BCT Editorial – 5/16/06

This page was last updated on May 17, 2006.

Matter of time; Editorial; Beaver County Times; May 16, 2006.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“The economic potential of Pittsburgh International Airport has never been realized. But hope remains because it is the only major airport in the Northeast that has room to expand without breaking the bank.

“The Philadelphia Inquirer reported rearranging that city’s airport’s runways, which are a major factor in its having the worst on-time air travel in the nation, would take more than a decade to complete and cost $1.5 billion to $3 billion.

“It’s not alone. Airports in a triangle from Chicago to Washington, D.C., to Boston have little or no room to expand their runway systems or their terminals. Building a new airport is a terribly huge undertaking, not just because of the cost but because of the NIMBY factor.

“Pittsburgh, with its first-class facility, sits in the geographic middle of these airports and has plenty of county-owned land on which to expand.

“Call us optimists, but its time is going to come. We just hope it’s in our lifetime.”

[RWC] I almost don’t know what to say. The editorial is stunning in its ignorance.

In summary, the editorial appears to express a belief that PIA will come into its own because airports hundreds of miles away will have trouble expanding capacity. What, are people going to fly into PIA and then take a bus or car to Chicago, Philadelphia, et cetera?

The only way PIA will become more successful is if Western Pennsylvania increases its attraction as a home for businesses and individuals. That can happen only if we improve the state’s economic atmosphere relative to our competition.