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| - When I pass through this airport, I'm reminded of a TV commercial from the 1990s that listed various quirky "best ofs" and Pittsburgh airport won the "best public telephone bank" category. Those huge banks of telephones are still there (though some phones have been removed). This kind of sums things up. This airport was built on a massive scale in the early 1990s and handled relatively large amounts of traffic during that decade as US Airways' primary hub. It had non-stop flights to almost all corners of the US as well as several international flights to Europe - not bad for an airport located by only a mid-sized city.
Then things went south starting around the late 1990s. US Airways had been gradually expanding its hub in Philadelphia (a terrible airport, by the way, but one with much more business) and realized that it would be wise to shift more and more flying capacity over there. Essentially, Philadelphia replaced Pittsburgh as the primary Northeast hub for US Airways. Then, the America West merger added a major hub at Phoenix and US Airways shifted its focus towards being more of a national airline than primarily an East Coast one. When the dust settled, Pittsburgh airport was de-hubbed, leaving what many have termed a "white elephant".
So what's great about a white elephant? Actually quite a lot. Because the place is nowhere near as crowded as it was built for, there is essentially no issue of people running around, getting in your way, etc. Security lines are relatively minimal. Lines at the stores and restaurants are also small and there are plenty of stores - thanks to the fact that this airport once had huge amounts of traffic and was built to be the Mall of America of airports. The concourses are extremely wide and relaxing. Plus, the airport was built in an efficient "X"-pattern which makes getting from one concourse to another a breeze. Also wisely, you do not have to exit the secured area when transferring between gates. For transiting through, there are fewer better airports.
The downside? My main complaint is the extremely sloooooow baggage retrieval system. Again, thanks to the airport once being very busy and still being very huge, they built what was a state-of-the art (for 1992) automated system. The problem is that the system is very slow. From my experience, it takes usually at least 15-30 minutes after you flight has arrived at the gate for the baggage to even start trickling down the belt. A search through the internet reveals some horror stories of people waiting over an hour and sometimes TWO HOURS for the bags to come out. When the bags do come out, they come out very slowly. It seems to be a minute per bag but its probably more like 15-30 seconds. Either way, it can feel like an eternity if you are on a large plane and bags are coming out in a manner resembling the 1970s Pong video games. What's worse is that there are often long pauses wherein, after a batch of 10 or so bags are delivered at the excruciatingly slow rate described above, there will be a period of several unnerving minutes (5-10 minutes) when no bags come out before the next batch finally comes out. This automated system is living proof that machines can't replace humans. Further, since the airport sees so little traffic now, it will not likely be upgrading this system anytime soon. I often try to avoid this system by bringing only carry-on if I'm terminating my flight in Pittsburgh. The trouble is, thanks to dehubbing, many flights to Pittsburgh now use regional jets which require you to check in (albeit without a fee) your carry on.
The other downside is that, since this airport is built on a massive scale, it is far far far away from the city center - in fact a new highway was built just to reach it. This is reminiscent of the Denver airport. Not bad if your final destination is on the western side of the city and you can drive. However, if you are going Downtown and don't have a car, your options are either an expensive cab ride or a ride on the public bus. The bus itself is pleasant enough but arrives once every 30 minutes - so expect yourself to be waiting 15-45 minutes for your bags (missing a bus or two in the process) and then waiting another 15-30 minutes for the bus.
The third downside is that, since de-hubbing, there is a dearth of non-stop flights from Pittsburgh. Also, the only overseas non-stop destination is Paris, which is good enough if you're going to Paris but it means that you will have to deal with the chaos of Charles de Gaulle Airport if you're transferring to anywhere else on that side of the pond.
Overall though, this is a decent airport. For transiting through - where you don't have to deal with the annoyance of the baggage retrieval system or going to the city - it is one of the best. However, the terrible baggage system, dearth of non-stop flights, and the poor transportation options make this airport a 3 star rather than a 4
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