Strength of Pittsburgh Market Fuels Another LA Flight

The strength of the Pittsburgh market, particularly its West Coast connections, has prompted another airline to start nonstop service to California from Pittsburgh.

United Airlines announced Friday that it will offer daily, year-round nonstop service between Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) beginning March 29. Flights are for sale and can be booked at United.com.

United joins American Airlines, which started daily service to LAX last year, and Breeze Airways, which operates the flight up to five times a week.

Matt Smith, the Chief Growth Officer at the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, said the growing demand from Pittsburgh’s innovation and tech community for West Coast access makes the flight announcement even more important.

“The real competitive advantage that the Pittsburgh region has in a lot of the cases when we’re pitching companies is that we sit very much at the intersection of AI, robotics, energy, manufacturing and life sciences,” said Smith, who is also the Vice Chair of the Allegheny County Airport Authority board. “A lot of the investment that we’re seeing now is directly tied to innovation occurring in sectors that might not typically be the ‘tech’ sector.”

He pointed to Pittsburgh’s strong advanced manufacturing, life sciences, healthcare, robotics, artificial intelligence and energy sectors that will be able to connect more seamlessly with Los Angeles’ entertainment, tech, aerospace and international trade industries.

“Innovation really undergirds all of those other sectors so when we’re able to enhance the connectivity that this region has to really key markets like Southern California, it proves the value proposition for us in terms of our ability to attract that external business investment,” he said.

Dawn Keezer, Pittsburgh Film Office executive director, applauded United’s addition, saying Pittsburgh’s status as a growing TV and film market helps fuel West Coast connections.

“Southwestern Pennsylvania has been home to over 250 film and television productions,” Keezer said. “People choose Southwestern Pennsylvania to film almost every single day because of our large crew base, our diversity of locations and our cost-effective ability to do business here.”

She recalled a recent story where the cast of the HBO Max series “The Pitt” had filled the business class section of an American flight to go to the Emmys to the chagrin of a bunch of Apple employees who couldn’t sit up front because it was full.

“Our clients spend a lot of money, and they want to be able to get back and forth easily. Most of these projects originate in Los Angeles, the management is based in Los Angeles, a lot of the talent lives in Los Angeles and time is money and they need to be able to get people back and forth easily,” Keezer said. “By adding flights, we’re showcasing once again that Western Pennsylvania wants this business and we’re working to make things as easy as possible to get them here.”

In addition to tech and entertainment connections, other Pittsburgh corporate connections include PPG, Reed Smith, AECOM, Industrial Scientific and Wesco.

“This flight addition by United shows the strength of the Pittsburgh market and we’re pleased to welcome United’s investment in Pittsburgh with another West Coast destination from PIT,” said Bryan Dietz, Senior Vice President, Air Service and Commercial Development at PIT. “Los Angeles is an important destination for both business and leisure passengers as well as a connecting point for flights to Asia and Australia. This flight gives our market more options to the West Coast and beyond.”

With this addition, United will serve all of its seven hubs within the continental U.S. from PIT. The carrier last served the route in 2014.

“Our new daily nonstop flight between Pittsburgh and Los Angeles is an exciting addition to our route network,” said Mark Weithofer, United’s Managing Director of Domestic Network Planning. “This not only provides our customers with greater access between the two cities, but makes it convenient for travelers in Pittsburgh to travel to Los Angeles and destinations around the world with United’s leading global route network.”

The United announcement comes on the heels of PIT’s year end traffic report, which showed 9.85 million passengers passed through its terminals in 2025. That’s the second busiest year since 2006, when the airport still had significant hub traffic.

The 9.8 million figure fell within 1 percent of 2024’s record 9.9 million passengers, the busiest ever since 2006. The year-end report also showed PIT finishing with three straight months of passenger gains heading into the new year.