There was a curious quote from Allegheny County Airport Authority CEO Christina Cassotis in the Post-Gazette’s Oct. 20 story on increased passenger counts for those taxpayer-subsidized British Airways (BA) flights:
“We’re very pleased with the performance of British Airways,” she told authority board members. “We thank the entire community for its support, and we look forward to continuing doing just that.”
One can only wonder if that means continued and higher public subsidies for the Pittsburgh-London flights, especially as authority officials ramp up talk about turning BA’s six-day-a-week flight schedule into seven.
As the P-G tells it:
“Passenger traffic on the route soared over the summer after the airline increased the service from four days a week to six last spring.”
With a $500,000 taxpayer sweetener, on top of the original taxpayer subsidy of $3 million.
The Airport Authority says BA carried 9,936 people to and from London in June, up from 6,309 in pre-COVID 2019 and nearly doubling the 5,300 seen in June 2022.
But if the flights are doing so well – if there is such demand for them – why should the public be further underwriting them?
Of course, there is a dirty little secret in all the latest British Airways numbers. As Jake Haulk, president-emeritus of the Allegheny Institute, notes in Policy Brief Vol. 23, No. 38:
“(D)espite well-publicized efforts to boost international travel at PIT by using substantial carrier subsidies, the August 2023 international passenger total of 18,587 was 55 percent below the August 2018 count and 28 percent short of the 25,951 posted in August 2019.”
Well, there is that.
Furthermore, Haulk, a Ph.D. economist, long has questioned the validity of an economic impact study stating the “value” of the BA flights to Pittsburgh. That is, the supposed pumping of dollars into the local economy.
Just this past week, in the same white paper, Haulk reminded that Pittsburgh International does not disclose the percentage of international flight passengers that are foreign travelers.
“If the subsidy to international flights is primarily benefiting western Pennsylvania travelers, it is a grave misuse of Airport Authority funds,” he said.
“A major rationale for the case to subsidize the British Airways flights was the claim that foreigner spending in the Pittsburgh area would boost to the region’s economy,” Haulk added. “Why not release the foreigner passenger numbers?”
It’s a great point that the Airport Authority has an obligation to address.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
