AIRWAYS INTERVIEW

CEO , PITTSBURGH INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Interview by ROBERTO LEIRO Photos PITTSBURGH INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT .

Christina Cassotis , CEO , Pittsburgh International Airport , recently sat down with Airways during the 2024 Annual General Meeting of IATA . The conversation covered a range of topics , looking at the airport ’ s approach to innovation , sustainability , and passenger experience .

Thank you for joining us , Christina . Tell us a little bit about yourself and your role and responsibilities at Pittsburgh Airport . Thanks to you for the opportunity . I am Christina Cassotis , CEO of Pittsburgh International Airport and also of a general aviation and corporate airport called Allegheny County Airport . My job is to set the strategy and ensure the execution of key strategic initiatives that will benefit both the region and the global industry . And so we are constantly looking for the type of solutions that really tick both boxes .

What are the biggest challenges influencing the growth of Pittsburgh Airport ? The physical facility of Pittsburgh Airport was built in 1992 to house the mega-hub operations of US Airways . However , in 2004 , having gone through its second bankruptcy after the September 11 events , US Airways pulled down . That was a gut punch to the region , which had suffered the loss of the steel industry 30 , 40 years earlier .

So , Pittsburgh being Pittsburgh , after the collapse of the steel industry , the leaders of the community — and I mean government , business , educational , philanthropic , NGO leaders — came together and said , we must diversify our economy so we ’ re never again dependent on just one industry . And they did that very , very successfully . When the airport hub went away , the leaders , instead of saying , “ Let ’ s diversify the carrier mix ,” said , “ We need another hub .”

So , for 10 years , they tried to get that back . When I arrived from Boston in 2015 , I had been to Pittsburgh once in my life . I took over as CEO with the sole goal of restoring air service . But what I said is , ‘ We need to not worry about being a hub again because airlines don ’ t serve airports , they serve markets .

So let ’ s be a great O & D [ origin and destination ] airport .’

Along the way , we realized we really did need to make some infrastructure changes in order to have the facility match the business model . And , as we were looking at the assets in the community that

50 AIRWAYS MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2024 www . airwaysmag . com