Contour Airlines Drops Indianapolis, Milwaukee Flights After Less Than Three Months in Pittsburgh
Jan. 13—Some weather systems have lasted longer than Contour Airlines did at Pittsburgh International Airport.
The Tennessee-based regional carrier discontinued its flights to Indianapolis and Milwaukee last week after operating them for less than three months.
Its decision once again leaves the airport without any nonstops to those two cities.
Contour started the flight to Milwaukee on Oct. 12 and the one to Indianapolis the next day. The Indianapolis flight operated daily and Milwaukee six days a week, excluding Saturday.
"We know all of our airline partners continue to deal with challenges in the current environment that are forcing them to make difficult decisions," said Bob Kerlik, spokesman for the Allegheny County Airport Authority, which operates Pittsburgh International.
"We will work with Contour to find the best opportunity for resuming service to Indianapolis and Milwaukee, which remain key business markets for us."
Contour officials could not be reached for comment.
It appears from the Contour website that the airline has dropped both Pittsburgh and Milwaukee altogether. It is still flying out of Indianapolis to Nashville, Tenn., and Tupelo, Miss.
For the Pittsburgh flights, Contour used Embraer 135 and 145 jets reconfigured to seat 30 people.
The loss of the Contour flights isn't the only bit of bad news to hit Pittsburgh International to start the new year.
Breeze Airways, a new airline that started service from Pittsburgh last summer backed by $560,000 in incentives, also is cutting back on its offerings, at least temporarily.
The carrier has suspended its twice-weekly flights from Norfolk, Va., to Pittsburgh through the rest of January before restarting them again Feb. 4, according to its website.
It also has reduced its flights to Hartford, Conn., and Providence, R.I., from four times a week to twice weekly over the same period.
They are scheduled to return to four times weekly starting the week of Feb. 6.
Breeze "preemptively trimmed the schedule ahead of the omicron surge," spokesman Gareth Edmondson-Jones said.
"Thankfully, unlike during the holidays peak travel period, January and early February generally see fewer travelers, so we were able to temporarily reduce the schedule and avoid any last-minute cancellations due to COVID," he said.
The airline launched service from Pittsburgh International in July with flights to Hartford, Providence, Norfolk, and Charleston, S.C.
Mark Belko: [email protected] or 412-263-1262.
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