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Pain runs deeper than dollars and cents

Sunday, September 08, 2002

By Mark Belko, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

The Rev. Jack Fitzgerald, the Pittsburgh International Airport chaplain, sees it in the drawn faces, the broken relationships, the low morale. Sept. 11 has taken its toll at the airport, and many of those living with the repercussions are the employees -- the gate agent who is worried about his job, the baggage handler who just lost his, the cabbie who can't get enough runs.

	Father Jack Fitzgerald, chaplain at Pittsburgh International, says the woes spawned by US Airways' troubles are written on the faces of the airline's workers. (Joyce Mendelsohn, Post-Gazette)

In his position, Fitzgerald serves as spiritual mentor and shoulder to cry on for some 20,000 airport and airline employees. And he knows the terrorist attacks continue to cause pain, particularly for US Airways employees who have lost jobs or are confronting uncertainty because of the airline's bankruptcy.

"We haven't dealt well with the stresses of 9/11 and the continuing anxiety of the layoffs," Fitzgerald said. "I see it in everyone's faces. In the survivors, I see a continuing level of stress, about their careers, their pensions, their homes."

Fitzgerald said he has lost "literally hundreds" of friends to layoffs because of US Airways' financial woes -- problems worsened by the sharp drop-off in travel after the Sept. 11 attacks. Many were dedicated employees with many years of service, and Fitzgerald fears a general deterioration in the quality of work as employees struggle with anxieties and grief over wage cuts and the loss of co-workers.

"Morale does not exist," he said. "It is so low that by and large it doesn't exist. It's disappearing. People are doing [their jobs], but it's not like it used to be."

Airline employees are not the only ones at the airport facing economic disruptions because of the terrorist attacks. Cab drivers say their business is off by 30 percent, forcing many to work 14 to 16 hours a day to make ends meet.

"A lot of people just aren't traveling much," said Yellow Cab driver Gregory Reed as he waited for a customer. "You don't see as many people at the airport as you used to."

Cabbies said business travel, their bread and butter, is way down. Their work has been made even more difficult by the cutbacks made by US Airways, the airport's dominant carrier. It cut overall flying by 23 percent after the attacks and by November will slash daily flights at Pittsburgh International an additional 16 percent, dropping it from its perch as the airline's largest hub. That honor will now go to Charlotte, N.C.

"Sept. 11 is killing us. There's no business. There's no business at all. People aren't flying the way they used to. US Airways' troubles aren't helping us, either," said John James, another Yellow Cab driver. "I used to dispatch 50 to 60 airport runs a week. I'm lucky now to bring in 10 a week."

Some car rental companies at the airport also have seen business drop slightly in the year since the attacks. But Jim Lazear, city manager for Avis, said business at suburban outlets other than Pittsburgh International is up 25 percent "due to the fact that people are still unsure of flying. Some people are driving a 200- to 300-mile trip rather than flying," he said.

Business also is down about 4 percent this year in the airport's Airmall, the collection of 110 shops and restaurants, mostly in the Airside Building. But Mark Knight, president of BAA Pittsburgh, the mall manager, isn't complaining. If anything, he's pleased the mall has done so well.

In the last year, the Airmall has been hit with the triple whammy of the Sept. 11 attacks, a subsequent order banning non-ticketed passengers from the Airside Building, and the financial ills of US Airways, which hauls most of its customers.

In the first weeks after the attacks, Airmall business was down some 50 percent. But by the end of the year, spurred in part by what was a record-breaking year for the airport before Sept. 11, Pittsburgh sales actually ended up $400,000 ahead of 2000 -- a "huge victory," Knight said.

Of course, the Airmall could face another drop in potential customers now that US Airways plans to pare an estimated 16 percent of its daily local flights by November. In an odd twist, tighter airport security, despite the ban on non-ticketed passengers, has been a boon to some airport restaurants because people are arriving earlier for flights and spending more time eating or drinking, Knight said.

Just ask Louis Mazza, general manager of Fat Tuesday in the B concourse. He said his business is up 10 percent to 12 percent since late last year.

He attributes much of that to people arriving earlier and catching a bite to eat before flying. It also has helped that US Airways shifted many larger jets to the B concourse to clear gates for regional jets on the A concourse.

"It's hard to explain," Mazza said. "Everybody thought we would be down. But somehow we keep putting up the numbers."

But for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, as Patty Bracken, a bartender at the Original Oyster House in the A concourse, can explain. She said tips dropped by half with the shift of bigger jets to the B side.

"Oh, gosh, we've been slow," she said.

For Fitzgerald, business -- the spiritual business, that is -- has picked up over the last year. He said Sunday Masses at the church chapel are filled. People are more prone to stop him as he walks the airport for impromptu prayer or confession.

Lots of people are seeking a deeper relationship with God as a result of the attacks, he said.

"They're much more willing to give the spiritual the proper place in life and all that entails in relationships, decisions, what the meaning of life is all about," he said. "I see people much more focused on real values."

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Post-Gazette staff writer Teresa F. Lindeman contributed to this report. Mark Belko can be reached at mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.