Bit of a surprise here, for a coupe of reasons. Get to that in a second, but first the basics: US Airways will begin daily, year-round service to Rome using a 293-seat Airbus A330-300 jet on May 13, 2010. This is the fifth European destination served nonstop from CLT, after London-Gatwick, Frankfurt, Munich, and (seasonally) Paris. Lufthansa flies to Munich, the other routes are on US Airways.

That Rome is the next European destination is not a shocker. Charlotte is US Airways’ secondary hub to Europe; Philadelphia is their main gateway to Europe. Thus, we get the airline’s second flights to destinations in Europe. And this past summer, Philly-Rome was one of the seven routes US Airways flew on the A330-300, their largest jet, so a CLT-Rome flight would be a logical addition.

Rome though is well-known as a strongly seasonal destination. There’s strong demand in summer but winters are slow. Delta served Rome from its Cincinnati hub summers only. Same with Northwest Airlines out of Detroit and American and United from Chicago. US Airways though is proposing to fly Rome from both PHL and CLT year-round and apparently with both flights on A330-300s. That a lot of extra seats to Italy to fill. Doing so at decent yields could be a challenge, especially in winter.

That though could be the airline’s best use of its aircraft. US Airways had some issues over the Atlantic this past summer, and is dropping five European routes from Philadelphia for 2010. (It served 22 destinations in Europe plus Tel Aviv from Philly in 2009, but apparently only 17 plus Tel Aviv next summer.) It’s also deferring deliveries of eight widebody jets by three years that had been due for delivery in 2010 and 2011.

So essentially, Rome looks to be the best of a collection of otherwise mediocre choices. But if this route were eventually to get either downgraded to a smaller aircraft and/or go seasonal, it shouldn’t come as a surprise either.

Bonus observation: The other two destinations from Philly that see A330-300s and aren’t served from Charlotte are Madrid and Manchester. The aircraft deferral limits growth possibilities until 2013 or 2014, especially to Madrid. Wildcard is whether the airline gets a second route authority to Brazil (possible but odds against), if they don’t then they might have roughly two 204-seat 767s available for some long-range route(s) from Charlotte, Philadelphia, or Phoenix.

Besides Manchester, the other European destination that’s possible with the smaller, range-restricted 757s from Charlotte would be Dublin.

Update summer 2010 Europe and such schedule, by aircraft type:
A330-300 (9 aircraft, 8 routes plus a reserve): CLT – London Gatwick, CLT – Frankfurt, CLT – Rome, 2x PHL-Frankfurt, PHL-Rome, PHL- Madrid, PHL – Manchester

A330-200 (7 aircraft, all used): CLT – Paris, PHL – Paris, PHL – Munich, PHL – London Heathrow, PHL – Barcelona, PHL – Tel Aviv (requires two planes)

767-200ER (10 aircraft, 8 used on long routes plus reserve, some Carib, and positioning): CLT – Rio (requires two planes), CLT – Honolulu, PHL – Venice, PHL – Athens, PHL – Zurich, PHL – Dublin, PHL – Amsterdam

757-200: PHL – Glasgow, PHL – Lisbon, PHL – Oslo, PHL – Brussels. (Amsterdam and Dublin were on a 757 last summer)