ATA Airlines seeks piece of low-fare flight market Tuesday, June 03, 2003 By Frank Reeves, Post-Gazette Staff Writer ATA Airlines yesterday entered the Pittsburgh market with four daily trips to Chicago's Midway Airport -- the latest low-cost carrier to challenge US Airways' dominance here. The Indianapolis-based carrier will offer introductory fares as low as $69 for an off-peak, one-way flight to Chicago. If its debut proves successful, the airline would consider expanding service from Pittsburgh to other destinations, Chief Executive Officer and founder George Mikelsons said. Mikeslons, who owns 72 percent of ATA stock, said he expected that US Airways would act like other network carriers when challenged in their hubs by slashing ticket prices to meet the competition and then raising them when the low-cost carrier goes away. But Mikelsons doubts that US Airways can afford to take such a tack this time, having just emerged from bankruptcy after losing billions in recent years. While US Airways and other major carriers are projected to continue losing money this year, analyst have predicted that ATA will turn a profit in 2003. The airline lost $15.7 billion last year, hurt by high fuel prices and maintenance costs on its aging fleet of Boeing 727s. Mikelsons said that despite having obtained concessions from their employees and equipment lessors, the cost structure of most major carriers was still high compared with low-cost carriers such as his. ATA had a cost per available seat mile of 7.4 cents during the first quarter of this year, vs. about 10 cents for US Airways, he noted.ATA isn't the first low-cost carrier to attempt to break US Airways' near monopoly on the Pittsburgh market, where the Arlington, Va.-based carrier has about 80 percent of the flights. AirTran Airways, which still maintains service to Atlanta and Orlando, Fla., ended service to New York and Philadelphia because of a lack of support. It also eliminated service to Chicago's Midway Airport when it appeared that US Airways was prepared to begin service from Pittsburgh. To counter AirTran, US Airways slashed its own fares to New York and Philadelphia, prompting many local travelers to stick with US Airways rather than support AirTran. For many travelers, frequent flier miles remain a powerful incentive. When prices are nearly equal, they will opt for the large, network carrier, such as US Airways, where they can continue to accumulate frequent-flier miles. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.natalielaughlin.com/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************