Business & Tech

Moon Business Leader: US Airways Closure Could Shock Local Economy

Buyouts and a possible closure mire the Moon Township-based flight operations center for airliner US Airways, which employs hundreds of local residents.

For Bernadette Puzzuole, it's about more than 600 jobs. 

Puzzoule, interim president of the Moon Township-based Pittsburgh Airport Area Chamber of Commerce, said a economic ripple effect will likely come with a closure of the U.S. Airways' four-year-old control center. 

The airline's flight operations center could be abandoned in coming years as a result of the company's merger with American Airlines, according to reports. Company leaders have not handed down a decision on the facility's future. 

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More than 600 people are employed at the center, which controls more than 3,000 flights daily in the region. 

"But it's about more than those 600," Puzzuole said. "It's about the paper and the coffee and the drinks. Those employees buy lunches at airport restaurants. It's really about what it could do to our economy as a whole.

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"Those people are homeowners," she said. "And we have a large residential base (in the Pittsburgh airport corridor)." 

The control center was opened in 2008 with the help of $16.25 million in public subsidies.

Initial reports say some jobs cut at the Moon operation could be relocated to Dallas, where US Airways maintains a hub.

Puzzoule said the potential impact of that closure would have had a similar impact to that of a oft-discussed plan to shut down the 911th Airlift Wing, also located in Moon, as a cost-cutting measure for the military. Local, state and federal lawmakers and business leaders banded together to stave off that effort this year.

A closure of the airlift wing, which would have resulted in the loss of 300 civilian and 1,100 military positions, has been delayed until at least 2014. 

"We were able to coordinate efforts to save the 911th Airlift Wing," Puzzoule said. "I'd like to see us try to do that again with the flight operations center. Of course it would be a little different. Then we were dealing with the U.S. government—now we're dealing with a private company." 

US Airways has eliminated jobs in the Moon area before—the company once employed more than 10,000 people through Pittsburgh International but closed its hub there in 2004. In that closure, the airliner moved many of its positions to North Carolina. 

"And the loss of the hub certainly devastated the region," Puzzoule said. "You would go to the airport, and the parking lots were just empty." 

The closure could also mean the elimination of US Airways jet maintenance center on airport grounds. 

Puzzoule said she hopes the chamber can work in tandem with area lawmakers, appealing to the airline to maintain its Moon Township operations. 

"It's frustrating," Puzzoule said. "We've seen them move to Charlotte, and they've been so supportive of that region. But (US Airways) has received so much public funding and support from Allegheny County. And I don't think they should receive any more." 

 

 

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How do you think the closure would impact the Moon-area economy? Tell us in the comments. 


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