Pittsburgh Loses London Nonstop Flight

Pittsburgh will lose its only direct flight to London. This is a sign of retrenchment for the entire airline industry, as all service providers make cuts in their flights. Earlier this week, I posted an article talking about American's cutbacks in St. Louis.

My friend, Ronnie Bryant, president of the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, said the move will hurt the efforts of economic development officials to cultivate international investment in the region.

"We feel the elimination of this direct flight is detrimental to our international business development activities, because London is one of our key areas. We hope that in time, travel will pick up and the flight can be restored," he said.

Yesterday, the Regional Alliance announced that a British software company, Specialist-IT-Services Ltd., will be opening its first North American office in Pittsburgh. According to the Alliance, the U.K. ranks second behind Germany in the number of foreign-owned establishments in Western Pennsylvania, with 65 compared to Germany's 101.

In my view, many US cities will lose both international and direct flights over the next year, until the industry restructures and is able to pull itself back to the surface. The good news is that in many cases these flights can be restored if business resumes.

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