Pittsburgh (PIT): the 28X Airport Flyer, 04:00 to 00:53
Route 28X is the only bus at the airport. It runs 04:00 to 00:53 with 396 departures and takes a median 27 minutes to downtown.
- Route 28X is the airport bus and the only route that calls at the Pittsburgh International Airport stop.
- It runs 04:00 to 00:53 with 396 departures in the timetable, which is frequent by American airport-bus standards.
- A median 27 minutes to downtown (Wood Street and Steel Plaza), with the spread only 23 to 29 minutes because most of the run is motorway.
- The same bus continues to Oakland, the university and hospital district, so students and medical visitors do not need to change.
- Outbound it is signed "Pittsburgh International Airport", inbound "Downtown and Oakland".
- There is no rail link to the airport. The light rail, the T, serves the city and the south, not the west.
- The airport is 30 km west of downtown, so 27 minutes is the road doing the work.
- The stop is at the ground transportation area outside baggage claim.
One route, and it is a good one
- Pittsburgh Regional Transit's 28X is the only bus that serves the airport, and it is the reason you do not need a car here.
- 396 departures a day, from 04:00 to 00:53. That is coverage for the first bank of departures and for a delayed evening arrival, which most American airport buses do not offer.
- Median run to downtown: 27 minutes. The spread is 23 to 29 minutes, so it is unusually predictable, because almost all of it is on the parkway.
Where it goes
- Downtown: Wood Street and Steel Plaza, which are also the light rail stations, so you can change to the T there.
- Oakland: the same bus continues past downtown to the university district, for Pitt, Carnegie Mellon and the hospitals. This is the leg that makes the 28X unusually useful.
- Read the destination sign: outbound it says Pittsburgh International Airport, inbound Downtown and Oakland.
What is not here
- No rail. Pittsburgh's light rail runs south from downtown, not west, and there is no airport branch.
- The airport is 30 km out in Findlay Township, which is why the drive matters more than the distance suggests.
The airport
- Pittsburgh International was built as a US Airways hub and is much larger than the traffic it now carries, which is why it feels quiet.
- A new landside terminal opened in 2025, replacing the old landside building; the airside terminal with its X-shaped concourses stayed.
- The AirMall, the airport's shopping arcade, was the first in America to require shops to charge the same prices as their high-street branches.
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