The <strong>Pittsburgh</strong> <strong>Patrika</strong>, Vol, 23, No. 4, <strong>July</strong> <strong>2018</strong> Our Region’s First Nonstop Flight to Asia By Kollengode S Venkataraman After considerable effort, the Allegheny County Airport Authority finally succeeded in cracking into the Asian aviation market with a chartered nonstop flight to Shanghai, operated by China Eastern Airlines, starting this August. One hopes that the charter nonstop flights to Shanghai is just the beginning for <strong>Pittsburgh</strong> International to get nonstops to other Asian destinations. It must grow into a seasonal and then regular three or four weekly flights all year around. This nonstop came with a price tag for the region: The airport authority is pitching in up to $560,000 to subsidize the flight. This is essentially tax-payer money. That amount will drop when <strong>Pittsburgh</strong> travelers purchase tickets, according to the Authority’s spokesman Bob Kerlik. In addition, the Visit<strong>Pittsburgh</strong> tourism agency is kicking in another $300,000, with another $50,000 coming from the Idea Foundry, a <strong>Pittsburgh</strong>-based nonprofit that works with Chinese families and students to encourage educational ties and investment. The subsidies are part of a three-year agreement with Caissa Touristic, the tour operator, to market and sell trips to <strong>Pittsburgh</strong>. However, the flight currently is guaranteed for only one year. Remember, in the heyday of US Airways at <strong>Pittsburgh</strong> International we had daily nonstop and direct service from PIT to Paris, Frankfurt, London, Rome, London, Milan… … And then the sky fell for us when US Airways walked away from its hub here, only to eventually disappear altogether from the skies. Recently <strong>Pittsburgh</strong> International inaugurated nonstops to Europe through WOW and Condor airlines. The <strong>Patrika</strong> has written on the need for connecting PIT to Asia with nonstops for our region to encourage businesses to relocate here. However, anybody who is even peripherally familiar with the commercial aviation industry knows that the center of gravity of commercial airlines has shifted to Asia (Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, China, and India). The commercial airline industry will grow for the next several decades in this region domestically, regionally, and even globally. Europe and North America are saturated markets. The Big Three US air carriers — United, Delta, and American — dominate global nonstops through their hubs across the US. Working to get American or other large European air carriers to introduce nonstops from <strong>Pittsburgh</strong> International to Europe and Asia is just a waste 6
The <strong>Pittsburgh</strong> <strong>Patrika</strong>, Vol, 23, No. 4, <strong>July</strong> <strong>2018</strong> 7
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