Nonstop flights are clearly better

03-20-2005

It will come as no surprise to regular readers of this column that I place a high premium on nonstop flights. The advantages are obvious. Not only is the straight line still the shortest distance between any two points, but traveling nonstop between them always takes much less time.

Add in the potential for missed connections, midtrip delays, checked baggage going astray, and an array of other unpleasant possibilities, and the benefits of flying nonstop are obvious.

Simply, flying nonstop is always preferable, although given the airline industry's pricing strategies and flight route systems, itineraries that entail making connections are usually less expensive, sometimes much less.

Nonstop flights are even more important when flying internationally. Having to make a connection in Philadelphia, Charlotte, Chicago, New York, or Washington, D.C., on the way to Europe adds several hours to an already long day on the way over, and the extra waiting seems even worse on the way back.

This is evident to any traveler who got used to the nonstop flights to London, Paris, and Frankfurt that US Airways has now eliminated from its Pittsburgh service, not to mention a healthy portion of its domestic destinations. The only two places outside the United States to which we can fly nonstop on a daily basis are Toronto and Windsor Locks, Ontario.

Alas, until we are able to entice another international airline to offer nonstop service from Pittsburgh, all of our overseas trips will involve making connections.

So, with all these changes, where can we still fly nonstop?

The accompanying list of 77 cities includes the 2,228 flights of all airlines that are scheduled to depart from Pittsburgh International each week during March.

Some brief observations:

First, after all the doom and gloom hanging over Pittsburgh International Airport, 77 seems to be a surprisingly large number, on first glance, at least.

Furthermore, there's a fair amount of daily traffic to some destinations. The top 10 cities for weekday nonstop flights from Pittsburgh are Washington, D.C'.s, two airports (24), Atlanta (19), Chicago O'Hare (15), Cleveland (14), Charlotte (10), Detroit (10), the New York City area's three airports (9), Orlando (9), Cincinnati (8), Philadelphia (8) and Dallas (7).

On the other hand, 24 of those 77 destinations are situated 250 miles or less from Pittsburgh, within the radius many travelers consider short enough to drive, rather than subject themselves to the cost, complexity, cramping, security concerns and other constraints that are a part of air travel in these post-9/11 days.

That leaves only 53 destinations where flying has a clear time advantage over driving.

Unfortunately, nonstop air service isn't always regular or convenient. Three airports, New Orleans, San Diego and Seattle, have only one nonstop flight a day. Service to seven airports is limited to just one or two days each week. How much flexibility does that provide?

And despite the flurry of new carriers coming to serve Pittsburgh, nonstop competition among carriers is actually very limited. Of the 77 destination airports, 55 are served nonstop by just one carrier. At 50 of those airports, US Airways remains the sole nonstop option. In fact, taken together, all the other carriers flying out of Pittsburgh offer daily nonstop flights to only 16 other cities, although connecting service to many other places is available through those cities.

Despite the disappointments and quasi duplicity this area has endured during US Airways' long downward spiral, we keep rooting for them to survive -- that is, if we want to be able to fly nonstop anywhere at all.

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