US Airways to add int'l route; Tel Aviv mentioned
US Airways Group Inc. will announce today a new international route from Philadelphia International Airport. Chief executive officer Doug Parker said last month that the airline would like to start service to Tel Aviv, Israel.
US Airways Group Inc. will announce today a new international route from Philadelphia International Airport.
Chief executive officer Doug Parker said last month that the airline would like to start service to Tel Aviv, Israel.
US Airways, which carries two-thirds of passengers in and out of Philadelphia, declined yesterday to name the new route, pending today's announcement.
Parker, along with Mayor Nutter, will be at the airport this morning to detail the new service.
Parker said, when he was in Philadelphia in July, that Philadelphia's dominant airline was "looking to expand" international routes next summer. US Airways flies to 34 destinations in Europe and the Caribbean.
Despite higher fuel costs that forced US Airways to postpone a new Philadelphia-to-Beijing route, Parker said: "We are looking forward to having three more routes, hopefully next summer, to new markets. We are looking at Tel Aviv in summer 2009. We have to make sure we have gates."
In June 2007, US Airways named India, Israel, Russia and Turkey to the list of countries to which it would like to start flying nonstop from Philadelphia in the next few years.
At that time, US Airways senior vice president C.A. Howlett listed the cities, countries or airports under consideration: Moscow; Tel Aviv; Istanbul, Turkey; London Heathrow Airport; Birmingham, England; China; India; and Japan. US Airways now flies to London Heathrow.
When Parker met with the Inquirer Editorial Board last month, he said Philadelphia "will always be our international gateway to Europe. We'd like to expand that. Philadelphia is by far the largest market we serve; the most revenues are generated out of Philadelphia, so it's critical for us."
"Whatever the future is for US Airways, Philadelphia is going to be extremely important, critical," Parker said at the time.
US Airways announced in May that high fuel prices had forced the airline to seek a one-year delay in starting a route between Philadelphia and Beijing. The Tempe, Ariz., carrier said the cost for fuel to run the route would be more than $90 million a year - $40 million more than the original estimate of about $50 million.
The U.S. Transportation Department granted US Airways permission last month to suspend the Philadelphia-Beijing flights for one year, until March 2010.
Parker said the airline would "need to find additional aircraft that we don't have in our fleet - long-range airplanes" to fly to China. "With oil prices as much as they have been, that route would not have been profitable. We will start service one day, just not in 2009."