Via Airlines to serve Pittsburgh airport
development.
Via’s flights will operate four times a week. The first, to Birmingham, will start April 11. Memphis and Austin will follow on June 25, and Hartford on July 22. The Birmingham, Memphis, and Hartford flights will be nonstops. Travelers flying to Austin will stop in Memphis first but will not change planes. The airline will use 50-seat Embraer jets for all of the flights.
One-way fares will range from a no-frills $99 with travelers paying extra for things like a carry-on, checked bags and seat assignments to an all-inclusive $299 with no charge to cancel a flight or change dates.
Pittsburgh hasn’t had nonstop service to Birmingham, where U.S. Steel has operations, since 2003. There have been no nonstops to Memphis since 2014. It lost a flight to Hartford last summer.
“We’re happy. We’re thrilled. I would say I’m hoping it’s a beginning. They’ve got the right- sized aircraft. These are the kinds of markets that they serve and we know these markets will perform when they get service. So I think it’s a good thing,” Ms. Cassotis said.
Via got its start in 1997 as a charter carrier and received federal approval to operate as a domestic airline in 2016. Although most of its flights currently are based in the Southeast, the privately held airline is looking to expand to the North and the East, Mr. Bowman said.
It sees itself as a business and leisure airline, although it has been striving to become more business-oriented, depending on the market.
In recent years, the Pittsburgh airport has experienced both success and turbulence as smaller airlines and ultra low-cost carriers have flown into the market with big plans.
Perhaps the most bumps came with OneJet, a regional business carrier that launched service in 2015 and later made Pittsburgh a focus city and a base of operations.
Faced with mounting financial woes, the airline stopped flying Aug. 29 and has been forced into involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy by a group of creditors. It also is being sued by the airport authority, which is seeking to recover $763,000 of the $1 million in incentives.
Ms. Cassotis said Via is a much different airline. She noted, for one, it has two decades of history and is not a startup like OneJet.
“We have a lot of confidence in the fact that they are an established airline. They have a track record of serving communities like ours. They’re excited about Pittsburgh,” she said.
Via also has an interline agreement with American Airlines to handle its travelers and makes bookings available on travel sites like Expedia and Orbitz.
Mr. Bowman said Via is not focused only on Pittsburgh. He noted the airline has several other focus cities in Austin, Birmingham, and Maitland, Fla., where it is headquartered and operates out of Orlando Sanford International Airport.
“Pittsburgh is a little bit different for us than what it is maybe for OneJet or some other carriers in that it is not our only focus city. We’re not relying 100 percent of our financial strength on just this one city. It’s important, no doubt about it, but it’s not the only one,” he said.
Via has been hit with complaints in some markets about delays, canceled flights and unscheduled stops. Such complaints prompted the U.S. Department of Transportation to write to Via last year to express “serious concerns” about the company. Via at the time was receiving a federal subsidy as part of the Essential Air Service Program to ensure flights to smaller airports. Because of some of the problems, the Staunton Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport and the Clarksburg North Central West Virginia Airport asked DOT last year to find replacements for the EAS service.
Mr. Bowman could not be reached for comment Wednesday evening to address the issues.
Via will receive incentives from the airport authority but they are nowhere near the $1 million paid to OneJet. Ms. Cassotis said they are standard marketing incentives of “modest amount” — the exact number is still being finalized — available to any carrier starting new service.
The airline also will receive a one-year waiver of landing fees, another standard incentive offered by the airport in exchange for new service.
Via currently has about 150 employees, but hopes to expand that to 250 by the end of 2020, with a “sizable” number of those to be based in Pittsburgh as part of the planned expansion, Mr. Bowman said. It initially will employ 10 people in Pittsburgh. Tickets can be purchased at www.flyviaair.com.