AUSTIN | ABIA Updates - Page 80

electricron · #**1581** Posted **Jan 24, 2015, 4:48 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by LoneStarMike

Here's something cool I found on ABIA's Facebook page from October.
ABIA is the only North American Airport with double-digit percentage growth from September 2013 to 2014.

True, as of September. Not true for November, just two months later. Dallas Love Field saw a 37% increase.
http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2...mendment.html/
But that's because flight restrictions from Love Field ended and the recent refurbishment is complete. Love Field will be hard press to have steady increases in the future. By next November ABIA will show higher growth rates again.

jg6544 · #**1582** Posted **Jan 24, 2015, 11:16 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

I could be mistaken but Don't we have a direct flight to Dulles?

Direct (with an intervening stop or two) or Non-stop? The Braniff flight was non-stop. The take-off on the flight from Austin to Dulles was always interesting because the runways at Muller were on the short side and the plane had to be loaded with fuel.

j

austlar1 · #**1583** Posted **Jan 24, 2015, 11:19 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by jg6544

Direct (with an intervening stop or two) or Non-stop? The Braniff flight was non-stop. The take-off on the flight from Austin to Dulles was always interesting because the runways at Muller were on the short side and the plane had to be loaded with fuel.

j

I've looked through two late 1960s Braniff timetables and can't find any non-stop or even direct flight from Austin to Dulles. There was one non stop from Love Field to Dulles on Braniff both in 1966 and 1968. Looks like there was a one stop (via Dallas) on a prop jet Electra back in 1963. Maybe you can find the Austin flight you remember.

http://timetableimages.com/ttimages/bn.htm

LoneStarMike · #**1584** Posted **Jan 24, 2015, 11:44 PM**

^^This is from Braniif's Oct. 1974 Timetable:

Link

Braniff Flight 18 left at 9:00 am nonstop to Dulles.

The 1974 timetable was the earliest I could find on departedflight.com's , but the start date was much earlier. I'm pretty sure it started while LBJ was still in office.

We have nonstop service to all three Washington DC area airports.

Southwest serves National and Baltimore and United/United Express serves Dulles.

Edited to add - I found it shown in the March 1968 timetable from that website you posted.

Link

Depart San Antonio 8:35 am
Arrive Austin 9:01 am
Depart Austin 9:30 am
Arrive Washington Dulles 1:32 pm

Oddly, that same timetable shows the flight then left Dulles at 1:30 pm (two minutes before it arrived) continuing on to New York JFK arring at 2:33 pm.

The service was on a Boeing 727

austlar1 · #**1585** Posted **Jan 25, 2015, 12:01 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by LoneStarMike

^^This is from Braniif's Oct. 1974 Timetable:

Link

Braniff Flight 18 left at 9:00 am nonstop to Dulles.

The 1974 timetable was the earliest I could find on departedflight.com's , but the start date was much earlier. I'm pretty sure it started while LBJ was still in office.

We have nonstop service to all three Washington DC area airports.

Southwest serves National and Baltimore and United/United Express serves Dulles.

Edited to add - I found it shown in the March 1968 timetable from that website you posted.

Link

I just found this. Looks like the flight started in 1968 and lasted until 1980. It was the first out of state non-stop from Austin and probably one of the first regularly scheduled jet services out of Austin.

Man, I remember that little "jet age" terminal when Mueller first opened. It had maybe 6 gates, no jetways, and not much business. It was very quiet between flights.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert...icipal_Airport

LoneStarMike · #**1586** Posted **Jan 25, 2015, 12:38 AM**

^^I remember reading somewhere that the second-level boarding gates with jetways didn't open until February of 1976. Before that, this was the typical "gate."

(screen shot from a youtube video)

The model of the 1961 terminal:

(can't remember where I found this, but it's posted somewhere in the history thread and I think I sourced it there.)

hookem · #**1587** Posted **Jan 25, 2015, 1:20 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by LoneStarMike

^^I remember reading somewhere that the second-level boarding gates with jetways didn't open until February of 1976. Before that, this was the typical "gate."

Love that old sign... you could smoke throughout the airport, at the "gate" outside, basically right up until you were 10 feet away from the jet fuel. Then once you boarded you could light up again.

How different everything was back then. It's somehow not part of my memory as a kid, but I'm sure everything constantly smelled like smoke.

austlar1 · #**1588** Posted **Jan 25, 2015, 3:16 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by hookem

Love that old sign... you could smoke throughout the airport, at the "gate" outside, basically right up until you were 10 feet away from the jet fuel. Then once you boarded you could light up again.

How different everything was back then. It's somehow not part of my memory as a kid, but I'm sure everything constantly smelled like smoke.

Everything did smell like smoke! Everybody smoked everywhere. Even my high school in Fort Worth had designated smoking areas. Looking back it seems crazy. I was a smoker for most of my young adult years, but my Eureka moment with cigarette smoke came when I was seated in the last row of a packed 747 on an 11 hour flight from London to Seattle back in 1977. Probably 2/3rds of the plane was filled with smokers, but all the smoke and stink seemed particularly noxious way in the back where I was sitting. I thought I was going to suffocate, and shortly after that experience I began to try to stop smoking. I finally did quit a year or so later.

jg6544 · #**1589** Posted **Jan 25, 2015, 6:55 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by austlar1

I just found this. Looks like the flight started in 1968 and lasted until 1980. It was the first out of state non-stop from Austin and probably one of the first regularly scheduled jet services out of Austin.

Man, I remember that little "jet age" terminal when Mueller first opened. It had maybe 6 gates, no jetways, and not much business. It was very quiet between flights.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert...icipal_Airport

Yep. Until then, if you were going anywhere outside of the state, you likely had to change planes at Love Field. And there were no boarding gates to speak of. The planes just parked out of the landing area and you walked out to them and had to climb the stairs - not fun in wet weather; hot weather either.

LoneStarMike · #**1590** Posted **Jan 27, 2015, 7:06 PM**

From ABIA's Facebook page:

They're adding those colorful exterior panels to the East Terminal Infill project.

Link

From ABIA's website:

Start of brighter airport, Auntie Anne's makeover

Digatisdi · #**1591** Posted **Jan 29, 2015, 8:58 PM**

10,718,854 passengers at ABIA in 2014

And here's the breakdown for December

GoldenBoot · #**1592** Posted **Jan 29, 2015, 9:50 PM**

Should ABIA sustain a growth rate of 7% per year...the newly expanded terminal will reach its new capacity by the end of 2019 (15 million passengers)...2025 should the rate sustain a 3%/yr rate.

Great planning!?!

sammyk · #**1593** Posted **Jan 30, 2015, 12:28 AM**

Anyone know the airline/aircraft that had the gear trouble on its way to Austin this morning?

KevinFromTexas · #**1594** Posted **Jan 30, 2015, 12:55 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by sammyk

Anyone know the airline/aircraft that had the gear trouble on its way to Austin this morning?

This says US Airways, but it also says it was operated by Mesa Airlines.

http://www.fox4news.com/story/279740...ing-gear-issue

Quote:

A US Airways flight bound for North Carolina has safely returned to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport with a possible landing gear issue.

Miller says the CRJ-900 regional jet

Jdawgboy · #**1595** Posted **Jan 30, 2015, 12:56 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenBoot

Should ABIA sustain a growth rate of 7% per year...the newly expanded terminal will reach its new capacity by the end of 2019 (15 million passengers)...2025 should the rate sustain a 3%/yr rate.

Great planning!?!

We will pass current capacity this year so hope they are prepared for overcrowding. They should Jumpstart the gate expansion now..

LoneStarMike · #**1596** Posted **Jan 30, 2015, 4:25 AM**

Looking at the detailed activity report

http://www.austintexas.gov/sites/def...s/Dec_2014.pdf

Looks like we closed the year with 163, 869 international passengers (includes revenue and non-revenue)