AUSTIN | ABIA Updates

[LoneStarMike]

While not nearly as "sexy" as the announced service to London, this is an interesting new development nonetheless.


AirIT Adds Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) To The Growing List Of Airports Utilizing Its EASE™ Virtualized Shared Use Passenger Processing Technology

Air-Transport IT Services, Inc. (AirIT)
August 27, 2013

AirIT, the leading provider of innovative information technology products and services to the air transportation industry, today announced that Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) has chosen to implement AirIT’s Extended Airline System Environment (EASE™) shared use technology to augment the airport’s conventional passenger processing capabilities.

As a part of the City of Austin Aviation Department’s airport master plan, AirIT will add EASE™ in a limited gate and ticket counter installation to be utilized by ten commercial airline carriers. The innovative virtualized passenger processing platform is scheduled to be operational by October 15, 2013.

Austin-Bergstrom Airport joins 28 other airports who have recently installed the AirIT EASE™ shared use platform. With more than 90 airlines operating on EASE™ today, the platform allows the airport the ability to maximize operational efficiencies by facilitating the sharing of ticket and gate resources and eliminating the need for costly brick and mortar projects. And unlike the more costly common use technologies such as CUTE and CUPPS, the EASE™ platform is a virtualized “open” technology that allows airlines to utilize their native passenger processing applications further reducing the time and cost of deployment and support.

Comments Chris Keller, AirIT President and COO, “AirIT is very pleased that the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport chose our shared use solution for their passenger processing platform. We know that the airport and its airline partners have a choice of technologies and we’re proud to be able to provide Austin-Bergstrom with the capability of flexibly managing their resources while simultaneously providing their airlines with world-class service at a much lower cost.”

“AirIT will help us get the most out of our facilities and resources by facilitating multiple carrier use of our gates and ticketing areas,” said Patti Edwards, COO of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. “Such optimization of our facility allows us to present more travel options to our customers.”

The way I understand it that this system will allow any of the airlines at ABIA to access their own computer systems at any gate or ticket counter if they need to.

For example, Virgin America uses Gate 21, but only once per day and the rest of the time it's vacant. This new technology would allow other airlines to use that gate at other times during the day. It might also mean that some of those vacant check-in counters in the east ticketing lobby could be used by an airline during heavy travel periods like during the holidays, SXSW or Formula 1. And it will be operational by October 15.

[texastarkus]

In my humble opinion, BA will promote this route to travelers from San Antonio to Waco. Why travel to huge airports like DFW or IAH when you can use a nice smaller Austin airport. I would gladly drive from my home in Boerne to Austin for a direct flight than to the closer airport in San Antonio where I change planes in Dallas, Houston, Chicago for London. I would also spend more $ to not stand in line.

[hookem]

Originally Posted by texastarkus

In my humble opinion, BA will promote this route to travelers from San Antonio to Waco. Why travel to huge airports like DFW or IAH when you can use a nice smaller Austin airport. I would gladly drive from my home in Boerne to Austin for a direct flight than to the closer airport in San Antonio where I change planes in Dallas, Houston, Chicago for London. I would also spend more $ to not stand in line.

I agree, it will be exciting to see what sort of traffic starts using ABIA just because of this flight. And not just Texas, either. There are not many direct flights to LHR in this region -- it just happens that the other two are in DFW and IAH. But places like New Mexico, Oklahoma, Lousiana, etc have none at all. Who knows whether some of that traffic might look at the option to go through Austin? BA is an AA codeshare.

Heathrow direct flights map:
http://www.heathrowairport.com/fligh...tion/route-map

[Jdawgboy]

Theres no doubt the surrounding region will draw in passengers. ABIA is easy to access from all directions and is situated in a great location geographically. I think a lot of people especially reading articles from other regions about the route announcement still do not realize the true scope and influence Austin now has and its rapidly growing international reputation or the shear massive amount of population growth that continues to break records. With the fast growing Korean population here and Samsung's only western hemisphere operations located here, I would not be surprised that a direct route to Seoul is not too far off in the distant future.

[hookem]

Here is the announcement about the cargo part:

http://www.aircargoworld.com/Air-Car...-route/0315140

That's room for a whole lot of "Keep Austin Weird" t-shirts.

[Austin1971]

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[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by Austin1971

The afternoon Heathrow landing slot being used by BA shows just how much they want this route to work.

I thought the schedule has the flight from AUS to Heathrow departing Austin at 7:00 p.m. and landing at Heathrow at 10:00 a.m. I think the return flight leaves Heathrow at 12:35 p.m. and arrives back to AUS at 5:00 p.m.

[KevinFromTexas]

So BA will be flying 787s for their Austin to London flights, but what model 787? There are three models, the 787-8, 9 and 10. They're all different sizes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_...Specifications

[sammyk]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

So BA will be flying 787s for their Austin to London flights, but what model 787? There are three models, the 787-8, 9 and 10. They're all different sizes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_...Specifications

Only one type has been delivered so far. The 787-8. So that will be the model we see.

The 787-9 test aircraft has just been completed and has not flown yet. It is scheduled to be be delivered some time next year.

The 787-10 is still just on paper.

[LoneStarMike]

July breaks monthly passenger record. Four of last five months record setters at Austin's airport

Passenger Activity: Total passenger traffic for July 2013 was 922,615, up 6.5% compared to July 2012. This tops the previous single month record of 911,675 set in June 2013. July 2013 enplanements totaled 463,336, up 7%

[SNIP]

Total passenger traffic for January – July YTD was 5,778,090 up 6% compared to January – July 2012. January – July 2013 enplanements totaled 2,899,063, up 6%.

[texboy]

I think its great that AUS is getting this flight, don't get me wrong. Increasing competition in between markets is great. BUT, that being said, I flew the BA flight from Houston to Heathrow last year (on a gorgeous, brand new B777) for damn near half the cost and it arrived late morning. It'll be interesting to see if they bring these prices down eventually. If I were an Austinite, I would happily pay the cheaper price and have a short lay over in Hou.

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by texboy

It'll be interesting to see if they bring these prices down eventually. If I were an Austinite, I would happily pay the cheaper price and have a short lay over in Hou.

I don't think the fares quoted the day of the announcement were the true prices. I think British Airways was loading the fares into the system, and now they're showing up the next day.

I just went to ba.com and picked a random date. Leaving AUS May 2 and returning May 11. The options that come up are the nonstop flight on BA as well as connecting flights on AA.

For May 2 lowest available fare on the BA nonstop was $579. The lowest AA fare was $512. Coming back on the 11th, the lowest BA nonstop fare was $684 and the lowest AA connecting fare was $691. So that would work out as $1263 roundtrip on the nonstop BA flight as opposed to $1203 roundtrip on the connecting AA flights. And that supposedly includes all taxes and fees.

You can go to ba.com and check other dates, but if the difference is only nominal, I would think enough corporate business travelers would use it.

[GoldenBoot]

Originally Posted by Austin1971

The 787 was specifically designed for a route like this. It will seat approximately 215 passengers in three classes so it won't be difficult to fill the plane and make the 7x weekly service profitable. BA is one of the premier carriers and doesn't start a new service without extensive research. Also AA is on board with the new service as well. It wouldn't surprise me if AA increased service and scheduled arrivals to coincide with the BA flight. Also the cargo capabilities will be a plus. This new flight will be the first scheduled passenger service at ABIA that uses the large cargo containers.

Very true. Furthermore, any additional trans-oceanic flight announcements (in the near term) will pertain to those airlines utilizing their Boeing 787 equipment.

It will be a long time before ABIA sees regular service using B767's, B777's, B747's, A330's, A340's, and especially the A380. All of which are too costly, at this juncture, on the Austin route.

With regard to the gate expansion...I hope a few of the gates are designed to accommodate at least a B777/A346; instead of the B757 (which has been used by ABIA for all of their current gates). Even though these planes are not going to serve Austin in the near future...it's time to begin to think about the future.

[Austin1971]

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[the Genral]

Originally Posted by LoneStarMike

I don't think the fares quoted the day of the announcement were the true prices. I think British Airways was loading the fares into the system, and now they're showing up the next day.

I just went to ba.com and picked a random date. Leaving AUS May 2 and returning May 11. The options that come up are the nonstop flight on BA as well as connecting flights on AA.

For May 2 lowest available fare on the BA nonstop was $579. The lowest AA fare was $512. Coming back on the 11th, the lowest BA nonstop fare was $684 and the lowest AA connecting fare was $691. So that would work out as $1263 roundtrip on the nonstop BA flight as opposed to $1203 roundtrip on the connecting AA flights. And that supposedly includes all taxes and fees.

You can go to ba.com and check other dates, but if the difference is only nominal, I would think enough corporate business travelers would use it.

That's a big difference from what I read in the AAS today. If the quote in the paper is correct, then it will cost $722 more to fly out of ABIA direct than from Houston. If that number holds true, then I'm going to retract my earlier post saying I would be willing to pay more to avoid the long custom lines at the major hubs. To save $722, I'll stand in a line twice as long. And seeing that if I did decide to fly to London, I probably would have to take my wife so I'd actually be saving $1440.
Interesting how much press this Austin to London route is getting. Apparently, without the 787, this and other new destinations would never have happened. That's because the 787 has up to an 8200 mile range using 20% less fuel than 777s and 747s. Austin to London is just over 4900 miles. Also since it carries less passengers, that, according to BA, will make it more cost effective. It looks like the 787 is poised to be the choice on long haul to what the 737 is to regional.

[ATXboom]

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/ne...new-gates.html

7 new gates online in 3-4 years.

[GoldenBoot]

Originally Posted by ATXboom

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/ne...new-gates.html

7 new gates online in 3-4 years.

That article seems to be a bit flawed. At our current growth, ABIA will surpass 11 PAX in 2015 (not a big deal of difference). However, a seven gate expansion will be able to "accommodate growth through 2027?!?"

Just simple math would tell you that could be way off. If ABIA has 24 jetways and a current capacity of 11 million PAX, that would be roughly 458,333 PAX per gate. Thus, the seven additional jetways would increase ABIA's capacity from 11 million to almost 14,210,000. Is the author of the article telling me that ABIA will grow by only just under 18.5% over a ten-year period from 2017-2027 (assuming ABIA is handling roughly 12 million PAX by the time the new gates are slated to open in 2017; figuring a 5% growth rate per year)? Over the past few years, ABIA has sustained a growth rate of roughly 4-6% year-over-year.

Unless the new gates handle larger aircraft on a regular basis, I'm a bit confused. If I am misunderstanding things, please let me know. Thanks!

I also believe the current master plan has 11 million PAX, 13.2 million PAX and 18.4 million PAX as milestones for gate expansions to 35 gates, 40 gates, and 52 gates, respectively. Ultimate buildout of ABIA is currently described to be 112 gates.

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by GoldenBoot

Unless the new gates handle larger aircraft on a regular basis, I'm a bit confused.

One thing I noticed is that a previous master plan called for the addition of 9 gates on the the end of the east pier. Now it's down to 7. As you noted in an earlier post ABIA is generally designed to accommodate aircraft as large as 757's (assuming every gate is full) I wonder if the fact that the east pier expansion has been "downsized" from 9 gates to 7 means that some of the new gates will be sized to accommodate larger widebody planes.

Originally Posted by GoldenBoot

If ABIA has 24 jetways and a current capacity of 11 million PAX, that would be roughly 458,333 PAX per gate.

A gate can handle more than 458,333 per year. Look at Southwest. They only have 6 gates and their passenger count last year was 3,580,730 - which comes out to 596.788 passengers per gate per year. Some gates are under-utilized right now, but ABIA is adding the virtual shared use passenger processing technology (EASE) noted earlier on this page and that is supposed to allow them to use their gates more efficiently. It makes it easier for a lot of these airlines that have one or two flights per day to share one gate.

I think it will also depend on how much new additional space will be added landside. That's where most of the problems are today.

[ATXboom]

Yeah. 7 gates doesn't seem to add up to 2027 traffic projections. Unless the new software enables amazing efficiency that will render older airports half empty lol. I imagine they will plan for at least 2 747 gates/spacing for event charters around formula 1 etc. hence less gates in same size wing as the west.

[Austin1971]

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