AUSTIN | ABIA Updates

[sammyk]

Originally Posted by DoubleC

I might be able to watch the plane land from UT. I'm wondering which runway the plane will land on; 17L or 17R? Heavy winds to the North tomorrow, so it'll land going South.

Nice. Might be able to catch it on the way home. Hope it's a little late!

[sammyk]

Looks like it's going to be early. ETA is 4:42.

[KevinFromTexas]

Here it is.


Austin-Bergstrom International Airport - Via Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/abia/photos...type=3&theater

This is the plane this morning before it took off in London.


Austin-Bergstrom International Airport - Via Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/abia/photos...type=3&theater

[AviationGuy]

The 787 Dreamliner is an incredible plane. It's the Lexus of aircraft because of how quiet the cabin is. There are tons of YouTube videos made by passengers and I think I've watched them all !

The flight is currently over the Kentucky/Indiana border. It left AUS over an hour late. The flight is scheduled to be only 7 hours and 46 minutes (due to good tail winds).

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/BAW190

[sammyk]

Originally Posted by AviationGuy

The 787 Dreamliner is an incredible plane. It's the Lexus of aircraft because of how quiet the cabin is. There are tons of YouTube videos made by passengers and I think I've watched them all !

The flight is currently over the Kentucky/Indiana border. It left AUS over an hour late. The flight is scheduled to be only 7 hours and 46 minutes (due to good tail winds).

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/BAW190

Any idea what caused the delay? Weather didn't seem so bad for takeoff around 7.

[Mikey711MN]

Originally Posted by sammyk

Any idea what caused the delay? Weather didn't seem so bad for takeoff around 7.

I had a flight departing from a nearby DL gate earlier this evening. There was a lot of pomp and circumstance around Gate 2, including live music playing Beatles cover songs and a dinner buffet for invited guests (and likely passengers, although I never really researched it having been fully satisfied with my Thundercloud Sub!).

All in all, with the various speeches and what not, my sense is that they were simply taking their time with the celebration and, as suggested up-thread, the announcements over the PA stressed how the strong tail winds were going to allow them to have an on-time arrival at LHR. Nobody seemed to mind it.

That said, a few notes...

• Gate 3 is fully out of commission, at least during the time where BA passengers are readying to board...there simply is no room for them all hemmed into the end of the concourse.
• DL attempted to operate at least one turnaround at Gate 4...it might have been particularly crowded today for reasons described above, but my sense is that it's going to be a little snug on that end around the 5pm hour for a while
• The BA widebody just looks massive at Gate 2...it towers over the fence while driving up to the upper departure level and occupies a surprising amount of space on the tarmac at that angle
• No read on how well the arriving flight BA 191 was managed by FIS, but by all indications (reported elsewhere), it was a pretty full flight inbound...the new facility is nowhere near done, although it's at least underway!

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by Mikey711MN

• The BA widebody just looks massive at Gate 2...it towers over the fence while driving up to the upper departure level and occupies a surprising amount of space on the tarmac at that angle
• No read on how well the arriving flight BA 191 was managed by FIS, but by all indications (reported elsewhere), it was a pretty full flight inbound...the new facility is nowhere near done, although it's at least underway!

Re: customs - before we got the F1 race, the customs facilities at AUS could only process 90-110 passengers per hour. There were some interim modifications made in 2012 that increased the capacity to 160-180 passengers per hour, so hopefully the wait wasn't too bad.

From AirportImprovement.com:

How Austin-Bergstrom Int’l Readies for Race Day
By Kathy Scott
As published in: Airport Improvement Magazine - January-February 2014

As the first point of entry into the United States for most of the race teams and fans alike, its ability to clear high volumes of passengers through Customs in a timely manner was crucial. Because the United States does not have a Formula 1 team, all of the teams would clear Customs at AUS unless they flew into the States earlier at a different point of entry. Each of the 12 teams typically brings as many as 70 people. Add in a cadre of support personnel for the event itself and throngs of fans who come to watch it, and AUS’ usual processing rate of 90 to 110 passengers per hour was not nearly fast enough. Modifying the airport’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) area to ensure a positive first impression to travelers was a high-priority objective.

[SNIP]

Modifications to the CBP area nearly doubled the airport’s throughput of international passengers, enabling the airport to clear 160 to 180 passengers per hour. Changes were completed November 9 for the November 18 race, Halbrook reports.

“Enlarging the area allowed CBP to streamline the process,” he explains. “Passengers were able to pick up their luggage and proceed through Customs with their passport and declaration form, streamlining the procedure to one step. That change was able to nearly double the number of travelers processed.”

Modifications were also needed to bring a Boeing 747 aircraft directly to Gate 2 — a first at AUS.

Of all the local station, KEYE (IMHO) had the best coverage of the inaugural flights arrival into AUS.

British Airways Begins Austin's First Euro Flight

[lzppjb]

A shaggybevo poster (LonghornManiac8) was on the flight. Here's a video looking out his window on takeoff. It's a good shot of the wing flexing. Also, lightning flash at 3:40.

• Video Link

[Austin1971]

T

[DoubleC]

Originally Posted by Austin1971

Learned that a B777-200 will substitute for the 787 in the event of an equipment failure.

Are you thinking what I'm thinking ?

Originally Posted by Austin1971

Also learned that Austin has more passengers traveling to Asia than any other Texas city. Currently all those passengers have to connect via DFW or IAH. If true I could see a future n/s to Asia on the Dreamliner.

I thought it was usually cheaper to connect somewhere than to fly direct? That would be cool; a 787 JAL or ANA. Could ABIA handle more wide bodies at the same time? I believe the gates at the corners of the terminal probably allow for a larger wingspan.

What ever happened to Delta's 757s in Austin? I recall we even had American send some 757s in the past. Seems like we're not always up gauging aircraft.

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by Austin1971

The flight was delayed due to a lightning strike. They had to do a thorough inspection of the plane. Luckily BA had a couple of 787 engineers aboard the inbound flight or it could have been delayed longer.

Learned that a B777-200 will substitute for the 787 in the event of an equipment failure.

Also learned that Austin has more passengers traveling to Asia than any other Texas city. Currently all those passengers have to connect via DFW or IAH. If true I could see a future n/s to Asia on the Dreamliner.

Interesting and surprising.

[Austin1971]

E

[texastarkus]

Originally Posted by Austin1971

Eastbound is now covered thru London Heathrow with One World partners BA and AA. Eventually Westbound service to Seoul or Tokyo will happen with Star Alliance partners ANA or Asiana and UA, One World with JAL and AA or SkyTeam with KAL and Delta.

Rumors have been circulating at the port that UA may fill the Westbound route with a 787...Time will tell...

When a widebody is using gate 2 currently gate 3 can only accomodate a 757, nothing larger. The port is thinking about re-configuring gate 3 so that two widebody's can use gate 2 and 3 at the same time. May or may not happen since the gate expansion is going to happen.

With all of this east to west and west to east attention, it's only a matter of time an airline from up north say Air Canada (or Jazz) gives Austin a third try or will it be WestJet?
Then what about more routes to the south? AirTran to add more Mexico destinations or how about another Mexican airline adding routes? American and United should be getting a little uneasy with all of the press coverage and they are not in it.
What about domestic routes? Who is next? More flights by Jet Blue, Virgin America, or Alaska? How about a new carrier or two?

Living in north SA I just wonder why these flights are not coming to SAT.

[hookem]

Originally Posted by texastarkus

With all of this east to west and west to east attention, it's only a matter of time an airline from up north say Air Canada (or Jazz) gives Austin a third try or will it be WestJet?
Then what about more routes to the south? AirTran to add more Mexico destinations or how about another Mexican airline adding routes? American and United should be getting a little uneasy with all of the press coverage and they are not in it.
What about domestic routes? Who is next? More flights by Jet Blue, Virgin America, or Alaska? How about a new carrier or two?

Living in north SA I just wonder why these flights are not coming to SAT.

I don't think there is the traffic to support international flights from Austin to Canada. There never was, despite airlines trying the route. Just because Canada is closer to the US doesn't mean there are many folks flying there from here. I think the next international service will be from an Asian carrier, perhaps even Korean Air. They already have flights to Houston and Dallas, but those are on larger planes -- if they downgauged either the Houston or Dallas route to a 787, and added 787 service to Austin, I think they could potentially make all 3 cities work.

As for why not SAT... well, 2 million less passengers than AUS, demographics (not as much leisure traffic to Europe and less business travel to Asia), and the growing number of international events in Austin (SXSW, F1, and MotoGP) are the reasons why...

[Digatisdi]

Originally Posted by DoubleC

I thought it was usually cheaper to connect somewhere than to fly direct? That would be cool; a 787 JAL or ANA.

In my experience it's often cheaper to fly direct when it comes to international destinations. At least to London that is, for example, AUS>DFW>LHR and AUS>JFK>LHR cost me $1,600~$1,800 but AUS>LHR runs about $990~$1,100

Originally Posted by Austin1971

Eastbound is now covered thru London Heathrow with One World partners BA and AA. Eventually Westbound service to Seoul or Tokyo will happen with Star Alliance partners ANA or Asiana and UA, One World with JAL and AA or SkyTeam with KAL and Delta.

Rumors have been circulating at the port that UA may fill the Westbound route with a 787...Time will tell...

I think my best bet would be Korean Air to INC given the Korean population here and the business travel but I wouldn't rule out an ANA to NRT because I've noticed a marked increase in Japanese business travellers here over the course of the past year.

Originally Posted by hookem

I don't think there is the traffic to support international flights from Austin to Canada. There never was, despite airlines trying the route. Just because Canada is closer to the US doesn't mean there are many folks flying there from here. I think the next international service will be from an Asian carrier, perhaps even Korean Air. They already have flights to Houston and Dallas, but those are on larger planes -- if they downgauged either the Houston or Dallas route to a 787, and added 787 service to Austin, I think they could potentially make all 3 cities work.

Agreed, we've got a few tourists from Canada every month but I definitely feel that there isn't enough travel between any city in Canada to Austin to justify a single direct route with any airline, even to Toronto for connections.

Frankly my dream would be to have a JAL flight to NRT because I'm fairly fluent in Japanese and a OneWorld Ruby flier.

[DoubleC]

Originally Posted by DoubleC

What ever happened to Delta's 757s in Austin? I recall we even had American send some 757s in the past. Seems like we're not always up gauging aircraft.

Speak of the devil, a 752 is inbound from Atlanta, according to flightaware. Am I the only one who browses flights on flightaware?

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by DoubleC

Speak of the devil, a 752 is inbound from Atlanta, according to flightaware. Am I the only one who browses flights on flightaware?

Not any more. What a cool site. I love all the interactive features. Thanks.

[Austin1971]

[q

[lzppjb]

I don't browse flightaware, but I've used it to track family members' flights. It also gets used during coaching/recruiting rumors.

[Spaceman]

Originally Posted by lzppjb

I don't browse flightaware, but I've used it to track family members' flights. It also gets used during coaching/recruiting rumors.

I'm tracking a friend's flight to Europe today... I've heard an app is being developed that will allow a user to point a smartphone at a plane, in flight, and get instant info on that plane, i.e., carrier , speed, destination, etc.