Salt Lake International Airport Development Thread

[(Eco)nomy_404]

Originally Posted by orlandopilot

Does anyone have a sense of how well the SLC-LHR flight is doing thus far? If the Delta seating maps are any indication, it appears that on most days, the flights to and from SLC are leaving almost half empty. I would think that London would be a very popular destination. I know the route is only a month old but I really hope this route can survive. Maybe seating maps are not fully accurate as to how many seats have been purchased.

It does appear that the KLM service has been warmly received and doing well.

I'll actually be spending the summer at Oxford, so I'll be taking a flight to LHR next month. I'll let you know how the flight goes and I can even take some pics for you guys. Then I'll be able to share my anecdotal stats of a flight from SLC to LHR on a typical Wednesday.

Originally Posted by orlandopilot

It just seems that the LHR service is really lagging behind AMS and CDG. AMS and CDG flights seem to be leaving at full or nearly full every day. I would think LHR would be a more popular destination than AMS.

AMS is a major hub for regional flights from across Europe. It's a very common transfer point for people flying into Europe and connecting to another country within the continent. It does not surprise me at all that this would be a top location. When I flew to Europe in the past, it was typical to change planes in AMS.

[GBurrow]

I don't know if any of you have been out to the airport lately. Progress seems to have speed up fairly quickly. Demolition of the old rental car facilities seems to be complete. Also, Terminal Dr has been rerouted to make way for the construction of the south concourse and terminal.

The roadway now makes a sharp left turn against the parking structure. Large excavators have began utilities work west of the current concourses and terminals.

[ThePusherMan]

Originally Posted by GBurrow

I don't know if any of you have been out to the airport lately. Progress seems to have speed up fairly quickly. Demolition of the old rental car facilities seems to be complete. Also, Terminal Dr has been rerouted to make way for the construction of the south concourse and terminal.

The roadway now makes a sharp left turn against the parking structure. Large excavators have began utilities work west of the current concourses and terminals.

Exciting news. I flew to Austin about a month ago and none of that was happening yet!

[UrbanDesign]

Question: Are there airports of our size that are hubs for multiple airlines? With the recently added 30 gates with the north concourse, is it feasible that there could be some interest from another airline? Also, have there been any rumors about additional flights because of the north concourse announcement?

With the north concourse, is it going to just spread of the gate usage to reduce congestion or is it expected that many additional flight will commence after the slctrp completion?

[San Diego-Honolulu]

Originally Posted by UrbanDesign

Question: Are there airports of our size that are hubs for multiple airlines? With the recently added 30 gates with the north concourse, is it feasible that there could be some interest from another airline? Also, have there been any rumors about additional flights because of the north concourse announcement?

With the north concourse, is it going to just spread of the gate usage to reduce congestion or is it expected that many additional flight will commence after the slctrp completion?

The airports in the US that are right ahead or right behind the SLC airport in terms of passengers served are Baltimore (Southwest), Washington Dulles (United) and Reagan (American), Chicago Midway (Southwest) Honolulu (Hawaiian), and San Diego (Southwest). I put in parentheses the airline that has a hub/focus city at the airport.

I would not be surprised to see Alaska Airlines make SLC a focus city once the new terminal opens. Alaska is growing out west and wants to expand more and I think they planted the seed in SLC a few years ago with the mini expansion they did in SLC back then. Once the new terminal opens in SLC, Alaska's merger with Virgin America will probably be complete and I can see at that time Alaska looking to expand even more outside of their strong holds all up and down the west coast. Alaska has also began code sharing with American on flights in SLC. So I think Alaska is realistically the only airline that might expand.

[(Eco)nomy_404]

Originally Posted by orlandopilot

Does anyone have a sense of how well the SLC-LHR flight is doing thus far? If the Delta seating maps are any indication, it appears that on most days, the flights to and from SLC are leaving almost half empty. I would think that London would be a very popular destination. I know the route is only a month old but I really hope this route can survive. Maybe seating maps are not fully accurate as to how many seats have been purchased.

It does appear that the KLM service has been warmly received and doing well.

I just took a flight from SLC to LHR on Wed night and it was packed from end to end. I saw maybe a half dozen empty seats at the very most sprinkled about. Looked to me like it was around 95% capacity. It could be that there is more travel this time of year, a correlation to the enduring strength of the dollar, or that the route is maturing. Whatever the reason, it's definitely highly utilized if my flight was any indication. I have a return flight in a month, so I can also give you an idea on the utilization on that one.

[San Diego-Honolulu]

Originally Posted by (Eco)nomy_404

I just took a flight from SLC to LHR on Wed night and it was packed from end to end. I saw maybe a half dozen empty seats at the very most sprinkled about. Looked to me like it was around 95% capacity. It could be that there is more travel this time of year, a correlation to the enduring strength of the dollar, or that the route is maturing. Whatever the reason, it's definitely highly utilized if my flight was any indication. I have a return flight in a month, so I can also give you an idea on the utilization on that one.

Just because a flight is full that doesn't mean it's making money. 1/3 of that flight could be employees flying non rev. Also, some seats could be purposely left empty due to weight balance restrictions SLC faces during the hot summer months too. Also some could be traveling essentially free using skymiles as well. Seeing a near full flight does not give the entire story of the pay load of a flight.

[wrendog]

Originally Posted by San Diego-Honolulu

Just because a flight is full that doesn't mean it's making money. 1/3 of that flight could be employees flying non rev. Also, some seats could be purposely left empty due to weight balance restrictions SLC faces during the hot summer months too. Also some could be traveling essentially free using skymiles as well. Seeing a near full flight does not give the entire story of the pay load of a flight.

[seventwenty]

Originally Posted by wrendog

LOL the guy knows an important point about the airline industry and you post this dribbel.

[wrendog]

Originally Posted by seventwenty

LOL the guy knows an important point about the airline industry and you post this dribbel.

I'm not an idiot, obviously what he says has some meaning. He is just a huge, well, debbie downer with pretty much anything. It's fairly annoying.

Anyhoo, it's "drivel".

[s.p.hansen]

Originally Posted by wrendog

[San Diego-Honolulu]

Originally Posted by wrendog

I'm not an idiot, obviously what he says has some meaning. He is just a huge, well, debbie downer with pretty much anything. It's fairly annoying.

Anyhoo, it's "drivel".

How is giving probable facts being a Debbie Downer? I would love to see this route work out but to get the entire financial facts of the route you need to give it at least a year, then you can probably look back and analyze the numbers and everything considered. There is no way you can look at one single flight with a good load factor and call it a success.

The Paris and two Amsterdam flights from SLC have been successful. KLM and Delta have stated that right from their mouths. The London flight is tbd.

[Wasatch Wasteland]

Originally Posted by San Diego-Honolulu

Just because a flight is full that doesn't mean it's making money. 1/3 of that flight could be employees flying non rev. Also, some seats could be purposely left empty due to weight balance restrictions SLC faces during the hot summer months too. Also some could be traveling essentially free using skymiles as well. Seeing a near full flight does not give the entire story of the pay load of a flight.

Guys, Come one. All those things said are very true, but (Eco)nomy_404 was just observing a nearly full flight, which is by no means a bad sign at all.

As far as that GIF goes… …mixed feelings

[wrendog]

Sheesh, it was just a debbie downer gif. That's all.

The facts are just fine, we don't know. But the post came off as very debbie downery (yes, I just decided it's a word).

No big deal.

[Liberty Wellsian]

Originally Posted by San Diego-Honolulu

How is giving probable facts being a Debbie Downer? I would love to see this route work out but to get the entire financial facts of the route you need to give it at least a year, then you can probably look back and analyze the numbers and everything considered. There is no way you can look at one single flight with a good load factor and call it a success.

The Paris and two Amsterdam flights from SLC have been successful. KLM and Delta have stated that right from their mouths. The London flight is tbd.

He didn't "call it a success". He qualified his statement multiple times with phrases like "if my flight is any indication". His post was fairly tempered. He didn't have data to share so he shared an anecdotal observation. I don't think he claimed it was anything more than that.

[Sight-Seer]

I wanted to see the progress at the airport, so I drove through yesterday. They've re-routed some roads and cleared a huge area west of the parking structure. Construction is still at a very early stage. It looks like they're driving some pilings. I went home and looked at a map again. That's when I realized that they can build all of phase 1 without tearing anything down. I thought that was pretty surprising. But not when you consider that they're forced to use the old buildings until the new ones are ready.

[TheWire]

I went by the airport the other day and they are making MASSIVE progress and changes. Just a couple months ago, they removed the exit from the short term garage and rerouted Terminal Dr. Now it appears that they have completely razed the west sections of the E gates (the "Y") and the tarmac in that section has been completely removed. Does anyone know when that happened? Seems to be a rather large development that didn't have much fanfare. I didn't have enough time to do much investigation as to the specific work that is going on right now, but it looks to be moving quickly.

[arkhitektor]

Google recently updated their satellite images, you can really see the progress from above:

[ImaJem]

So, It sounds like they're upgrading the flight control system at the airport. Great news!
http://www.ksl.com/?sid=41082533&nid...ght-technology

[Ironweed]

Can anyone repost a schematic of what the airport will look like when finished along with a date of completion? Thanks.