The “Live and Let’s Fly” consumer aviation website is speculating that Irish airline Aer Lingus and the Allegheny County Airport Authority are waiting for the modernized Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) to bow later this year before any deal is cut on regular direct flights between PIT and Dublin Airport (DUB).
The postulation comes in light of the deal Aer Lingus cut with the Pittsburgh Steelers to become its “official airline partner” in advance of the venerable franchise’s first-ever regular season game to be played in Ireland, now thought to be in late September and against the Green Bay Packers.
What the deal did not include, however, were any regular flights other than charters associated with the Steelers’ business dealings on the Emerald Isle.
Aer Lingus has been extracting millions of dollars in subsidies from other U.S. airports, municipal jurisdictions and economic “development’ groups in return for servicing those locales. PIT had been reported to be in talks with the sister airline to British Airways but no details have been forthcoming.
And now, without further adieu, the “Live and Let’s Fly” speculation:
“As a former hub for US Airways, some international flights to Europe were available [out of PIT]. USAirways operated a second hub across the state in Philadelphia with the latter offering more origin-destination traffic and the former, connections to Europe from throughout North America.
“Since the [PIT] hub was shuttered (nearly a decade before the airline merged with American) flights to Europe have been limited. Delta operated a non-stop to Paris Charles De Gaulle five times weekly, British Airways restarted its London Heathrow service and increased it from five times weekly to six this year. WOW flew from Pittsburgh to Iceland before going out of business, Icelandair has taken up seasonal service on a 737 during the summer months. Condor had flown to Frankfurt but that service has also ceased.
“British Airways’ success suggests that Pittsburghers have a need for flights to Europe and beyond, but it’s hard to say how much further it can go.”
Further, from the “Live and Let’s Fly” website, under the heading “What would it take?”:
“In Pittsburgh, Aer Lingus might be able to succeed when others haven’t fared as well due to low taxes and fuel surcharges (when compared with British Airways) and wider connectivity than Icelandair. Aer Lingus can also operate newer A321 equipment rather than a wide-body and pushing it past summer operations reduces competition from Icelandair Air, but perhaps a subsidy is required to get the wheels in motion.
“For Aer Lingus, its recent expansion into Cleveland shows its willingness to pick up subsidies where the carrier doesn’t face significant European competition, but its Minneapolis addition by an A330 would counter that notion.
“One would think that the tie-up with the Steelers would have been enough to push it over the edge but it appears that’s not the case, at least not yet. Pittsburgh is set to open its revamped terminal later this year and perhaps it’s a matter of when, not if, Aer Lingus adds PIT to its route map.”
Concludes the “Live and Let Fly” conjecture:
“My family had a mediocre experience in Aer Lingus business class on a wide-body from Dublin to New York JFK late last year. However, I’d still prefer more options rather than fewer. Further, the city benefits from more connections and long-haul service and a narrow body is the right way to start. If nothing else, it seems that the Irish carrier could make some one-off charters surrounding the Steelers game in Dublin this year, introduce their product and test the market.”
That’s all fine and dandy. But only if it tests the market on its own dime.
The Cleveland subsidy to Aer Lingus, in a word, is obscene: $12 million over three years. A few years back, Hartford agreed to $13 million in subsidies, then had to pay Aer Lingus $4.5 million when it did not meet its passenger goals. Talk about incentivizing failure.
Aer Lingus began direct flights from Dublin to Nashville this past Wednesday with a three-year subsidy valued at $6.5 million. But four weekly flights between Dublin and Indianapolis, to begin in May, will cost the latter an absolutely outrageous $17 million in annual support with an additional $2 million over a two-year period.
And the shameful list goes on and on.
Oh, and back to that early-on mention of British Airways’ “success” flying between Pittsburgh and Heathrow…
The return of those flights after a 10-year absence has been subsidized with $3.5 million in taxpayer money. And while the Airport Authority touts the six-days-week service, and soon seven, as a “success,” it thus far has not made public a quite critical metric.
While the flights might be exporting travelers, and their money, to the U.K. and possibly beyond, how many foreign travelers have the flights imported into Pittsburgh?
The Airport Authority has yet to say. And just why is that? Likely because the latter number is far fewer and in between and that lays bare the authority’s bogus, inflated domestic economic impact numbers.
We suspect any direct-to-Dublin Aer Lingus flights from PIT will produce much the same: Plenty of exported passengers and their dollars but few if any imported passengers bringing their money into the Greater Pittsburgh economy.
The “Live and Let’s Fly” website says Pittsburgh has an “appetite for European connectivity.” But we’ve seen no evidence that Europeans have any appetite for connecting with Pittsburgh.
Bottom line: If Aer Lingus wants to begin service between Dublin and Pittsburgh, it can knock itself out, we say. Just don’t be knocking off Pittsburgh, Allegheny County and state taxpayers in the process.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
