US Airways Pulls Out of Pittsburgh - West Coast Markets

(MoneyWatch)  Hmm, looks like I spoke too soon my post about United entering Pittsburgh to the West Coast markets. While my check of a GDS still showed US Airways flying once a day from Pittsburgh to LAX and SFO, that's not going to be the case for long. They stop on August 18. But will this make it work?

Yes, not having US Airways in the market should make it easier for United to fill flights, but the fact that US Airways is pulling out should be an ominous warning. While US Airways has shrunk the Pittsburgh hub dramatically, there still were some connecting opportunities. United doesn't have any connecting opportunities in Pittsburgh itself, of course.

But the main point here is that United should be able to connect people on to Asian flights in San Francisco (not LAX because the times don't work - I don't get that one at all) that US Airways did not have. It's true that the US Airways flight times weren't conducive to Asian connections, but I would still think that if it was such a big market, US Airways would have already made the switch in flight times to connect to their Star Alliance partners over the Pacific.

Maybe I'm giving US Airways too much credit, and maybe United does see an opportunity that US Airways missed at SFO. I suppose we'll find out how well this works if these flights last more than a few months. Either way, having fewer seats in the market can only help this United flight succeed.