ABIA Expansion Thread

[Armybrat 40759]

On 7/10/2023 at 8:00 PM, YGIFS said:

Yeah, for a city promising us light rail direct to the airport from the CBD, and the innovative autonomous vehicle hub of North America.............we are sure building a fuck-ton of parking garages out there when we should be focusing on ingress/egress and gates.  Also that underground tunnel is gonna be a fucking disaster for apron/taxi traffic for 3 years.  They may as well build it elevated to connect the two concourses with gradual escalators on each end to get well above wide-bodied equipment.  

Anyway, follow Ray Brimble's String Theory when he gets to aviation facilities construction and our fair city (he does stuff all over the world but is based here).  He's got some great insight into this next comedy of errors.

Comparing it to the MoPac fiasco?

[Handcruser 2805]

Is there an associated timeline for this? 

Watching that video confirmed what I have felt for a while: austin just fucked up the design did the airport from day one. Just an awful job.

I can totally understand needing to add-on/upgrade/etc - but man were they stupid.

[troph 24678]

On 7/6/2023 at 8:06 AM, dieucla98 said:

Cool visual of all the work upcoming at ABIA:

 

 

On 7/9/2023 at 3:18 PM, swraith said:

Is there an associated timeline for this? 

Sounds like the concourse tunnel start is imminent? I wasn’t listening totally but covered on KUT this morning. 

[dieucla98 2942]

The west expansion is well underway. They've blocked off the end gates and added a stringer gate as a temp replacement. I was looking for evidence of the new terminal work but couldn't see any. Granted, if the tunnel is first then seeing evidence of it would be more of a challenge. 

[troph 24678]

5 minutes ago, dieucla98 said:

The west expansion is well underway. They've blocked off the end gates and added a stringer gate as a temp replacement. I was looking for evidence of the new terminal work but couldn't see any. Granted, if the tunnel is first then seeing evidence of it would be more of a challenge. 

I couldn’t tell if it’s started they had a spokesperson talking about how complex the project is. 2030 was estimated completion now that I think about it. Garage demo, tunnel, new concourse I think they said.

[dieucla98 2942]

Garage demo is going to make parking more of a nightmare... I assume that's to make way to expand the non-secure portion of the airport. It's desperately needed as the checkin/security area is probably the most congested part of the whole airport.

[troph 24678]

11 minutes ago, dieucla98 said:

Garage demo is going to make parking more of a nightmare... I assume that's to make way to expand the non-secure portion of the airport. It's desperately needed as the checkin/security area is probably the most congested part of the whole airport.

Yes looking at that video. Then later another garage. Sadly we live so far away we have to drive and park. Plus ride share is so far away it’s dumb.

[Mittens 8196]

 

[CooterBrown 17949]

Seems like it would be more cost effective to just go with the "ultimate" layout in the bottom image while you're building everything else.  So, we won't do that.

 

[royiv 9177]

23 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

Seems like it would be more cost effective to just go with the "ultimate" layout in the bottom image while you're building everything else.  So, we won't do that.

 

Planning and infrastructure aren’t in the DNA of the City of Austin. This expansion should have broken ground five years ago and not one shovelful of dirt has been turned yet.

[Armybrat 40759]

Took those dumb sumbitches 20+ years to build expressways (71 & 183) out to ABIA after it was opened, so what did you expect?

[CooterBrown 17949]

Who the fuck signed off on the new carry on security screening system? I walked right up to the Pre Check attendant for my ID check and it took 10 minutes to go through the metal detector as the backup to put bags on the new convoluted convayer belt system was a complete shitshow. I can’t imagine how bad it’s gonna be during peak travel times.

[Ghost of LL 15500]

On 3/26/2024 at 2:44 PM, CooterBrown said:

Seems like it would be more cost effective to just go with the "ultimate" layout in the bottom image while you're building everything else.  So, we won't do that.

 

I don't exactly know, but I would strongly suspect that the decision on that is with the FAA.  

This shit isn't being built primarily with city money.  Most of the money comes from the FAA.  And the FAA is notoriously conservative with its growth projections.

[BrazilHorn 6580]

On 4/1/2024 at 12:22 PM, CooterBrown said:

Who the fuck signed off on the new carry on security screening system? I walked right up to the Pre Check attendant for my ID check and it took 10 minutes to go through the metal detector as the backup to put bags on the new convoluted convayer belt system was a complete shitshow. I can’t imagine how bad it’s gonna be during peak travel times.

This new Xray machine is a total shitshow. It is so much slower than the old way. Austin 100% is one of the shittiest airports in US in terms of getting through security. Just a joke

[PilotsError 2286]

What a disaster this week. I know several people who missed flights despite being hours early. 
 

I flew out Monday and it was my first time using the pre check way down on the left. It took longer than regular. People were leaving the pre check line to go through regular security. Took my ten minutes to get to the front and then fifteen for my bag to get through.  

[boilerhorn 1341]

ABIA is one of the shittiest airports in the US in just about every category. It's as if the planners wanted to discourage area growth and accessibility.

• Security effectiveness and efficiency - has always been bad - now worse.
• Access to parking garages, shuttles, taxi, uber, etc. requires crossing drop-off and pick-up traffic.  WTF?
• Parking capacity
• Terminal hall width

I've been flying in and out of the Indianapolis airport quite a bit as of late.  It is a night and day experience compared to ABIA. The city/state/etc. planners definitely want to encourage persona travel, business travel, and enablement of commerce in the area.  Sure, the weather sucks 3-4 months per year there, but it sure is easy to travel there

Same with the Portland airport.  Getting to/from it is a pain, but the entire experience while you are there is fantastic.  In fact, restaurants are not allowed to charge more for food/beverage at the airport than they do at their in-town establishments.  Imagine my surprise when I paid $6 for a pint at PDX.

[kevwun 15681]

I think American must be stopping direct flights to Las Vegas.  We ended up with some Alaskan credits because of some flight changes that we had to use, so we booked an American flight to Las Vegas for a trip in December.  Last week the wife gets an email about our flight and the flight number is for a flight from Vegas to San Diego.  She call and checks and our flights have been cancelled.  According to google flights there are no direct flights to Vegas on American that day.

[hornbri 1380]

21 hours ago, kevwun said:

I think American must be stopping direct flights to Las Vegas.  We ended up with some Alaskan credits because of some flight changes that we had to use, so we booked an American flight to Las Vegas for a trip in December.  Last week the wife gets an email about our flight and the flight number is for a flight from Vegas to San Diego.  She call and checks and our flights have been cancelled.  According to google flights there are no direct flights to Vegas on American that day.

Yep - AA has cancelled a lot of flights. 

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/austin-airport/american-airlines-cuts-another-five-nonstop-routes-from-austin-bergstrom/

Quote

American has now canceled 27 nonstop routes from AUS since November, including international destinations such as Montego Bay, Jamaica; Cozumel, Mexico; Puerto Vallarta, Mexico; Nassau, Bahamas; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic and Liberia, Costa Rica.

 

Edited September 5 by hornbri

[kevwun 15681]

Wow, they have cut a shit ton from Austin over the last year, 27 nonstop routes since last November.  Appears they are giving up on it.

[royiv 9177]

27 minutes ago, kevwun said:

Wow, they have cut a shit ton from Austin over the last year, 27 nonstop routes since last November.  Appears they are giving up on it.

They’re still the second largest carrier behind WN, although DL is starting to catch-up. Most of that flying was being done on high CASM regionals and the yields were junk. It’s hard to build up a focus city when you simultaneously have one of the world’s biggest hubs 180 miles to the north.

[Longhorn94 2446]

As someone who flies almost every week, I don't get all the angst and unhappiness with ABIA. It's easy to get to, easy to fly in and out of. Delta does a great job there. The Sky Lounge is nice. TSA pre and Clear move quickly. Its one of my favorite airports because of the above.

Do y'all fly other carriers and have bad experiences?

[kevwun 15681]

Not just you, I love ABIA.  It's easy to get in and out of.  As a home airport, it's pretty great.  We flew back to IAH a couple of months ago coming back from Belize and it was a giant pain in the ass.

Edited September 5 by kevwun

[Mittens 8196]

If I show up 2 hours before takeoff for a domestic flight, I shouldn't be stuck in a 3 hour line that causes me to miss my flight.  And that happens occasionally at ABIA.

[Larry T. Spider 1746]

I fly about twice a month and rarely have issues. I left my house in round rock and was at my gate in under an hour last time. Sometimes the pre check line is long but it moves.

[PilotsError 2286]

ABIA is like Spirit airlines to me.  Most of the time, even the overwhelming majority of the time, it does what it's supposed to do.  But when ABIA, like Spirit, goes bad....it's memorable.  And when they have security issues...goddamn.

Maybe if I flew out of JFK or ORD regularly I wouldn't complain, but this is the airport I use and when something is wrong, it's very wrong.

[boilerhorn 1341]

ABIA's problems are not just reserved to the travelers.  The dropoff/pickup folks suffer because the traffic management there is horrific.  Darn near every well run airport moves the parking, dropoff, and taxi folks into different spaces - each of those spaces do not get in the way of the other.  EVERY passenger coming or going from ABIA has to walk in front of some form of traffic.

When it goes well, ABIA is decent; when it does not, it is utter shit.  And we are not even addressing the problems of international travel into that airport.

I will admit that ABIA was far better when I had status that got me into lounges.  Suffer a little - get to the lounge - and relax.  No dealing with the masses.

That all said, I travel mostly to the following airports: IND, PDX, SJC, EWR, SFO.  I've ranted about this before, but IND and PDX are at a different tier.

Perhaps I am just a little grumpy that I had to pay $15 (before tax and tip) for a pint of Southern Heights Tahitian Dreaming yesterday.  And just happened to be sitting next to a Michigan fan who said to a rando, "Well we lost 13 guys to the draft last year..."  I had to let him know that Texas lost 11.

[kevwun 15681]

IAH has a taco place that charges like $19 for breakfast tacos.  Air travel is just a non-stop wallet rape.

[BrazilHorn 6580]

On 9/5/2024 at 10:38 AM, Longhorn94 said:

As someone who flies almost every week, I don't get all the angst and unhappiness with ABIA. It's easy to get to, easy to fly in and out of. Delta does a great job there. The Sky Lounge is nice. TSA pre and Clear move quickly. Its one of my favorite airports because of the above.

Do y'all fly other carriers and have bad experiences?

TSA at ABIA is a mixed bag. Some times fly though no problem, others a total shitshow. 
Also the new scanners suck ass and make it much slower than before. 

Skyclub great United’s is mid. 

[hornbri 1380]

On 9/5/2024 at 11:44 AM, kevwun said:

Wow, they have cut a shit ton from Austin over the last year, 27 nonstop routes since last November.  Appears they are giving up on it.

And the cuts keep coming, AA cutting 4 more non-stops from austin 

https://simpleflying.com/american-airlines-drops-4-more-routes-austin/

 

[randomhorn 1678]

On 9/12/2024 at 5:57 PM, BrazilHorn said:

Also the new scanners suck ass and make it much slower than before.

Those aren't jet engines, they're snail shells

[hornbri 1380]

https://ishrionaviation.com/news/delta-air-lines-new-austin-routes-indianapolis-memphis-tampa

Delta adding routes to Austin, hopefully with AA leaving Delta is going to step in. 

[Bozo_Casanova 26368]

On 9/5/2024 at 1:13 PM, royiv said:

They’re still the second largest carrier behind WN, although DL is starting to catch-up. Most of that flying was being done on high CASM regionals and the yields were junk. It’s hard to build up a focus city when you simultaneously have one of the world’s biggest hubs 180 miles to the north.

American deemphasizing Austin is part of the Vasu Raja era unwinding, and there’s mounting concern that the baby is getting thrown out with the bathwater, because as much as their Austin “strategy” never seemed to make sense as executed…
 

On 9/28/2024 at 10:19 AM, hornbri said:

https://ishrionaviation.com/news/delta-air-lines-new-austin-routes-indianapolis-memphis-tampa

Delta adding routes to Austin, hopefully with AA leaving Delta is going to step in. 

There is lots of speculation that Delta is big footing AUS as American pulls flights with designs on making the whole new Austin terminal their Texas/Midwest hub, and the gateway to Latin America/Carribean destinations.

[BabaYaga 15238]

On 9/16/2024 at 10:29 AM, hornbri said:

And the cuts keep coming, AA cutting 4 more non-stops from austin 

https://simpleflying.com/american-airlines-drops-4-more-routes-austin/

 

Just rerouting them to DFW I think?  Consolidating back to the mothership

[kevwun 15681]

It would be real neat to be able to fly on Delta to the Caribbean and Latin America without going to Atlanta first.

Edited October 10 by kevwun

[Handcruser 2805]

Abia sucks.

I’ve traveled a lot over the last year. Every airport is better.

Abia is just woefully small for the passenger load. Ive been to O’hare [emoji[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]]]]]]-[emoji[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]]]]] times and every single time it’s been faster and more organized.

[hornian 5207]

16 minutes ago, Handcruser said:

Abia sucks.

I’ve traveled a lot over the last year. Every airport is better.

Abia is just woefully small for the passenger load. Ive been to O’hare [emoji[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]]]]]]-[emoji[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]]]]] times and every single time it’s been faster and more organized.

[Longhorn94 2446]

I am looking forward to the new Delta direct to SFO! While I enjoy the new terminal and sky club in LAX, and SLC is always great, it will shave 3-4 hours off of every trip!

 

[Handcruser 2805]

Sometimes my posts go bonkers. I have no idea why. I blame the aliens.

[royiv 9177]

1 hour ago, Longhorn94 said:

I am looking forward to the new Delta direct to SFO! While I enjoy the new terminal and sky club in LAX, and SLC is always great, it will shave 3-4 hours off of every trip!

 

Have they released schedules yet? I haven’t seen anything and I’m curious about the timing. 

[Longhorn94 2446]

1 hour ago, royiv said:

Have they released schedules yet? I haven’t seen anything and I’m curious about the timing. 

• Austin to San Francisco (SFO) starting June 8, 2025

[royiv 9177]

58 minutes ago, Longhorn94 said:

• Austin to San Francisco (SFO) starting June 8, 2025

Yeah, I know that. Schedules usually refers to when a flight departs and arrives. I’m not going to the airport on June 8 and just waiting around for a flight to go to SFO. 

[Longhorn94 2446]

11 minutes ago, royiv said:

Yeah, I know that. Schedules usually refers to when a flight departs and arrives. I’m not going to the airport on June 8 and just waiting around for a flight to go to SFO. 

haha - fucker. 

I don't think they have released the actual flight times / schedule.

[kevwun 15681]

I hope it's not like the Vegas flight they have now.  It's once a day and the departure and return times are both shitty.