San Antonio International Airport News & Updates

[texboy]

Originally Posted by theOGalexd

Is there not one already? Looks like it says it's seasonal on Wikipedia but maybe that's not accurate. I'm pretty sure there used to be a direct there several years ago on SW. Either way, the more the merrier when it comes to directs out of SAT.

I think the one SAT had/has currently is either seasonal or like Saturday only.

[babysal]

By W. Scott Bailey – Senior Reporter, San Antonio Business Journal
Dec 19, 2022

https://www.bizjournals.com/sananton...er-record.html


The gains come despite some airlines continuing to operate at reduced capacity.


Nearly 7.8 million passengers have passed through the terminals at San Antonio International Airport through the first nine months of 2022.

That’s a 31% gain over the January-October 2021 total and within less than 10% of the passenger count through the same period in 2019 — which proved to be a record year for air travel to and from the Alamo City.

Passenger volume in October eclipsed 892,000 ticket holders. That’s within 0.4% of the October 2019 total.

One of the challenges post-pandemic has been capacity as some airlines have reduced service. Overall, capacity at SAT was down 7% in October.

[texboy]

SAT is reporting that November 2022 did in fact surpass November 2019's numbers... 856,336 in 2022 vs. 854,152 in November 2019. It may be an eek, but its an eek that hopefully bodes well for 2023 surpassing 2019 completely. Expectation for the meat of the holiday travel in December is for over half a million passengers alone. Finally feels like theres some momentum in gaining back all of the lost passengers/capacity and then some. The article has lots in it to celebrate beyond the Kansas City non-stop.

Daily Nonstop Flights to Kansas City Return as San Antonio International Airport Celebrates Major Travel Records

[babysal]

SA Express News
Megan Rodriguez, staff writer
Dec. 21, 2022

https://www.expressnews.com/news/loc...r-17669773.php

The San Antonio International Airport expects to see a record-breaking holiday season as travelers take to the sky. About 343,420 people are expected to fly in and out of the airport between Friday and Jan. 2, surpassing the 2019-2020 season’s total of 318,830 travelers. This comes on the heels of the airport’s record-breaking Thanksgiving travel season and a two-year pandemic-induced slump. During the same period in 2020-2021, the airport had 150,956 travelers. In 2021-2022 there were just over 272,000 people.

[theOGalexd]

Via SABJ - "Alamo City leaders’ focus on the market’s aviation needs is not limited to San Antonio International Airport and an extensive redevelopment strategy that could cost more than $2 billion to implement."

"The City of San Antonio is also pursuing a long-term vision for Stinson Municipal Airport that could include an array of new development and infrastructural improvements that better maximizes its potential use over the next two decades."

"Viagran believes Stinson can relieve some pressure on San Antonio International Airport, providing an outlet for more company executives who travel by air as it’s situated a few miles from the city’s central business district and other key points of interest."

Not sure if there's a need for it here, but I wonder if this could become something like Orlando-Sanford/Phoenix-Mesa where they have ultra low cost carriers running out of it. Or maybe something like JSX?

[GoldenBoot]

Originally Posted by theOGalexd

Via SABJ - "Alamo City leaders’ focus on the market’s aviation needs is not limited to San Antonio International Airport and an extensive redevelopment strategy that could cost more than $2 billion to implement."

"The City of San Antonio is also pursuing a long-term vision for Stinson Municipal Airport that could include an array of new development and infrastructural improvements that better maximizes its potential use over the next two decades."

"Viagran believes Stinson can relieve some pressure on San Antonio International Airport, providing an outlet for more company executives who travel by air as it’s situated a few miles from the city’s central business district and other key points of interest."

Not sure if there's a need for it here, but I wonder if this could become something like Orlando-Sanford/Phoenix-Mesa where they have ultra low cost carriers running out of it. Or maybe something like JSX?

Key: "providing an outlet for more company executives who travel by air..."

That tells me they looking at it more as a GA facility and not commercial. Potentially freeing up landing and takeoff slots at SAT by moving some GA operations to Stinson.

There is no need for an additional commercial airport in San Antonio.

[Keep-SA-Lame]

Originally Posted by GoldenBoot

Key: "providing an outlet for more company executives who travel by air..."

That tells me they looking at it more as a GA facility and not commercial. Potentially freeing up landing and takeoff slots at SAT by moving some GA operations to Stinson.

There is no need for an additional commercial airport in San Antonio.

My thoughts exactly. Stinson is a great general aviation airport. It's neither useful or desirable to have a second commercial airport in the city if you can centralize passenger operations at one facility.

[texboy]

2022 SAT Final Stats


Final 2022 numbers are out... just under 9.5m passengers for the year. Considering the slow start to the year, penchant for carriers to eschew SAT for other airports for capacity upgrades and the holiday travel mess... I'd say this number is good. The big bright spot is international traffic, up 15% from 2019. 10m should be fairly achievable next year!

[texboy]

There's a very poorly written article on KSAT.com this morning (bad enough I won't post the link) discussing next steps for the expansion. The only information needed out of it is that renderings will be presented to city council next month.

[Tornado]

Originally Posted by texboy

There's a very poorly written article on KSAT.com this morning (bad enough I won't post the link) discussing next steps for the expansion. The only information needed out of it is that renderings will be presented to city council next month.

saw that, can't wait to see them. glad that Stinson is going to continue to get updates. I wonder if small commercial flights (like a twin turbo prop) to the Valley would ever be feasible from there.

[SproutingTowers]

Originally Posted by Tornado

saw that, can't wait to see them. glad that Stinson is going to continue to get updates. I wonder if small commercial flights (like a twin turbo prop) to the Valley would ever be feasible from there.

Most likely may not see commercial traffic land at Stinson since it is 13 miles from SAT and travelers will not be able to connect to other flights unless there was some sort of ground transportation or underground tunnel.

[ILUVSAT]

Originally Posted by SproutingTowers

Most likely may not see commercial traffic land at Stinson...

Agree. As stated in a previous post, San Antonio does not have enough traffic to warrant a second commercial airport. I, too, can see GA operations increasing, however.

[JACKinBeantown]

Originally Posted by SproutingTowers

Most likely may not see commercial traffic land at Stinson since it is 13 miles from SAT and travelers will not be able to connect to other flights unless there was some sort of ground transportation or underground tunnel.

There won't be a 13-mile underground tunnel. That's actually funny.

[AI0120]

SAT will be gaining nonstop service to San Juan, Puerto Rico courtesy of Frontier Airlines. Nothing official from the airport or Frontier, announcement happening January 31 supposedly, but I'm sure it will be less than daily. Article is in Spanish.

https://www.elnuevodia.com/negocios/...-santurce/amp/

[theOGalexd]

Originally Posted by AI0120

SAT will be gaining nonstop service to San Juan, Puerto Rico courtesy of Frontier Airlines. Nothing official from the airport or Frontier, announcement happening January 31 supposedly, but I'm sure it will be less than daily. Article is in Spanish.

https://www.elnuevodia.com/negocios/...-santurce/amp/

Interesting, didn't see that one coming. Glad to see it though!

[SAhometown]

Here is the press release:https://news.flyfrontier.com/frontie...lla-and-ponce/

I don't see San Antonio at all. Probably a typo.

[AI0120]

Originally Posted by SAhometown

Here is the press release:https://news.flyfrontier.com/frontie...lla-and-ponce/

I don't see San Antonio at all. Probably a typo.

Yup, just saw that. All other cities in the original article got it, but no San Antonio. Odd.

Would have been a nice addition in time for summer.

[theOGalexd]

Originally Posted by AI0120

Yup, just saw that. All other cities in the original article got it, but no San Antonio. Odd.

Would have been a nice addition in time for summer.

Bummer. Kind of struck me as odd though because Austin doesn't even have a direct there.

[SAguy]

Originally Posted by SAhometown

Here is the press release:https://news.flyfrontier.com/frontie...lla-and-ponce/

I don't see San Antonio at all. Probably a typo.

From the article:
Among the cities that will have new direct flights to Puerto Rico are Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Chicago and San Antonio, among others.

Until the summer of 2022, Frontier operated 11 routes to destinations in the Caribbean and the United States from San Juan and one route from Aguadilla.

Frontier's growth in Puerto Rico will come on the sidelines of the failed merger with Spirit Airlines, with which it hoped to boost its footprint on the island.

[SAguy]

From SABJ:
W. Scott Bailey


Tourism, economic development and airport officials in San Antonio are forging a new alliance aimed at recruiting more international travelers, businesses and flights.

The initiative, led by Visit San Antonio, greater:SATX and San Antonio International Airport, is launching in Europe in what is expected to become a more expansive global outreach effort.

Stakeholders are seeking to recruit more travelers, companies and airlines to the Alamo City.

San Antonio is taking a team approach to landing more international visitors and companies.

Tourism, economic development and airport officials in San Antonio are forging a new alliance aimed at recruiting more international travelers, businesses and flights.

The initiative, led by Visit San Antonio, greater:SATX and San Antonio International Airport, is launching in Europe in what is expected to become a more expansive global outreach effort.

“We started planning this back in September,” Visit San Antonio President and CEO Marc Anderson said. “It happened very organically, but also very strategically.”

Stakeholders planned to kicked off their effort with a nearly weeklong trip to London, where leaders were expected to meet with tour operators, travel agents, media members and potential corporate targets, particularly companies interested in establishing a presence in the U.S.

“We're really looking at it as an economic development trip,” Anderson said. “We're looking at the U.K. as the toehold for us in Europe. We are talking about having a larger coalition and delegation In Europe later this year, with a potential visit to Germany.”

San Antonio’s international air connectivity is currently limited to Mexico destinations. That’s one of the reasons why Jesus Saenz, director of airports for the San Antonio Airport System, jumped at the opportunity to team with Visit San Antonio and greater:SATX.

“That direct nonstop service to and from Europe is really important to our growth,” Anderson said, noting that stakeholders expect to meet with some global airlines and are hopeful those talks will lead to direct nonstop service to and from Europe in the not-too-distant future. “That nonstop service will definitely help drive demand and awareness for San Antonio.”

Anderson said there are currently some 20,000 visitors who travel from Europe to San Antonio annually, generating about $40 million for the local economy. The more immediate goal is to get that impact up to about $60 million annually.

I reported in October that Visit San Antonio was opening a travel promotion office in London for the first time ever. But the alliance with greater:SATX and local airport officials could lead to more widespread economic opportunities that extend to multiple countries and continents and beyond the travel sector.

It all stems from an early meeting between Anderson and greater:SATX President and CEO Jenna Saucedo-Herrera soon after he moved to the Alamo City in April 2021 to take the Visit San Antonio job. Local airport officials’ involvement in this new coalition could give their push greater lift.

“We have one primary goal. That's to bring people to our city. We're very singular in our mission,” he said. “We have some pretty dramatic plans to take San Antonio into not only the United Kingdom, but all over Europe, into Asia and eventually into South America."