter 11 for the second time in as many years. Officials have said the airline may liquidate if it can't get $650 million in wage and benefit concessions from its three employee unions.