Over 200 people were at the Hilton downtown for the reception organized by Ken Zapinski, senior vice president of the Allegheny Conference of Community Development and his staff in cooperation with the Pittsburgh International Airport and Delta Airlines. Bradley Penrod, the CEO of the Pittsburgh airport and Wayne Aaron, Delta’s vice president for corporate strategy addressed the gathering.

The organizers wanted to reach the Indian-Americans in the area for making better use of Delta’s nonstop flight to Paris. This is the first time such an interaction was taking place here between an air carrier and Indian-Americans. With this nonstop flight, travelers can reach Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi with just one 3-h stopover in Paris by taking Air-France’s connecting flights from Paris to Indian destinations. This saves at least four hours travel time, not to speak of missed connections at JFK, Newark, or Detroit. This flight is convenient to business travelers, tourists, young parents traveling with toddlers/kids, and seniors traveling between Pittsburgh and India.

Towards the end of June officials of Delta Airlines, Pittsburgh International Airport, and the Allegheny Conference of Community Development met with Indian-Americans to promote Delta’s nonstop flight to Paris, which greatly simplifies travel to Indian destinations. This flight is Pittsburgh’s only nonstop trans-Atlantic flight to Europe.

Bradley Penrod and Wayne Aaron asked their audience to spread the word around of this Pittsburgh-Paris nonstop flight. Aaron asked his audience to give him both bouquets and brickbats on Delta flights. His audience did not disappoint him. Some of the complaints he heard are:

1. Not getting the boarding passes for the Paris-India leg of the journey when checking-in at Pittsburgh. This causes frustrating — and entirely avoidable –problems at Paris as people have to stand in line again at the Air France counter for the boarding pass to India. Is not Air France a member of Sky Team?

2. Not having nonstop Air France or other carriers’ flights from Paris to Chennai and Hyderabad, the cities that have good traffic to and from North America. For travelers from Pittsburgh, not having nonstops from Paris to Chennai and Hyderabad nullifies the advantages of the Pittsburgh-Paris nonstop flight.

3. The hassle of Delta’s older narrow-body Boeing 757 for the long Pittsburgh-Paris trans-Atlantic flight, and the need for improved cabin service, particularly in Air France flights to and from Paris and India.

Another suggestion was to reach out to passengers from this region bound for destinations in North Africa, Middle East, and Southeast Asia, who too can reach their destinations with just one stopover at Paris. This can also increase the load factor and revenue for the Pittsburgh-Paris flight.

With the interactions Aaron had with his listeners, chances are better now than before that Delta may fix some of these problems.

Delta’s Aaron briefly gave the highlights of the gut-wrenching changes in the airline industry. We all know. Airlines these days charge for checked-in bags, pillows, and blankets, and don’t serve even water in shorter flights to cut costs. The decline in the quality of cabin service in domestic flights is obvious for seasoned travelers.

But don’t expect a miracle any time soon. Why? Because air carriers live and die by a) load factors (the % of the seats occupied by paying passengers); and b) the revenue stream for each flight, which depends on the number of business travelers and the class of tickets airlines sell in the coach class.

Aaron told his audience that while the average load factors for Delta’s trans-Atlantic flights hover around 80%, for the Pittsburgh-Paris nonstop flight, it is low, only around 67%. If the passenger traffic and revenue stream for the flight improves, Delta is bound to deploy newer larger planes and give better cabin service.

In today’s globalized economy, easy access for travelers to Europe through nonstop flights is important for promoting Pittsburgh. We need to support these efforts by using the nonstop flight to Paris.

Along the way, if it also makes our life easier, we should give it serious consideration.

Our elected officials, Pittsburgh airport officials and business leaders are trying hard promoting Pittsburgh as a business friendly city with all modern amenities for starting and running businesses and for living and raising families — amenities such as excellent public and private schools, universities for higher education, medical facilities, recreation and entertainment resources, museums and arts that we have in abundance.

In today’s globalized economy, easy access for travelers to Europe through nonstop flights is important for promoting Pittsburgh. We need to support these efforts by using the nonstop flight to Paris.