Pittsburgh International Airport: Back On The Map

With a new showpiece terminal opening later this year, passenger numbers at an 18 year high, and innovation at the front and centre of its business, these are good times for Pittsburgh International Airport, writes Joe Bates.

There is no doubting that Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) has gone from strength to strength over the last decade as its route network has grown, passenger numbers have soared and it has earned itself a reputation for being one of the most innovative gateways in the United States.

It is also one of the most self-contained and sustainably run airports in the nation based on the fact that it is the only airport in the US to have its own microgrid, which provides 100% of its energy needs.

Launched in 2021, the microgrid is powered by five natural gas-fired generators with natural gas drilled from underneath the airport site and nearly 10,000 solar panels.

And true to its pioneering ways which have led to the airport establishing its own on-site innovation lab (xBridge) for developing, trialling, testing and launching new technology, and Neighborhood 91 – a 195-acre hub for additive manufacturing with goods produced on site shipped around the world – PIT is now looking at producing Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) on the airport campus.

Producing and exporting SAF on-site at PIT

What’s the thinking behind PIT potential leading the way on SAF blending and production?

Christina Cassotis, who celebrated her 10th anniversary as CEO of Pittsburgh International Airport in January 2025, says: “Why not? The world needs it, we want aviation to be more sustainable, and we have the perfect mix of assets and resources to make it happen.

“We sit on 3,500 hectares of land, a lot of which is still open for development. We have pipelines to and from the Ohio River where we get our Jet A fuel, so we could export to the North East, New York, Boston, Washington and mid-Atlantic.

“We are surrounded by millions of acres of corn production in Pennsylvania and Ohio, so we can support our farmers by turning the corn into ethanol which becomes the jet fuel. We build things in Pittsburgh, so we can do it.”

The on-site production of SAF would also generate extra revenue for PIT that will help secure its future and help transition the industry to further reduce CO2 emissions. PIT is, of course, not going to invest its own money on building and operating a SAF refinery, so the undertaking would be in partnership with a third party.

“We didn’t want to run a utility like our microgrid and we don’t want to run a SAF refinery. We want to enable it, be a strategic landlord and benefit from the fuel being produced here,” confirms Cassotis.

There are several collaboration pathways the airport could go down when it comes to SAF production.

CNX, for example, which currently extracts natural gas from the airport site, is working with KeyState Energy to develop a hydrogen hub on the airport that would allow for the production of SAF from hydrogen made from coal mine methane.

PIT is also exploring the option of working with a European company that already has ASTM Alcohol-to-Jet (ATJ) biofuel in production and in use by the US Air Force elsewhere on the airport site.

If things go well, it is possible that construction of a SAF refinery at PIT could start as early as the end of 2026.

PIT’s transformation over the last decade

The airport’s SAF ambitions are very real, and as PIT has proved with creating its own microgrid and countless other pioneering initiatives over the last decade, if its plans make good business sense, they almost invariably happen.

After all, PIT’s reinvention under Cassotis over the last 10 years really is nothing short of remarkable, particularly when you consider that back then she noted that the airport had to adopt a new business plan and focus on a future as an O&D gateway to finally get over the loss of its status as a US Airways hub.

Innovation, in all its forms, appears to have been the key driver of PIT’s new business plan to make it a better and more efficient airport, less dependent on aviation related revenue, and a key economic generator for the city and region.

While the decision to let go of the idea of PIT regaining its hub status and concentrate on developing its O&D services has proved a masterstroke, with the airport accommodating 9.95 million passengers last year, the most since 2006, on the back of a much expanded route network.

Putting that in some kind of perspective, when Cassotis started at PIT, the airport had service to 37 non-stop destinations across the US and Canada and handled around eight million passengers per annum. Today, the figure stands at 62 non-stop routes and includes international long-haul routes to London (British Airways) and Reykjavik (Icelandair) in Europe as PIT boasts seven more airlines that it had in 2015.

So, reflecting on her 10 years at PIT, is it possible for Cassotis to say what the highs and lows have been during this time?

“That’s a hard one to answer as there’s been lots of a highs and quite a few lows as we’ve faced many obstacles over the years, but I would say putting Pittsburgh back on the global stage from a aviation perspective would be the highlight, as that was always the intention,” enthuses Cassotis.

She notes that passenger traffic has increased by nearly 25% since her arrival and will exceed 10 million in 2025, which it would have done last year if it wasn’t for a global IT outage that downed airline computer systems for 24 hours during the peak summer months.

Cassotis cites the success of getting Pittsburgh to believe and buy into her plan to develop PIT as an O&D gateway as the major turning point for the airport and catalyst for its current growth trajectory.

“I would say that my role has always been sales/business development, which started internally with getting people to believe that there were other ways we could be successful other than as a hub, which was the mindset when I got here,” she explains.

“Back then the community’s understanding of success was tied to regaining our hub status with an airline. So, getting the airport team and then the community to understand that an origin and destination airport could still be a very successful business model for PIT was a really big accomplishment.”

As an aside, Cassotis adds that Pittsburghers have always been fiercely proud and supportive of their airport, so much so in fact that she reveals that this enthusiasm led her to take the job in the first place.

Other achievements Cassotis is proud of PIT achieving in the first decade under her watch include the creation the microgrid, the opening of a childcare centre for airport staff and the new terminal which opens for business later this year.

New terminal

“Built by Pittsburgh for Pittsburgh”, PIT’s new terminal will open later this year – most likely in Q4 – and is expected to take operational efficiency and customer convenience and satisfaction to new levels.

The ongoing $1.57 billion new terminal programme is designed to improve facilities and create a new consolidated terminal that modernises outdated former hub facilities and just make it easier for passengers and staff to use.

What that effectively means is that PIT will get a terminal designed for today’s O&D driven market and not the long gone connecting travellers that accounted for 80% of all passengers when US Airways was the hub carrier.

Indeed, the de-hubbing of PIT left it with plenty of facilities that it just didn’t need any more, including eight miles of baggage belts built for transfer passengers that previously caught connecting flights across the airport campus.

O&D passengers now make up 97% of PIT’s passengers, so the airport simply needs new facilities that will make journeys easier, more convenient and comfortable for passengers and the airlines. Its opening will complement improvements to PIT’s existing ‘airside’ facilities (and eliminate the half-a-mile gap between the terminals) which contain the airport’s X-shaped central core, which according to Cassotis will be gutted and completely redesigned.

“The concourses are getting massive upgrades, the holdrooms, the back of the house and all the systems we couldn’t do preventative maintenance on before are being addressed now, so it’s a lot of fun out there right now,” jokes Cassotis.

According to PIT, the main goals of the new terminal programme include reducing passenger wait and walk times, shortening baggage delivery times, improving the international arrivals process, reducing operations and maintenance costs, providing more public parking spaces and making the airport more efficient and sustainable overall.

Some examples of the improved airport experience the new terminal will bring for passengers include one central security checkpoint instead of the existing two in different buildings, and separate levels for Arrivals and Departures.

It is hoped that the terminal will also end the current confusion passengers face on exiting the airport due to ongoing development work and the confusing layout of existing facilities that sometimes means that arriving passengers have to travel between different levels just to get outside.

In March, it was announced that the construction of the new terminal was 85% complete, ensuring that the facility is on target to open as planned in the second half of 2025.

Guided by the core principles of nature, technology and community,  the key design features of the new terminal include:

Prioritising enhancing the passenger experience through a range of design features, the new terminal’s Universal Access features include raised crosswalks with improved lighting, accessible-height ticketing counters, digital wayfinding that offers both visual and audio cues, intuitive layouts to simplify navigation, and outdoor spaces with biophilic design elements.

These enhancements are said to build on Pittsburgh International Airport’s established commitment to inclusivity, best illustrated by Presley’s Place – one of the USA’s first comprehensive sensory rooms designed for travellers with autism and other sensory sensitivities.

The airport believes that facilities like Presley’s Place signal what the future of air travel could look like with regards to being more welcoming and supportive for all passengers.

Cassotis has no doubt that the new terminal will usher in a new era for PIT in terms of operational efficiency, customer service levels and even people’s perceptions of the airport.

“It will be transformative,” enthuses Cassotis. “Every single part of our business will change. The equipment it will utilise will allow us to operate more efficiently and give us data that we never had before to make decisions and do predictive maintenance.

“The new terminal will allow us to do a better job of taking care of staff and passengers. Passengers will enjoy shorter walk times and be guided on their journeys by more intuitive wayfinding. It will be a much more pleasant experience.”

It will also be one of only a handful of airport terminals in the US to have outdoor terraces airside, which like its landside counterparts, will be accessible to all passengers.

Worthy of note is the fact that 16,000 tons of locally fabricated steel have been used in the terminal’s construction.

Energy efficient

The terminal itself is designed around using less energy for heating and cooling through the orientation of the terminal, strategic building overhangs and materials used in construction.

Like the rest of the airport, it will be powered by PIT’s microgrid, which means that the airport is 100% self sufficient in terms of energy supply and able to continue operating if the local grid goes down for whatever reason. On the reverse side of the coin, it also has the capability to switch to the traditional power grid if it experiences issues with its own microgrid.

An added bonus of the microgrid is that it has reduced PIT’s carbon emissions by six million pounds a year, and saved the airport around $1.5 million annually in utility costs.

Passenger growth, routes and destinations

As mentioned earlier, Pittsburgh International Airport handled 9.95 million passengers in 2024 – 8.1% more than the previous year and 166,000 passengers more than in pre-pandemic 2019.

The airport attributes the upturn, and first time it has exceeded pre-COVID levels, to a record number of Pittsburghers travelling through PIT, with over 9.7 million travellers recorded to have started or ended their trips in Pittsburgh last year.

It’s the highest origin-and-destination (O&D) figure in the airport’s history. What’s more, PIT’s international traffic surpassed 195,000 international passengers in 2024, a 30% increase from 2023, boosted by Icelandair launching seasonal service to Reykjavik, Iceland, in May and British Airways’ continued growth on its year-round service to London Heathrow.

And international travel in Pittsburgh is expected to grow again in 2025 as British Airways will upgrade frequency to London Heathrow to a daily service starting March 30, and Icelandair will resume its seasonal Reykjavik service a month earlier in 2025, with flights returning on April 17.

“Pittsburgh is a market that responds to the air service that comes in and gives it the passenger numbers that it needs, so we are constantly adding destinations or increasing frequency or aircraft capacity on existing ones,” enthuses Cassotis.

“When I got here, I looked at the map of destinations served from Pittsburgh and thought, wow, the West Coast is missing! That’s no longer the case today.”

In terms of the overall traffic, PIT’s increasingly diverse mix of domestic routes shows that the top airlines at the airport in terms of market share are Southwest (26%) and American Airlines (24%) – the former accommodating the most passengers and the latter the most daily flights – followed by Delta (18%); United (14%); and Spirit (12%).

When we last spoke in early 2016, Cassotis mentioned that she hoped that in five to ten years PIT would see the return of international flights to Europe and the introduction of a Gulf carrier to serve the Gulf region and beyond.

BA and Icelandair have, of course, now ticked the Europe box, but Cassotis is not overly celebrating as she feels that there is scope for more services, mentioning Germany and Amsterdam in the Netherlands as potential new routes. She is, however, still looking for a Gulf carrier.

Cassotis says: “I have not given up on a Gulf carrier as we believe that we can support traffic to the region because of our Indian market and the cargo potential of the route. As you know, it often takes years for a new route to happen, and we are playing the long game.”

Innovation and new technology

When talking about innovation and ‘smart airports’, Cassotis is quick to point out that it is about more than just technology, encompassing everything from inspiring new retail/F&B offerings and route development to the opening of a childcare centre for airport staff.

“Innovation certainly isn’t always tied to technology,” she notes. “In my opinion, the definition of innovation means doing something better than before, that it makes sense, and everybody benefits from it.”

Having said that, new technology that will aid airport operations as well as passenger journeys is certainly high on the agenda for PIT, which is perhaps not surprising considering Pittsburgh’s status as a technology centre and the robot capital of the world.

Indeed, Google, Bosch, Meta, Uber (driverless car testing), Intel and Yahoo are among thousands of technology firms based in the area and the city is home to 68 colleges and universities that include R&D leaders Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh.

For its part, PIT has helped bring some 30 technologies to an advanced stage at its xBridge innovation centre, located in a 10,000 square foot facility at the end of Concourse B.

One of these technologies is BioFlyte, a bio-aerosol surveillance sensor that can quickly detect and identify airborne pathogens and subsequently bio-terrorism threats such as ricin, anthrax and fentanyl in the air in less than five minutes.

One of these technologies is BioFlyte, a bio-aerosol surveillance sensor that can quickly detect and identify airborne pathogens and subsequently bio-terrorism threats such as ricin, anthrax and fentanyl in the air in less than five minutes.

During its proof of concept at PIT, Bioflyte’s BioTOF z200 sensor was installed in an HVAC mechanical room where it collected data on return air from the terminal. Additionally, BioFlyte tested simulations of threats at PIT to prove that the sensor can detect them.

It is currently deployed with the US Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, and a Fortune 100 investment banking firm.

Other innovations include tested at PIT via xBridge include smart recycling bins (CleanRobotics’ TrashBot), autonomous wheelchairs (Blueberry Technology Inc’s BBGo), the technology to convert regular vehicles into remote controlled cars (Mapless AI), and autonomous robots used to clean floor (Carnegie Robotics) or deliver food and beverages to passengers (Ottonomy’s Ottobot).

Through xBridge the airport has a partnership with British Airways’ parent company IAG to assist it in some of the work and testing it is doing in the field of robotics.

While one of the more unusual successes of xBridge has been AlgenAir’s aerium, which harnesses the natural power of algae to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) and produce oxygen (O2), combating indoor air pollution. Its first commercial-sized aerium currently sits in the baggage hall at PIT and has proved a welcome distraction for passengers waiting for their luggage.

PIT notes that the broad airport ecosystem enables innovations across many industries such as parking, logistics, retail, food and beverage, customer experience, security, sustainability, building management and more.

Talking specifically about xBridge, Cassotis says that it is “designed to embed innovation inside the airport, among its staff, companies and industry partners while maintaining a sense of Pittsburgh”.

Explaining a little more, she comments: “xBridge is a physical centre for innovation to test two things – materials, such as the paint on columns and flooring, and technology.

“On the technology side, instead of going to the robotics, AI and automation community here in Pittsburgh to say can you fix this, we have folks from xBridge who go into the start-up or robotics communities and ask them whether they’ve ever thought about using their technology in an airport. We then invite them to come to PIT and see what it can do.”

Away from technology, Cassotis believes that PIT’s sensory room and more recent opening of childcare centre for the children of airport staff are two of the most high profile ways that the airport has shown innovation in other areas.

The 1,500ft and now much copied sensory room, Presley’s Place, recently enjoyed its fifth anniversary, with Cassotis noting that it was actually the idea of PIT employee, Jason Rudge, who has an autistic son (Presley).

While the late 2023 opening of PIT’s very own childcare centre has arguably helped PIT hold on to staff and attract others to work at the airport who otherwise wouldn’t have considered it due to child care concerns.

PIT believes that providing a childcare option on the same site as an employee’s workplace helps strengthen parents’ work-life balance and supports workforce development. The goal, it says, is to break down barriers preventing working parents from starting careers at the airport.

Speaking at the facility’s opening, Cassotis said: “Being a working parent and dealing with childcare issues is huge stress. This is our contribution to getting more and more working parents, more and more peace of mind, as they build careers and build families.”

Forward looking, innovative, not afraid to embrace ‘out of the box thinking’, and determined to provide the best facilities it can for both passengers and staff, it can only be Pittsburgh International Airport.