AUSTIN | ABIA Updates

[airwx]

ABIA posted a picture of the Emirates bird on twitter https://twitter.com/AUStinAirport/st...95896069357568

[urbancore]

Originally Posted by airwx

ABIA posted a picture of the Emirates bird on twitter https://twitter.com/AUStinAirport/st...95896069357568

WOW!

I would have paid money to see it land or takeoff......no joke!

[jbssfelix]

Originally Posted by GoldenBoot

WOW! And nobody got pics of any??? Damn!

ABIA tweeted a photo of the Emirates A380.



https://twitter.com/AUStinAirport/st...95896069357568

[ivanwolf]

Originally Posted by ILUVSAT

Do you mean kilometers? I believe the plane would have fallen out of the sky if it were to have traveled 12,857 statute miles (not enough fuel). The design maximum range is about 9,775 statute miles.

actually it say SM, I guess that's Statute Miles. But if you click the link and then look at the map its shows the planned dashed arc but there is a solid flown line that goes north near Moscow up to north of Greenland, maybe near the North Pole and then back to the USA to Austin. Why? or is it an error?

[ILUVSAT]

TvABIA execs, via Facebook, state that when the official numbers are released later this month, the estimated PAX for 2015 will be around 11.8 million (1.1 million more than 2014 and distanced itself by another 1 million PAX on my SAT)!

Maybe they should implement further expansion since the current one will be obsolete far sooner than previously thought!?!

[drummer]

Austin loves playing catch-up on pretty much anything transportation-related (including airports), so planning ahead just isn't going to happen.

[the Genral]

I find that most places I 've lived, government is more reactive than anticipatory. Its easier to justify spending when the issue presents itself or is overdue, rather than paying for the issue before it becomes an issue. Urgency does not seem to be ever on the COA's agenda. They built COTA in what...less than a year? How long is it going to take to add 8 stinking gates?

[GoldenBoot]

Originally Posted by the Genral

I find that most places I 've lived, government is more reactive than anticipatory. Its easier to justify spending when the issue presents itself or is overdue, rather than paying for the issue before it becomes an issue. Urgency does not seem to be ever on the COA's agenda. They built COTA in what...less than a year? How long is it going to take to add 8 stinking gates?

The COA did not build COTA. A private entity did.

[the Genral]

Originally Posted by GoldenBoot

The COA did not build COTA. A private entity did.

I know, I was just looking at the scope of the COTA construction and how quickly it was built and how much longer its going to take to add a few gates. Maybe the ABIA expansion is a larger scale and should takes years to complete than I imagine.

[brando]

Originally Posted by the Genral

I know, I was just looking at the scope of the COTA construction and how quickly it was built and how much longer its going to take to add a few gates. Maybe the ABIA expansion is a larger scale and should takes years to complete than I imagine.

It has a lot of components.

-Demolish some left over airforce base buildings to make room for more taxi-way
-Expand the apron area south and east of the terminal by about 27 acres
- Move the 116,000-square-foot detention pond near the apron and make it about 20 percent larger to store and treat runoff water and de-icing material.
-Build the Actual terminal structure

[drummer]

I think you guys with connections to the airport should lobby on my behalf to get a flight direct to Austin from Shanghai or Hong Kong. I'd be most grateful.

Edit: Not Beijing or Guangzhou - I hate both of those airports with a passion - but Chengdu could work, too. I'll owe you one.

[the Genral]

So here's where I become Negative Nancy and say why didn't they build it this way in the first place? The terminal never looked complete. The infill(s) I understand, they are nice add ons, but if they completed the main terminal at the time of initial construction, we would actually be where we need to be now. So was it poor planning? Unexpected growth? Financial constraints? Time constraints? Did they have to get out of Mueller by a certain date? So per brando's post, the expansion of just 9 gates will cost almost $300 million dollars because of all the other support work that needs to be done. 70,000 sq ft, 300 mil, 9 gates, I can't wrap my brain around those numbers.

[Jdawgboy]

9 gates instead of 7 why odd numbers lol? They should just add an even 10 and bring the total amount to 40.

[drummer]

No, they'll need a reason to add gates later...

[brando]

Originally Posted by the Genral

So here's where I become Negative Nancy and say why didn't they build it this way in the first place? The terminal never looked complete. The infill(s) I understand, they are nice add ons, but if they completed the main terminal at the time of initial construction, we would actually be where we need to be now. So was it poor planning? Unexpected growth? Financial constraints? Time constraints? Did they have to get out of Mueller by a certain date? So per brando's post, the expansion of just 9 gates will cost almost $300 million dollars because of all the other support work that needs to be done. 70,000 sq ft, 300 mil, 9 gates, I can't wrap my brain around those numbers.

You keep saying 9 gates but you know there is more to it right? They are expanding the entire terminal by almost 40%. That's baggage claim, security checkpoints, airline concourses, all of the back of house operations equipment for the bottom floor and then the entire 2nd floor of the new terminal space. Saying "9 gates" doesn't really represent the work. I believe they are also replacing the roof on on existing terminal.

This is a major increase in space and it makes sense it wasn't built from the start. I don't think anyone planning it in 1992/93 should be blamed for not anticipating the growth in Austin over the last 23 years. No one saw that coming. It didn't need this amount of space when it opened.

[atxdweller]

Originally Posted by the Genral

So here's where I become Negative Nancy and say why didn't they build it this way in the first place? The terminal never looked complete. The infill(s) I understand, they are nice add ons, but if they completed the main terminal at the time of initial construction, we would actually be where we need to be now. So was it poor planning? Unexpected growth? Financial constraints? Time constraints? Did they have to get out of Mueller by a certain date? So per brando's post, the expansion of just 9 gates will cost almost $300 million dollars because of all the other support work that needs to be done. 70,000 sq ft, 300 mil, 9 gates, I can't wrap my brain around those numbers.

Ah, hindsight. I doubt even the rosiest forecast during the boom 90s could have reliably predicted the rate of growth we've had over the ensuing twenty years. Had they ended up overbuilding and the growth didn't actually happen, we'd be castigating the city for idle gates.

Trying to figure out how to accommodate current levels of passenger growth is a problem a lot of cities would love to have.

[Jdawgboy]

Originally Posted by atxdweller

Ah, hindsight. I doubt even the rosiest forecast during the boom 90s could have reliably predicted the rate of growth we've had over the ensuing twenty years. Had they ended up overbuilding and the growth didn't actually happen, we'd be castigating the city for idle gates.

Trying to figure out how to accommodate current levels of passenger growth is a problem a lot of cities would love to have.

Agreed... I'm trying to remember if it was Austin1971 or someone else that mentioned a few pages back that it might be possible for the airport to start the next terminal expansion while this one is still under construction adding I think it was another 12 gates over the next 5 years. I would assume the city would make that decision whether or not to do it by 2019 if we continue to see a steady increase in demand.


I'm really interested in how many new routes will be announced over the next 12 months. That should be a good indicator for the rest of the decade barring any world or economic problems which could arise. I think that is the biggest concern between now and 2020.

[drummer]

Again - direct routes to/from China would be great!

[GoldenBoot]

Here, here!

[Digatisdi]

Frontier announces MCO and PHL nonstops