ABIA Expansion Thread

[phdhorn 6224]

On 6/14/2018 at 8:36 AM, kevwun said:

The non-airport shuttle services are fast as shit.  You don't wait more than a minute or 2 and it's straight to the terminals regardless if the bus is full or not.  It's is pricey like the ABIA parking is, but it's not slow.

Yeah, of the many difficulties I face in life, getting to/parking at/getting up to the front door of the airport is not one of them.  FastPark is so good and fast (and the others like it), the biggest annoyance is that they're at my car before I've fully taken out my bags and feel a bit of pressure to hurry out of the car (lol!).  I've got absolutely no beefs about speed/efficiency with those services, and the price is, well, as reasonable as one gets at major airports.

As for dropping off/picking up, admittedly that's a bit of a pain in the ass, but wifey and I usually solve it by picking up way way at the end (the last letter, whatever that is).  That way we can stay in the left lane and cruise through faster than trying to dive in to the cluster of people weaving in/out of stopping to pick up.  Dropping off is usually not too bad except for holidays etc.

So far, the airport as is is more than tolerable.  But it'll just be a matter of time until someone fucks it up.

[skipperj 377]

57 minutes ago, phdhorn said:

wifey

No.

[phdhorn 6224]

Too late, but I was being faseechus.

[The Dog 44017]

On 6/20/2018 at 11:35 PM, NameAlreadyInUse said:

I’ve been chasing a million miles with United for awhile now, but my company prefers I fly Delta for some reason and Delta is one of my customers so I’ve been thinking maybe I should switch. I haven’t yet, but having way more nonstop options might be what finally pushes me over the edge. 

Anyone use Delta have any comments about the goodness or badness of their alliance network for international travel? That’s the only thing United really has going for it at this point. 

Delta is very much #3 in alliance network IMHO. They sat around with their head up their asses when everyone was picking dance partners. They are making it work but SkyTeam is vastly inferior to Star Alliance and OneWorld on international partners alone. 

[The Dog 44017]

And I'm very interested to see what Delta does with this. They recently made Raleigh-Durham a focus city and they now fly to Madison, Orlando, Cancun, and Paris in addition to almost all of their domestic hubs. Nashville is also a focus city, but they only get flights to Cancun in addition to hub flights. Even then they don't fly to NYC or Boston out of Nashville. 

So even with the focus city designation I'm not sure they are going to upgrade that much over what they currently have other than maybe flights to Amsterdam/Paris to feed their transatlantic partners (much like AA/BA did with their LHR flight - only there's a good chance it's with Delta metal). They might add some leisure destinations like Orlando and Cancun, but any major business destinations are already pretty well covered by their current flights as well as their competitors. Otherwise they are adding a SkyClub to match what AA and UAL offer and then not much else.

Having said that, Delta has a huge hole in their network in Texas. This is a pretty big market and they bailed on the state after downsizing DFW. I could understand laying the groundwork towards making Austin a full-fledged hub someday, but ABIA won't have the capacity for that any time soon unless DL is willing to make a pretty sizeable investment in it.

Going to be interesting to follow.

[Guest Lobo]

One thing Delta can quickly uptick is non-stop service between Austin and Midway.  Southwest obviously has a stranglehold on that and they're not doing great at it in terms of itinerary and pricing.  Delta has a great presence in South Chicago.  Would be an obvious opportunity.  Also using more full-size between Austin as a focus city and JFK and LAX.  

Edited June 26, 2018 by Lobo

[The Dog 44017]

Southwest would CRUSH Delta on AUS-MDW. I doubt we’ll see any Austin-Chicago flights from DL considering AA and UAL have hubs at O'Hare as well. 

Edited June 26, 2018 by The Dog

[Guest Lobo]

It's not four carriers to one airport, it's four carriers to two airports in one huge MSA.  Look at what's going on between Bergstrom and SoCal right now or the Bay Area or DC or NYC

LAX:  Delta, American, United, Southwest

John Wayne: Frontier

Ontario:  Frontier

Long Beach: Jet Blue 

San Diego: Frontier, Southwest, Alaska 

or New York: 

JFK: Delta, American, Jet Blue 

Liberty: United, Southwest

or DC

Dulles: United, Frontier

Reagan: Southwest

Baltimore: Southwest 

Bay Area: 

SFO:  Alaska, Southwest, United

Oakland: Southwest 

San Jose: Alaska, Frontier, Southwest

 

If we can sustain all those routes, we can add a couple of full-size Delta birds to Midway to off-set the shittastic pricing that SWA offers there (don't get me wrong, usually a big SWA fan myself)  

 

[JimmyHoffa 1188]

For those wonder if you should save a few bucks to fly Spirit-

 

 

[phdhorn 6224]

Now THERE'S an airline that lives up to its name!

Edited June 26, 2018 by phdhorn

[Stunns38 3460]

One thing Delta can quickly uptick is non-stop service between Austin and Midway.  Southwest obviously has a stranglehold on that and they're not doing great at it in terms of itinerary and pricing.  Delta has a great presence in South Chicago.  Would be an obvious opportunity.  Also using more full-size between Austin as a focus city and JFK and LAX.  

MDW is like DAL and HOU, SWA would never let that happen. Good idea though.

[Beau Vine 54205]

Had a 6am flight out of ABIA last Sunday.  Walked up to the main security checkpoint and they had it for TSA Precheck passengers only.  Walked down to checkpoint 3, and there was a TSA person out front yelling that it was closed.  So they had every passenger who wasn't Precheck going through checkpoint 1. 

[BrazilHorn 6586]

41 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

Had a 6am flight out of ABIA last Sunday.  Walked up to the main security checkpoint and they had it for TSA Precheck passengers only.  Walked down to checkpoint 3, and there was a TSA person out front yelling that it was closed.  So they had every passenger who wasn't Precheck going through checkpoint 1. 

I finally joined clear. Got it for $79 for 12 mos. The stupidity at ABIA and the airlines giving so many dipshits with nine pounds of change in their pockets pre-check broke me. 

Clear is great. You cut through all TSA bs and get right on. 

[CooterBrown 18002]

If you have the Venture card, they now pay for either Global Entry or TSA Pre (FYI, Global Entry gets you TSA Pre).  I did it. Pay with your Venture card and they credit that amount to your card the next billing cycle.  They are paying for renewals also.

 

 

 

[dieucla98 2942]

On 6/29/2018 at 10:38 AM, BrazilHorn said:

I finally joined clear. Got it for $79 for 12 mos. The stupidity at ABIA and the airlines giving so many dipshits with nine pounds of change in their pockets pre-check broke me. 

Clear is great. You cut through all TSA bs and get right on. 

No you don't, you just cut the ID check which is the least painful part. You still have to go through the metal detectors and get your bag screened which is 90% of the TSA headache and where the pain of the "9 lbs of change" guys comes in.

It's also $180/year (wtf????). Guess you got a discount.

Also, airlines don't control who gets pre-check and who doesn't, TSA does. They try to select frequent, low risk fliers to entice them to sign up.

 

[BrazilHorn 6586]

4 minutes ago, dieucla98 said:

No you don't, you just cut the ID check which is the least painful part. You still have to go through the metal detectors and get your bag screened which is 90% of the TSA headache and where the pain of the "9 lbs of change" guys comes in.

It's also $180/year (wtf????). Guess you got a discount.

Also, airlines don't control who gets pre-check and who doesn't, TSA does. They try to select frequent, low risk fliers to entice them to sign up.

 

It was $79 for me as they had a promo and I’ve status on Delta. You cut line waiting for metal detectors which is a win as in summer even the TSA pre line is chock full of dipshits

[dieucla98 2942]

May airport numbers are out and ABIA crushed the monthly record.

BA ran the 747 all month and was up 51% YoY as a result at a ~80% LF - pretty damn impressive and against what I had guessed earlier.  Total traffic to London was over 25k passengers (Norwegian + BA). That's a lot of people.

Delta up another 20+%, AA up 14%. If Delta is +20% again in June and United states flat again, Delta will pass United and take over #3 at ABIA.

[dieucla98 2942]

Just now, BrazilHorn said:

It was $79 for me as they had a promo and I’ve status on Delta. You cut line waiting for metal detectors which is a win as in summer even the TSA pre line is chock full of dipshits

That's a good deal then. I couldn't stomach $180/yr but $79 is tolerable. 

[skipperj 377]

I did a three month clear trial. It’s up in a couple weeks, and I’ll cancel. I just dont travel for work as much as I used to. I did have several trips during the trial period, so that was good timing.

The zero line is nice. Still have to deal with the 3 or 4 people in front of you once you get deposited at front to pre-check.

I don’t think TSA is adding people to pre-check anymore unless they are traveling on an itinerary with a pre-check traveler. It’s just that so many people have it.

[dieucla98 2942]

Also... The airport is +15% YTD, if it finishes at +15%, ABIA will pass Love and Hobby into the #3 spot of busiest airports in Texas (assuming they are flat, which they probably won't be given the last few years trends).

[Zepol87 9185]

I did a three month clear trial. It’s up in a couple weeks, and I’ll cancel. I just dont travel for work as much as I used to. I did have several trips during the trial period, so that was good timing.
The zero line is nice. Still have to deal with the 3 or 4 people in front of you once you get deposited at front to pre-check.
I don’t think TSA is adding people to pre-check anymore unless they are
on an itinerary with a pre-check traveler. It’s just that so many people have it.

My trial started a month ago. Used it 4 times and I like it. Gonna be busy traveling with work for the next few months but after that not sure I'll pay for it.

[Updawg 2266]

I was there at 6am this morning and did the same a couple of weeks ago. That place was packed this morning. I feel for business travellers. It definitely needs to be expanded at least for checking in and security. Glad I rarely fly except for vacation. They had everyone going to the first security gate and the line was almost to the second. It only took 30 mins though which I was surprised about

[Gardner Barnes 1562]

I was there at 6am this morning and did the same a couple of weeks ago. That place was packed this morning. I feel for business travellers. It definitely needs to be expanded at least for checking in and security. Glad I rarely fly except for vacation. They had everyone going to the first security gate and the line was almost to the second. It only took 30 mins though which I was surprised about

It’s rough being a business traveler in the summer. But it’s clears out after Labor Day.

You just get used to it and deal.

[Pasken 1309]

My guess is they do the west infill project next while they spend a couple years designing and engineering the new terminal building and concourse island. That’ll make the tiny west most checkpoint mirror the newer east check point.

[Gardner Barnes 1562]

My guess is they do the west infill project next while they spend a couple years designing and engineering the new terminal building and concourse island. That’ll make the tiny west most checkpoint mirror the newer east check point.

That would be outstanding for AA and UAL fliers.

[The Dog 44017]

13 hours ago, skipperj said:

 

I don’t think TSA is adding people to pre-check anymore unless they are traveling on an itinerary with a pre-check traveler. It’s just that so many people have it.

I don't think they are doing that either unless the passenger is under 12. Just had my wife sign up for precheck for a trip we are taking at the end of the month just in case. 

[PilotsError 2286]

The number of airports I'm in where the Pre Check line is closed is infuriating.  

[Longhorn Al 440]

http://www.austintexas.gov/news/june-2018-passenger-cargo-traffic-austin-bergstrom

 

Quote

AUSTIN, TEXAS – June 2018 set a new monthly passenger record for the third consecutive month, with 1,489,191 traveling through Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. This surpasses the previous record by 74,948 passengers, set in May 2018 with 1,414,243 passengers.

Quote

Passenger Activity: Total passenger traffic for January – June 2018 was 7,586,046, up 15.2%, compared to January – June 2017. January – June 2018 enplanements totaled 3,812,915, up 14.7%

 

[Chet Steadman 940]

ABIA gonna overtake Hobby and Love as the third busiest Texas airport next year.  

Incredible. 

[Guest Lobo]

^

that really is incredible, especially when you see we dipped from 55 down to 39 non-stop destinations back after the recession.  We're up in what the 80's or 90's, now?  And we'll be adding additional runs to many of those cities in the next year or two.  Chamber is also pushing Delta to add a non-stop to MDW much to my grin.  All we need to do is grow a pair and get somebody to go non-stop (even if it's ViaAir) to Midland/Odessa/Oil Country and maybe McAllen and we're a real, growed-up airport.  

[Longhorn Al 440]

http://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/austin/news/2018/08/02/austin-airport-expanding-to-include-new-non-stop-destinations

Quote

The airport has doubled its non-stop destinations in the past few years, starting out with 27 non-stop destinations when ABIA opened in 1999. It then grew to 40 in 2010, and now it's expanding to 83 non-stop spots.

The airport's spokesperson said they added 10 more stops since January and are anticipating even more carriers to sign up. He said a big part of the growth in non-stop services is in passenger traffic and airline seating capacity.

Just 10 years ago, ABIA had 12 million airline seats available annually. Now, it offers over 19 million seats every year.

 

[CooterBrown 18002]

Has any airport experienced growth like this? Holy fuck. Construction can’t keep pace.

[Telegraph_it 3357]

Probably some random airport in China. 

[Chuychanga 133]

On 6/21/2018 at 8:16 AM, phdhorn said:

As for dropping off/picking up, admittedly that's a bit of a pain in the ass, but wifey and I usually solve it by picking up way way at the end (the last letter, whatever that is).  That way we can stay in the left lane and cruise through faster than trying to dive in to the cluster of people weaving in/out of stopping to pick up.  Dropping off is usually not too bad except for holidays etc.

So far, the airport as is is more than tolerable.  But it'll just be a matter of time until someone fucks it up.

When i get picked up from AUS I tell her to pick me up upstairs where departures get dropped off. Much less of a clusterfuck of traffic up there. Even if you had checked luggage, that trip back up the escalator saves you time. 

[DaysOff 7946]

LAX encourages such behavior to balance the clusterfuckness of the above departures and below arrivals.

[RollLeft 5040]

 

[phdhorn 6224]

8 hours ago, Chuychanga said:

When i get picked up from AUS I tell her to pick me up upstairs where departures get dropped off. Much less of a clusterfuck of traffic up there. Even if you had checked luggage, that trip back up the escalator saves you time. 

Yeah we used to do that a lot, too, but it's often been sporadic after 9/11.  Often the upper deck will be coned off later at night.  As my wife travels a lot to/from Cali on Apple business and often arrives back in Austin later at night (i.e. after 10 p.m.), it's often closed when I pull up.

But I agree that it's a breeze to pick up in the "departure" lane.  The lower pickup lanes are now a horrid clusterfuckster.

Edited August 3, 2018 by phdhorn

[The Dog 44017]

On 8/1/2018 at 9:30 AM, Lobo said:

^

that really is incredible, especially when you see we dipped from 55 down to 39 non-stop destinations back after the recession.  We're up in what the 80's or 90's, now?  And we'll be adding additional runs to many of those cities in the next year or two.  Chamber is also pushing Delta to add a non-stop to MDW much to my grin.  All we need to do is grow a pair and get somebody to go non-stop (even if it's ViaAir) to Midland/Odessa/Oil Country and maybe McAllen and we're a real, growed-up airport.  

Delta currently flies to Midway out of one place - Atlanta. Unlikely this route ever happens.

But I've been wrong before.

[kevwun 15759]

My wife texted me the other day that Frontier had $83 flights to New Orleans, so I started looking in to it.  They have this weird rotating schedule and don't fly it every day.  On weeks where there is a flight out on Friday, there's not a return flight until Monday.  When there is a return flight on Sunday, you have to fly out on Thursday.  I guess most of their customers are only using Frontier for one leg?

Edited August 3, 2018 by kevwun

[Guest Lobo]

1 hour ago, The Dog said:

Delta currently flies to Midway out of one place - Atlanta. Unlikely this route ever happens.

But I've been wrong before.

It’s a long shot for now.  But chamber is hard at work on it as they helped bring about Austin as a focus city for Austin next year. We pretty much hit capacity for non stop destinations, next steps are route enhancements to larger cities not totally dominated by United and Southwest.  

[The Dog 44017]

1 hour ago, Lobo said:

next steps are route enhancements to larger cities not totally dominated by United and Southwest.  

You're right. Nobody flies to Chicago out of Austin.

[Guest Lobo]

Wink wink, nudge nudge.  Just saying, delta ain’t booking in Austin so we can get more non stops to Salt Lake City 

 But yes, levity aside—-obviously first moves are non stops to LAX, JFK, BOS, and all points Florida   For some strange fucking reason Texans in the summertime find seaside to Panama City to be desireable destinations.   I didn’t realize we don’t have flat humid beaches in Texas   Neither did Delta, until now   

 

 

[Gardner Barnes 1562]

Wink wink, nudge nudge.  Just saying, delta ain’t booking in Austin so we can get more non stops to Salt Lake City 

 But yes, levity aside—-obviously first moves are non stops to LAX, JFK, BOS, and all points Florida   For some strange fucking reason Texans in the summertime find seaside to Panama City to be desireable destinations.   I didn’t realize we don’t have flat humid beaches in Texas   Neither did Delta, until now   

 

 

 

 

We have non-stops to lax and jfk out of ABIA on AA. Unless you mean on Delta?

[Guest Lobo]

2 hours ago, Gardner Barnes said:

 

 

We have non-stops to lax and jfk out of ABIA on AA. Unless you mean on Delta?

Yes, I meant an early move by delta next year will be to go after more service to JFK, LAx, mco, and a few others.  Places they already fly but to squeeze out competing service fromAbIA.  They’ve already started in on jet blue to Boston, and some point to point Florida stops are next.  

[elfenix 34223]

LAX encourages such behavior to balance the clusterfuckness of the above departures and below arrivals.

World Way is such a shit show

[Pasken 1309]

So the new roadside arrival and departure curb levels are going to be longer and 7 lanes wide each. Each level will be divided into 3 commercial lanes and 4 private vehicle lanes. ALL pedestrian crossings will take place on a mid level below departures and above arrivals. That means no pedestrians will be crossing any vehicle lanes. There will also be less decision points than there is now.

 

These new lanes will be built right in front of the new Lot A garage and the renal car garage. The original short term garage is going to be demolished and a free standing building is going to be be built in its place that can easily be reconfigured as the airport needs change. This is where you'll go for ticketing (now the size of two football fields) and security which will be in one large space instead of tucked inside various nooks. Baggage Claim will also move to this building. 

 

The area where the current loading/unloading lanes are (between the Barbara Jordan Terminal and old short term garage) will become a past security plaza with concessions and tables for people to chill and connect them from the new terminal building to the gates on the top level and a private airport driveway on the ground.

 

A new concourse will be built as a free standing island just south of the BJ terminal and will be connected to BJ by a 60-80 foot bridge. This should open by 2027 for a total of 48 gates and be further expanded by 2037 to 64 gates.

 

The eventual goal is to add a 3rd runway by around 4045 and re-route highway 71 northward to expand the footprint of the airport north which would allow lengthening the east runway. In the short term, they want to get rid of the traffic light at Pres Blvd and 71 and do a braided intersection. It would make getting out of the airport much faster.

 

Also, don't ever expect any tunneling at the airport. This means any inner-transportation system will be above ground and the Project Connect Light Rail will likely coming via 71 instead of riverside+183.

 

Here is a rough layout of the 2037 plan. This isn't the most current drawing but you get the idea.

Edited August 22, 2018 by Pasken

[swraith 345]

^^^

That sounds like the airport will basically be under constant construction is some form or fashion indefinitely.

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

All airports are. It’s how they get funding. 

[Updawg 2266]

Yep. It seems like there would have been a better expansion plan in place since we basically started with a brand new airport. I know it reached capacity quicker than expected, but still.

[Pasken 1309]

34 minutes ago, Updawg said:

Yep. It seems like there would have been a better expansion plan in place since we basically started with a brand new airport. I know it reached capacity quicker than expected, but still.

There was but this was cheaper. The original plan was to build a new independent terminal south of the tower with its own garage, roads and tunnel. This is a more economical approach that adds less to the operating budget since you aren't duplicating a lot of resources. Plus, it doesn't help that so much of the airport land in the south is in the flood plane. 

Oh also,  they are looking at putting in the 3rd runway around 2045 but that could easily move up if needed since they don't need any more land for it. 

Edited August 23, 2018 by Pasken