U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter sent a letter today to US Airways Chief Executive Officer Doug Parker that once again questions the carrier's decision to pull more flights and jobs from Pittsburgh in January, calling it "the latest development in a pattern of unfulfilled commitments and false expectations created by US Airways regarding the airline's presence in the region."

"I question whether you and your predecessors have done everything in your power to ensure that service at Pittsburgh succeeds," the five-term Republican wrote, "and this is a cause of great concern and disappointment given my longstanding record of support for the airline at the federal level."

Sen. Specter claims his support for the airline has been "steadfast" since the $1 billion Pittsburgh International Airport opened in 1992 with US Airways as its hub tenant. From 1995 to 2007, Sen. Specter said, he wrote 11 letters supporting applications for new international routes. He also backed US Airways' 2002 application for federal loan guarantees following the 9/11 attacks.

But on March 30, 2003, as US Airways emerged from its first bankruptcy, US Airways rejected its lease agreements with the Allegheny County Airport Authority, and "I am advised that this action violated a written promise to honor the lease agreements made by US Airways only weeks earlier." Then in May of 2004, US Airways stripped Pittsburgh of its hub status "and with it the service expectations envisioned by the public when the airport was constructed to US Airways' specifications for $1 billion," the senator wrote.

In a statement this afternoon, US Airways said, "The airline industry today is vastly different than it was 15 years ago when the commitments Sen. Specter references were made, and long before the merger of US Airways and America West. Since that merger, we've worked very hard to find ways to make Pittsburgh viable against the new realities of the industry, including the impacts of low-cost carriers and sky-high fuel prices.

"Our decision to draw down flying again -- made two years after the merger -- reflects a great deal of soul-searching and our best judgment of ways to make Pittsburgh viable, and measured against a backdrop of the right decisions for all employees across the US Airways system."

That mirrors what Mr. Parker has already argued to Sen. Specter. Mr. Parker said he was not with the airline when some of these prior decisions were made and even offered an apology to the senator "if one of my predecessors led you to believe that US Airways would commit to maintaining service levels in Pittsburgh similar to where it was in the 1990s. They should not have done that because this business is far too hard to predict. I know I have never made such a commitment and can't imagine that I ever would."

Mr. Parker joined US Airways in 2005 when he engineered the merger of the old US Airways, based in Arlington, Va., and Tempe, Ariz.-based America West Airlines.

The company also announced today it is offering buyouts to 314 senior flight attendants as it closes its Pittsburgh crew base.

The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA said it asked the carrier for such a package to give affected attendants an option beyond moving to another city or quitting. Eligible attendants, who must have at least 15 years of seniority, would receive a one-time $20,000 payout, plus other benefits, according to the union's Web site.

The offer isn't being extended to other employee groups in Pittsburgh. It's limited to attendants who worked for US Airways prior to the merger.

Attendants have until Dec. 9 to decide whether to accept the offer, which includes certain travel and insurance benefits.

After learning that the airline will apparently not offer severance packages to the machinists, pilots and ground workers whose jobs are being eliminated in Pittsburgh, Mr. Specter and Sen. Bob Casey D-Pa. wrote a separate letter to Mr. Parker, urging him to extend similar offers to them.

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More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.