PIT’s New Airport to Address the Changing Needs of Pittsburghers

When the new Pittsburgh International Airport opens this year, it will signify in a tangible way the transformation to an origin-and-destination airport.

Pittsburgh-based travelers were not the focus when the airport opened on Oct. 1, 1992, as a US Airways hub. The airport was built with connecting passengers in mind, so it lacked many of the features the new front door to the region will have, such as pre- and post-security green terraces, intuitive design and wayfinding, and enhanced dining and shopping options.

Back then – and into 2001 when 80 percent of the airport traffic was hub passengers – it meant about 15 million to 16 million travelers were arriving at the airside terminal. After de-boarding, they often hurried to another gate to take a connecting flight to their final destinations. They went through security checkpoints and checked bags at their originating airport, not PIT. Most never made it through the Fort Pitt Tunnels and into downtown.

Meanwhile, PIT had approximately 4 million origination-and-destination passengers who used the security checkpoints and traveled the half-mile distance between the two terminals on the people mover trains while their bags traversed about 8 miles of baggage belts.

Today, Pittsburgh is the starting point (origin) and/or the ending point (destination) of 98 percent of passengers at the airport, according to recently released 2024 figures. That means approximately 9.95 million passengers in 2024 were using a system that has been outdated for almost 20 years since US Airways stripped the airport of its hub designation.

“We were left with a building that wasn’t the right fit for Pittsburgh anymore,” said Richard Belotti, former Allegheny County Airport Authority Vice President, Planning. “We went from a major connecting hub to an O&D facility. Our goal was to right-size the airport. To make it more efficient and make it more representative of the local community.”

PIT had just 36 nonstop destinations after being de-hubbed, but in the years since has rebounded to almost double that amount with 61 and 170 daily departures. Additionally, international service to London via British Airways and Iceland on Icelandair has launched.

The Allegheny County Airport Authority’s Air Service Development team has recruited a mix of legacy, low-cost and ultra low-cost carriers that has not only added West Coast connectivity – most recently with American beginning daily nonstop flights between PIT and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) starting April 4 – but, through competition, helps to keep air fares down.

As Belotti points out, the airport campus that opened in 1992 doesn’t fit the current and future business model. Maintaining operations between two terminals adds costs and inconvenience to airport partners, passengers and employees.

“The design team has captured what we had hoped to do by bringing the landside building to the airside terminal,” Belotti said.

When the new landside terminal opens this year, its connection to the airside terminal will enable outbound Pittsburgh travelers to check their bags at the ticket counters, walk to a larger security checkpoint and then simply cross a pedestrian bridge and tunnel to the renovated airside terminal with a robust selection of local, national and global commercial concessions.

But it’s not all about departing passengers. Arriving travelers will have a shorter journey to baggage claim while their luggage will travel on a state-of-the-art baggage system that is more than 50 percent shorter than the current system.

Eliminating the distance between the two terminals and focusing on Pittsburgh passengers will not only increase efficiency and convenience, it also will address the airport’s transformation to an O&D airport and help set its course for success for years to come.

“It’s going to feel like Pittsburgh’s airport of today,’ said Allegheny County Airport Authority CEO Christina Cassotis. “And that’s something that feels like Pittsburgh because Pittsburgh is a city that’s poised for the present and the future.”