AUSTIN | ABIA Updates - Page 108

ILUVSAT · #**2141** Posted **Aug 20, 2015, 3:23 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Austin1971

http://tpr.org/post/growing-pains-ca...irport-compete

SAT the little brother?

YES, we are! And it's going to be that way if our leaders feel it's more important to "work with Austin" than to find our own niche and exploit it. Henry Cisneros wants to "talk" with Austin about "air routes." To me, that is SA saying; "Please stop! You gut are making us look second class..." Which may be true.

Furthermore, the demand is just simply not there. Not matter if we like it or not. If it were, fares would be cheaper and more routes would have been established.

Our leaders keep mentioning the cost of flying out of SAT as the major (if not the only problem). And, many SA travelers will rather drive to AUS to fly because of cost. That's total BS! Unless someone drives them there, they have to pay for parking or commuting to ABIA...which in most cases, closes the cost differential very quickly (or surpasses it). SA, for the longest time has been reliant on the tourist trade to bring them fortune. Well, other cities have fought up and SA has not done a thing to expand on that. Yes, we are trying to establish a deeper tech and biomedical economy, however, we have a LONG way to go just to catch up with some of the lower-hanging-fruit cities in these categories. Hell, even Nashville is giving Austin a run for its money regarding growth. Both of those cities are roughly the same size (metro pop). The natural resources (oil and natural gas) industry is big in SA, again, however, that industry is lagging right now and is relatively near larger oil and gas HQ's of Houston and Dallas (maybe even OKC).

Austin's economy is just much more conducive to greater air travel than is SA's! Plain and simple...no pun initially intended.

Novacek · #**2142** Posted **Aug 20, 2015, 1:21 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ILUVSAT

And, many SA travelers will rather drive to AUS to fly because of cost. That's total BS! Unless someone drives them there, they have to pay for parking or commuting to ABIA...which in most cases, closes the cost differential very quickly (or surpasses it).

Because you don't have to pay for parking at the San Antonio airport?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ILUVSAT

Hell, even Nashville is giving Austin a run for its money regarding growth. Both of those cities are roughly the same size (metro pop).

We were. Austin is growing at double the rate of the Nashville metro, and has tripled the difference between them since the last census (46k -> 151k).

Jdawgboy · #**2143** Posted **Aug 20, 2015, 5:11 PM**

This whole idea of a regional airport is just not going to happen. You don't hear anything about it on our local news because it's a non issue to us. We are not going to give up the convenience of our airport just to satisfy San Antonio's ego. It's close to DT, strategically located with fairly easy access from most of the metro. It already has the runways to accommodate trans-oceanic wide body long haul routes and can be expanded to well over a 100 gates if the need ever arises. We won't give that up nor should we be expected to. This is a one sided issue and Austin is being dragged into it through no fault of our own.

Novacek · #**2144** Posted **Aug 20, 2015, 6:41 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

This whole idea of a regional airport is just not going to happen. You don't hear anything about it on our local news because it's a non issue to us. We are not going to give up the convenience of our airport just to satisfy San Antonio's ego. It's close to DT, strategically located with fairly easy access from most of the metro. It already has the runways to accommodate trans-oceanic wide body long haul routes and can be expanded to well over a 100 gates if the need ever arises. We won't give that up nor should we be expected to. This is a one sided issue and Austin is being dragged into it through no fault of our own.

And $600M is being spent to (among other things) add more highway access to it.

Give that all up and be forced to take I35 to get to the airport. No way.

drummer · #**2145** Posted **Aug 21, 2015, 12:55 AM**

Agreed. When I come home from Asia to see family, the last thing I want to do is fly into an airport and drive for an hour. I like the convenience of ABIA, even with all the stoplights on 183...which will eventually go away.

LoneStarMike · #**2146** Posted **Aug 21, 2015, 1:16 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ILUVSAT

Hell, even Nashville is giving Austin a run for its money regarding growth.

Out of curiosity, I checked Nashville's passenger statistics just now. They haven't reported July traffic, yet, but through June they had 5,532,714 passengers and through June AUS had 5,593,403 passengers, so we're about 60k ahead of them for the first six months of the year.

Through June Houston Hobby had 5,744,935, Dallas Love Field had 6,643,168 (up over 50%) and San Antonio had 4,156,717

Last year's rankings in terms of passenger traffic:

32. Nashville
33. Austin
34. Oakland
38. Dallas Love Field
42. San Antonio

Source: 2014 Top 50 Airports In The Lower 48 States

Austin's rankng will probably remain at 33 for 2015. Although we are jumping ahead of Nashville (most likely) Dallas Love Field will certainly be jumping ahead of us.

wwmiv · #**2147** Posted **Aug 21, 2015, 1:32 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by LoneStarMike

Out of curiosity, I checked Nashville's passenger statistics just now. They haven't reported July traffic, yet, but through June they had 5,532,714 passengers and through June AUS had 5,593,403 passengers, so we're about 60k ahead of them for the first six months of the year.

Through June Houston Hobby had 5,744,935, Dallas Love Field had 6,643,168 (up over 50%) and San Antonio had 4,156,717

Last year's rankings in terms of passenger traffic:

32. Nashville
33. Austin
34. Oakland
38. Dallas Love Field
42. San Antonio

Source: 2014 Top 50 Airports In The Lower 48 States

Austin's rankng will probably remain at 33 for 2015. Although we are jumping ahead of Nashville (most likely) Dallas Love Field will certainly be jumping ahead of us.

Your first post referenced metropolitan size, which is what Novacek took issue with. You're right in regard to airport traffic, but you're wrong with regard to metro size (you specifically said they're the same metro size, but they aren't).

LoneStarMike · #**2148** Posted **Aug 21, 2015, 12:29 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by wwmiv

Your first post referenced metropolitan size, which is what Novacek took issue with. You're right in regard to airport traffic, but you're wrong with regard to metro size (you specifically said they're the same metro size, but they aren't).

Huh? Why are you replying to me? I never said anything about metro size. ILUVSAT did. He mentioned Nashville and I had remembered that their airport was ahead of ours last year - and a lot of that has to do with Southwest having about 30 more flights in Nashville than they do in Austin, which results in more connecting passengers. I was just curious to see if their airport was still ahead of us this year. (They're not.)

I didn't have any other posts and certainly not one that Novacek took issue with.

GoldenBoot · #**2149** Posted **Aug 21, 2015, 5:15 PM**

Not for nothing...I believe the U.S. Census bureau estimated the following regarding populations as of July 1, 2014:

Austin-Round Rock MSA = 1,943,299 (+13.23% from 2010 Census)
Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin MSA = 1,792,649 (+7.29% from 2010 Census)
Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro CSA = 1,912,819 (+6.95% from 2010 Census)

*Austin is not currently apart of any official Consolidated Statistical Area.

Back to the topic of the tread:

HEY...anything new to report at the ABIA? Any news on gate expansion, new routes, etc???

wwmiv · #**2150** Posted **Aug 21, 2015, 5:18 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by LoneStarMike

Huh? Why are you replying to me? I never said anything about metro size. ILUVSAT did. He mentioned Nashville and I had remembered that their airport was ahead of ours last year - and a lot of that has to do with Southwest having about 30 more flights in Nashville than they do in Austin, which results in more connecting passengers. I was just curious to see if their airport was still ahead of us this year. (They're not.)

I didn't have any other posts and certainly not one that Novacek took issue with.

My apologies. For some reason I thought you were ILUVSA and was clearly not paying enough attention. Sorry

LoneStarMike · #**2151** Posted **Aug 21, 2015, 8:48 PM**

^^No problem - I figured that's what it was. The other thing I left out of my post was that if things stay on track, AUS will drop a ranking regarding busiest airports in TX. Right now, (and by that I actually mean year-end 2014) we're at #4 behind DFW, Houston-Bush, and Houston-Hobby. By the end of the year it should be:

1. DFW
2. IAH (Bush)
3. DAL (Love Field)
4. HOU (Hobby)
5. AUS

I think there's only been one year where we were ranked #3, and it was whatever year Houston had Hurricane Ike, and both Bush & Hobby were closed for a couple of days. That was "just enough" to put us ahead of Hobby.

Re: East Concourse extension - I'm thinking we should at least see some schematics/renderings by the end of the year. Gensler was chosen as the architect back in December, so the project is in the design phase and I could have sworn I read somewhere that the design phase would take around 9-10 months.

Austin1971 · #**2152** Posted **Aug 21, 2015, 9:34 PM**

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GoldenBoot · #**2153** Posted **Aug 21, 2015, 9:46 PM**

"12-gate Pier?" I guess the airport IS going with the plan for two piers jutting out of the main terminal.

With the addition of the east expansion and a 12-gate pier, ABIA could be in the neighborhood of 43-45 gates by the early 2020's. That would put the new airport capacity at approximately 19 million-20 million passengers per year. However, this does not include any operations out of the "South - 'Low-Cost' - Terminal" (Frontier & Allegiant).

As an example of how "busy" that would be upon reaching the potential new capacity, ABIA would be roughly as busy as Vancouver, Honolulu, and Washington-Reagan were in 2014 (18.8 - 20.8 million passengers). Chicago-Midway, Salt Lake City, and Washington-Dulles all saw passenger traffic of 21.1 million - 21.4 million - not much more than the potential capacity of ABIA with the east & single-pier expansions. Pretty cool.

Another thing, if this is true...what is ABIA going to do about expanding the ticketing and TSA screening areas of the airport? An expansion there might be required.

GoldenBoot · #**2154** Posted **Aug 21, 2015, 10:01 PM**

With regard to DAL and HOU, I don't think anyone who follows the airline industry is too shocked with their growth. Both airports have expanded and are adding flights. Furthermore, most knew that when the Wright Amendment was finally lifted, DAL would explode...and it has.

Jdawgboy · #**2155** Posted **Aug 21, 2015, 10:15 PM**

That begs the question that was mentioned a few pages back about whether the airport is sticking to one specific plan with a single east/west terminal build out or if they will build whatever they can to keep up with growth and I guess they will build whatever they can. I agree with others that have said this but I don't like the idea of piers jutting out from the center of the concourse.

It's also possible that the American Statesman already knew that was what airport officials decided to do hence why they used that graphic.

My next questions are have they decided to build a pier instead because it shortens the distance for people to get to the baggage claim rather than extending gates further out on the east/west wings? Would there be much of a difference in time?

LoneStarMike · #**2156** Posted **Aug 22, 2015, 4:24 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Austin1971

Also heard that planning has begun for a 12 gate pier extension off the terminal located somewhere in the middle. The east gate expansion and 12 gate pier is going to morph into one huge five year construction project.

Skeptical about the 12 gate pier but that's the latest I've heard.

Is it possible that whatever pier you're hearing about might just be a temporary one? I mentioned awhile back that in the documents related to the bonds issued to fund this project, it noted: A temporary concourse will provide replacement gate capacity during the construction period of the project.

GoldenBoot · #**2157** Posted **Aug 22, 2015, 5:30 AM**

Come to think it, the "pier" idea was to construct two of them (6 gates each) at the same time (Concept A-01). These piers would be expanded (at a later date) to a total of 14 gates each.

Are you sure this source said one 12-gate pier? If so, maybe it is Concept A-06A, the "runner-up" plan (the "T" shaped pier)? Concept A-07A (the completely new southern terminal facility) was identified as the overall "preferred development option" for future expansion of ABIA (in the most recent Airport Master Plan).

ILUVSAT · #**2158** Posted **Aug 22, 2015, 5:05 PM**

A pier? Sweet. What about a completely separate satellite concourse? That way aircraft are still able to move between the main terminal and the satellite instead of being blocked-off by a pier.

But, I liked the idea of a totally new terminal. Maybe they should take another look at the masterplan. I believe it is was developed in the early 2000's, correct? Things have really changed since then.

Austin1971 · #**2159** Posted **Aug 22, 2015, 5:23 PM**

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Digatisdi · #**2160** Posted **Aug 22, 2015, 6:13 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Austin1971

Also a huge problem the port is facing already and will only get worse with gate expansion is drop-off and pick-up curb space. The traffic is horrible! I can only imaging what it will be like when the port is handling 14M passengers.

That's exactly why a full south terminal as in the Concept A-07A is needed as opposed to the piers in Concept A-01 or Concept A-06A, in my opinion. With the pedestrian connection within the secure area between terminals, one could conceivably be dropped off at either end, and especially with the vehicular tunnel and gyratory system the plan outlines it would be fairly easy to just move to the other end if one terminal is too busy for drop-off.