When Delta Air Lines launched service to Paris from Pittsburgh International Airport in 2009, it was the only game in town for travelers who wanted to fly nonstop to Europe.
Nine years later, faced with competition from three other airlines for the transatlantic market, Delta is calling it quits.
The airline announced Wednesday that it is ending the service into Charles de Gaulle International Airport on Sept. 3 after a 10-year run.
“Due to increased transatlantic capacity in the Pittsburgh market and other commercial considerations, Delta has made the tough business decision to discontinue its seasonal Pittsburgh-Paris service after the summer 2018 season,” the airline stated.
When Delta first launched the service, it was considered a major coup for a region still reeling from the loss of the US Airways hub in 2004.
The nonstop arrived backed by $9 million in subsidies over two years ponied up by the Allegheny Conference on Community Development and the state to offset potential revenue losses. When the subsidies ended, Delta decided to continue the flight, albeit on a seasonal basis.
Until last year it was the only airline to offer nonstop service to Europe from Pittsburgh. But that changed when Condor Airlines began offering a seasonal flight into Frankfurt, Germany.
In addition, low-cost Wow Air began nonstop flights into Iceland, with connections to a number of European cities, including Paris. And last month, British Airways, in another big win for the region, announced that it would start flying nonstop to London’s Heathrow Airport on April 2.
Morgan Durrant, a Delta spokesman, acknowledged that the competition “was a factor in the decision” to end the Paris flight but declined to say to what degree.
Robert Mann, president of R.W. Mann & Co., an airline industry consultant, said the biggest culprit in Delta dropping the flight may be the Wow service from Pittsburgh.
Travelers can get to Paris for less than $400 roundtrip on Wow compared to $1,400 or more to fly Delta, he said.
“That’s tough to ignore. Admittedly, it’s a connection [on Wow] but for a lot of people a thousand bucks is a thousand bucks. I can’t argue with that,” he said.
“[Wow] is just undercutting the market so dramatically that it’s unattractive for a higher-cost carrier.”
Mr. Mann said the low fares offered by Wow could pose a challenge in keeping the Condor and British Airways flights when the subsidies awarded to get them run out.
Condor is receiving $500,000 over two years from the Allegheny County Airport Authority, with that scheduled to end after this season. British Airways will get $3 million over two years, starting in 2019.
Michael Boyd, a Colorado-based aviation consultant, said the loss of the Paris nonstop “goes against the grain” of recent trends of airlines adding new international service to secondary markets outside of their hubs.
He said rising fuel costs may have been a factor because they make longer haul flights more expensive to operate. While competition also may have played a role, he doesn’t believe it was a big one.
Mr. Boyd said the Pittsburgh market is robust enough to support multiple transatlantic flights.
“It is not a warning sign for Pittsburgh,” he said. “If it was such a clumsy market, why would British Airways go into it? British Airways had no idea that Delta was going to pull out. British Airways had every confidence that it could make it work with Delta there.”
When the Delta service began, it offered the region a ray of hope after the dramatic cutbacks in jobs and flights made by US Airways in eliminating its Pittsburgh hub.
Even when the flight went seasonal, it was considered a win, given how down on its luck the airport was at the time. Over the years, the flight has varied in terms of the days it operated and the length of the season.
In a statement Wednesday, Stefani Pashman, Allegheny Conference CEO, said the route served as a “critical transportation asset to the region and its status as a global business destination absent any other nonstop transatlantic options from Pittsburgh International.”
Rather than lament its loss, she saw the flight as a trail blazer of sorts. It “helped to pave the way for other airlines to look at the Pittsburgh market with fresh eyes, relative to service, and look where we are today. Nonstop options, internationally and domestically, are the best they’ve been in decades,” she said.
At one time, airport authority CEO Christina Cassotis had hoped the Delta flight would go from seasonal to year round. Instead it will go away altogether.
“It was a good 10-year run with Delta and for many years they were our only nonstop option to Europe,” she said in a statement. “But the reality is the Pittsburgh market is evolving and growing, and European carriers have entered the market offering additional nonstop transatlantic service.”
Mark Belko: 412-263-1262 or mbelko@post-gazette.com.
Updated at 6:25 p.m. Aug. 22, 2018.
First Published: August 22, 2018, 4:32 p.m.
