@brianinok

Appears to only be a one-time segment. The a/c will fly from MEM to OKC to MSP. Will only fly on Nov 21.

This is just adding some extra capacity to the market for the holiday travel week. I can't seem to find the flights replicated anywhere else in the schedule. I'll dig through them some more tomorrow, though.

I checked quickly well into next year and there were no similar flights.

Looks like we posted at just about the same time! haha!

2011 has been a fantastic year for air service at OKC. Hopefully this momentum continues! I think it will, airlines have been devoting a ton more attention to us than many of the previous years.

Anyone have a list of charter aircraft tha OU and OSU will be using this year??? Who is OU using this year?? OSU? Equipment?

Anyone have a list of charter aircraft tha OU and OSU will be using this year??? Who is OU using this year?? OSU? Equipment?

This changes quite a bit as airlines will typically give a team an aircraft a few days before they fly out, so the best thing to do is look at FlightAware's schedules the day before OU/OSU are headed on the road.

^true

I have frequently seen OSU use Continental 737s for football and basketball. Anyone know what these schools pay for these charters?

http://www.flyokc.com/statistics/August%2011%20Enplanement.pdf

Solid numbers.

OU has a contract with American Airlines to charter flights, Boren who was a member of the AA board, always had to abstain from the discussion when it came up in the board of regents for conflict of interests issues.

AA also has the OU contract for non-charter flights too.

OU and American Airlines. I'm sure that has nothing to do with Boren being on the board of AA and its parent company AMR up until four months ago. He could abstain all he wants, but that's all pretty obvious. Once a politician - always a politician.

I did see a CO 772ER once for that was to take OU to the National Championship in New Orleans back in '05 (?).

OU and American Airlines. I'm sure that has nothing to do with Boren being on the board of AA and its parent company AMR up until four months ago. He could abstain all he wants, but that's all pretty obvious. Once a politician - always a politician.

Once a conspiracy theorist, always a conspiracy theorist. That's just silly. Boren is not going to risk his reputation on something as trivial as an airline contract with the university.

Once a conspiracy theorist, always a conspiracy theorist. That's just silly. Boren is not going to risk his reputation on something as trivial as an airline contract with the university.

Oh, Larry...please. You're surely not that naive.

It's not a "conspiracy theory" - it's good, old-fashioned, 'you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours' politics.

As for his "reputation" - which one?. There's the David Boren that is known in Oklahoma as former Governor, U.S. Senator, President of OU (it's basically a good reputation) and then there's the David Boren known well by Washington old-timers who know a (cough) ...err..(cough) completely different David Boren who was known for hypocrisy on....let's just say, "certain issues." If you try to deny that, you'll be engaging in historical revisionism. What is -- just is.

Oh, Larry...please. You're surely not that naive.

It's not a "conspiracy theory" - it's good, old-fashioned, 'you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours' politics.

As for his "reputation" - which one?. There's the David Boren that is known in Oklahoma as former Governor, U.S. Senator, President of OU (it's basically a good reputation) and then there's the David Boren known well by Washington old-timers who know a (cough) ...err..(cough) completely different David Boren who was known for hypocrisy on....let's just say, "certain issues." If you try to deny that, you'll be engaging in historical revisionism. What is -- just is.

Mike, I'm not in the least naive. You just seem to have an innate distrust of everyone and make assertions without foundation. And if the "certain issues" you're thinking about are what I think, even if it was true (which is far from certain), it is totally irrelevant. You're still seeing spiders in the corners which aren't really there.

But this discussion has nothing to do with the topic so that will be my last comment about this subject.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL9473

There are the sooners.

Forgot to post this, but Delta adjusted their winter schedule to keep the 2 mainline flights throughout. Normally they seasonally discontinue in Jan and Feb and restart in March. Appears they are going to keep it going all the way through.

two more sooner charters to FSU

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/EJA750/history/20110916/1200Z/KOKC/KTLH
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL9474/history/20110916/1915Z/KOKC/KTLH

List of Diversions from the Dallas ground stop last night...these are the departures from OKC. The originating city I put on the right. Some are OKC original flights that were delayed.

DAL910 MD88 Dallas/Fort Worth Intl (KDFW) Fri 10:31PM Fri 11:13PM Fri 11:19PM -- Atlanta
AAL1227 MD83 Dallas/Fort Worth Intl (KDFW) Fri 09:51PM Fri 11:10PM Fri 11:06PM -- OKC
AAL1452 MD83 Dallas/Fort Worth Intl (KDFW) Fri 09:47PM Fri 10:36PM Fri 10:43PM -- Sacramento
AAL694 MD83 Dallas/Fort Worth Intl (KDFW) Fri 09:42PM Fri 10:27PM Fri 10:41PM -- Calgary
AAL1772 MD82 Dallas/Fort Worth Intl (KDFW) Fri 09:39PM Fri 10:31PM Fri 10:23PM -- Burbank
CPZ5837 E170 Dallas/Fort Worth Intl (KDFW) Fri 09:33PM Fri 10:10PM Fri 10:15PM -- Minneapolis
AAL2339 MD82 Dallas/Fort Worth Intl (KDFW) Fri 09:30PM Fri 10:09PM Fri 10:13PM -- Chicago
ASQ5299 CRJ9 Dallas/Fort Worth Intl (KDFW) Fri 09:26PM Fri 10:05PM Fri 10:08PM -- Detroit
AAL1367 B752 Dallas/Fort Worth Intl (KDFW) Fri 09:22PM Fri 09:55PM Fri 10:03PM -- St. Louis
AAL1770 B738 Dallas/Fort Worth Intl (KDFW) Fri 09:19PM Fri 09:55PM Fri 09:59PM -- New York JFK
MRA801 C208 Dallas/Fort Worth Intl (KDFW) Fri 09:15PM Fri 10:35PM Fri 10:40PM -- OKC
AAL337R MD83 Dallas/Fort Worth Intl (KDFW) Fri 09:14PM Fri 09:51PM Fri 09:54PM -- Chicago
AAL763 B752 Dallas/Fort Worth Intl (KDFW) Fri 09:10PM Fri 09:58PM Fri 09:51PM -- New York LGA
EGF3313 E145 Dallas/Fort Worth Intl (KDFW) Fri 09:00PM Fri 09:35PM Fri 09:40PM -- Madison
FFT138 A320 Dallas/Fort Worth Intl (KDFW) Fri 08:53PM Fri 09:28PM Fri 09:31PM -- Denver

Schedule changes for Spring are starting to trickle in.

Seasonal adjustments by Delta phase out so DTW and MSP are back to 3 daily in the spring.

Preliminary capacity has MSP at 4 flights again during the summer. Hopefully that change will stay.

Looking ahead over at United's future bookings for SFO, they are starting to pick up. Have noticed a lot of advertising on the radio as well as web based ads. They have a billboard up on Airport Road.

http://www.flyokc.com/statistics/August%2011%20Activity.pdf

August stat numbers posted today. Good to see cargo (freight) coming back up finally.

http://www.flyokc.com/statistics/August%2011%20Activity.pdf

August stat numbers posted today. Good to see cargo (freight) coming back up finally.

Any idea why the military operations are up so significantly?

^No clue about that, but a few weeks ago earlier this month, I saw two KC 135s parked on the ramp at the west ARINC hangar (there are two now, one east and one west).

Does each touch and go count as one on that list? It almost would have to since that is roughly 88 military flights arriving a day. Increased training with the hot temps? /shrug

An operation consists of any function that enters the tower airspace under control of the local controller (tower operator).

Full stop landings, touch and go's, stop and go's, low approaches, takeoffs all constitute an operation, respectively. Also VFR traffic transitioning the tower airspace constitute an operation, e.g. flying over the airport inside of the tower's airspace boundaries.

Ahh, so could argue that even water drop operations in the area would fall under military as well?

If they are within ~4 miles of WRWA then yes. Depends who is controlling them, also. Basically, if they are airborne and OKC Tower talks to them, it's an operation of some sort. That's the easiest way to put it.

Getting some diversions right now from DFW. MD-11F is about to land.

Was that the Lufthansa Air Cargo from MEX?

Yes. Virgin America just landed too.

This doesn't really pertain to "Air Service" but more so the layout of KOKC. Anyone able to shed light on the purpose of runway 31/13? I understand the need for 17/35 both L and R...but, to me 31/13 seems kinda odd. Even from a weather standpoint, winds that would benefit that runway more than 17/35 are seldom seen here in The Southern Plains. Do commercial aircraft ever land on it? I know some take off...but, never seen anyone land... any insight would be great!

When the wind is out of the south or southeast a lot of airlines use 13 to land if they are approaching from the west. For example, LAS, LAS, DEN etc. Approach is more straight in.

When WRWA was first built, it had the traditional runway layout of the time, which was a runway going NE/SW, NW/SE, and N/S. The current 17R/35L was the only N/S runway, 13/31 was shorter but still there, and there was a NE/SW runway (where the old 747 sits by the FAA is what remains of that runway today). Our prevailing wind is from the north and northwest, the NE/SW runway was eventually decommissioned and mostly destructed.

Just in case anyone was curious, was passing by the United guys unloading the San Fran flight this evening to the baggage claim. Saw about 10 bags on the cart before the belt started, so that flight was probably pretty empty.

^To add to what Skywest said about the OKC runway layout, one should also consider that while our prevailing winds are generally in a northerly/southerly direction, many a time, the winds can be quite strong from the west or west-northwest, and planes will use RWY 31 solely for departures. And then we get that occasional day when the winds act like there's no tomorrow (sustained 40 mph gusting to 50 or more) stright out of the northwest behind a strong cold front, so that would be another time that runway would come to very good use.

On the other hand, some pilots like using it for departures (RWY 31) or arrivals (RWY 13) since in either case, taxiing time to/from the terminal is much shorter than going all the way to, say RWY 35L/R. And I've even experienced a downwind takeoff from RWY 31 in a Southwest jet when the winds were weak enough (winds were S at 9 mph). The pilots were probably used to operating to/from MDW is my guess. ;)

Just in case anyone was curious, was passing by the United guys unloading the San Fran flight this evening to the baggage claim. Saw about 10 bags on the cart before the belt started, so that flight was probably pretty empty.

I flew to San Fran on Friday morning (departure at 7) and it seemed to be pretty full. I don't think at capacity, but I don't remember seeing tons of empty seats either. Is that normal for those flights? Just curious how OKC is faring.

I'm not sure. I hear it is doing okay, but I don't have direct access to United's loads.

Another Delta mainline injection for the Thanksgiving week. (This is probably due to a/c position more than demand, given the date of this one)

DTW-OKC will have a MD88 on 24NOV. The aircraft will RON in OKC and leave OKC for ATL the following morning.

Alaska is starting service to Kansas City in March. Hopefully they'll eventually look our way.

Hopefully. I wish the BTS data wasn't so out of date, the traffic gains we have been having this year won't be truly reflected in the BTS datasets until the middle of next year. Latest data was from Oct-Dec 2010, Jan-Mar 2011 data was due to be released in September, but here it is getting close to the middle of October.

Delta loaded a mainline flight to Memphis for the last 2 weeks of December.

Operates Mon-Fri 19Dec11 to 03Jan12. A/c is an Airbus A319

Probably temporary additional capacity for holiday traffic. They have been adding a lot of mainline "injections" into the market lately to other hubs. Hopefully they are experimenting with additional capacity and eventually we will hold some more mainline flights in the future schedules.

http://www.flyokc.com/statistics/September%2011%20Enplanement.pdf

Ouch....

September/October usually are the slowest months anyway, so it's not really a surprise that traffic is down. And then Frontier actually posted a big gain, which is a surprise (to me anyway).

Meanwhile, it appears DL/DL Conxn are now downsizing the MEM (Memphis) hub quite a bit:
http://airlineroute.net/2011/10/11/dl-mem-jan12/

I have a feeling OKC will be one of the airports in the next round...

And umm, not to sound ungrateful but, since when did I become a VIP member? I haven't even paid anything lol. Strange... Mods?

September/October usually are the slowest months anyway, so it's not really a surprise that traffic is down. And then Frontier actually posted a big gain, which is a surprise (to me anyway).

Meanwhile, it appears DL/DL Conxn are now downsizing the MEM (Memphis) hub quite a bit:
http://airlineroute.net/2011/10/11/dl-mem-jan12/

And umm, not to sound ungrateful but, since when did I become a VIP member? I haven't even paid anything lol. Strange... Mods?

I haven't heard anything about MEM being reduced. We are getting mainline (as mentioned in the post above mine) to Memphis, on a temporary basis. We will probably be one of the last markets our size to lose MEM service. The seats we lose to Memphis will be absorbed by DTW and ATL anyway. On a seat-for-seat basis, we will stay neutral with MEM closing.

Yeah the September numbers are going to be a mix of going into the slow season and rationalization by airlines. United Continental made up what...almost 60% of the total decline. Southwest was the other major one with a drop of almost 6000 passengers themselves. However, I would really like to see these numbers compared to seats available in the market at the time. That is what I am most interested in. If it is a simple down gauge in aircraft, so be it...but if the seats available are pretty consistent than that is a good indicator of the market getting weaker.

As far as MEM. Airliners had a thread about this started on the 10th and it is finally getting picked up by the media. Memphis is losing nonstop service to Baltimore, Gulfport, Grand Rapids, Wichita, Mobile, Seattle, and Panama City FL. The thread is here....http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/5275707/

I will say one this about A.net...the people on there do tend to find things like this a good time ahead of the media. Not to mention prior to when the airlines officially want to release the info. The MEM hub will probably be gone in 3-5 years and existing capacity will likely absorb. Of course a lot will change in the next few years.

Also another side note. FAA has required the designation of San Francisco (SFO) as a Level 2 slot controlled airport starting next Spring through Fall. Airlines will now be slot restricted during the hours of 6AM to 11PM. This could weigh into the ability for OKC to retain service if loans/yields aren't high enough.

I know for a fact Delta, American, and Frontier have been capacity positive in September.

They updated the file. Looks like some data wasn't 100% reported when they published the file.

Looks much, much better!

http://www.flyokc.com/statistics/September%2011%20Enplanement.pdf

Question for SkyWest or Venture,What is WWWA total annual numbers and what city/airport do we compare too?

Question for SkyWest or Venture,What is WWWA total annual numbers and what city/airport do we compare too?

We are 66th nationally when it comes to passengers. 68th by scheduled flights. 79th in cargo.

That's pretty weak isn't it?

Yeah it is. When looking at the last quarter report available - 4th Quarter of 2011 - it definitely could be better. Now by this report it has us ranked 59th but that is because it combines ALL airports serving a single city. So like New York is #1 because it is combining Newark, LaGuardia, and JFK. So here are the details...

Overall Passenger # rank is 59th. This is comparable to Manchester, NH and Memphis, TN. Now...the Memphis thing I find out at first, but I think this report is PURE origin and destination...so connecting/hub traffic don't count. To put this in perspective...some cities that are bigger include Hartford, Buffalo, Albuquerque, Providence, Omaha, Spokane, and Tucson. Some that are just below us include Richmond, El Paso, Boise, Norfolk, Louisville, Birmingham, Tulsa, Dayton, and Akron.

So why might this be? Well for one, airlines make bank here. Oklahoma City is #19 in yield generation. We also have the 19th highest fares in the nation.

Compared to 2009, we were 65th in overall passengers, 21st in overall yield, and 22nd in average price of air fares. So we've seen passengers numbers go up a bit, but also have seen fares jump up quite a bit, and yields move up slightly. It is a perfect setup we have right now for established airlines. We should also be a favorable target for a new low fare airline but there isn't many left. Spirit, Allegiant, and JetBlue. AirTran was a good target, but Southwest is killing them off. Allegiant won't touch OKC again. JetBlue hasn't shown much interest here. Spirit is the only one that stands out, but I don't see them eager to come here.

Thanks for the answers guys,I appreciate it!I wonder if OKC/WWWA were the only major airport in Oklahoma,like Omaha to NE,then maybe our numbers would really increase?I'm really suprised at Omaha's and ABQ's numbers!

http://www.flyokc.com/statistics/September%2011%20Activity.pdf

I'm still trying to figure out what United is doing. For the past few days I've seen them using Gate 12 in addition to 10, 9, 5, and 3. I really don't think they need or want 5 gates for their combined operation, but who knows.

Question for SkyWest or Venture,What is WWWA total annual numbers and what city/airport do we compare too?

Here's a list of US airports by passenger traffic as of 2010. OKC is ranked 66th on the list.

http://www.faa.gov/airports/planning_capacity/passenger_allcargo_stats/passenger/media/cy10_primary_enplanements.pdf

Thanks for the answers guys,I appreciate it!I wonder if OKC/WWWA were the only major airport in Oklahoma,like Omaha to NE,then maybe our numbers would really increase?I'm really suprised at Omaha's and ABQ's numbers!

Having two major cities in such a small population state is really the problem. Plus, a lot of people drive to DFW instead of flying to avoid the lay-over. If Tulsa and OKC were either the same city, or on opposite banks fo the same river, the metro population would be north of 2 million people.

Plus, a lot of people drive to DFW instead of flying to avoid the lay-over.

That could be true of people who live in southern Oklahoma but I promise you it's not true of people in the OKC or Tulsa area unless there was some significant savings in cost, which is rare. I deal with this every day so I know.

Would have to agree. I can't see driving almost 3 hours to save 50-100 bucks. If it was significantly more than that...sure. Well, unless it is on Spirit. LOL

That could be true of people who live in southern Oklahoma but I promise you it's not true of people in the OKC or Tulsa area unless there was some significant savings in cost, which is rare. I deal with this every day so I know.

I saved $400 total for my family (me, wife and babe in arms) on Labor Day weekend flying out of DFW... I hated the drive, but the savings (even w/ gas and parking cost) was just too good to ignore.

Until Oklahomans start using our own air service, we will always lag behind other cities of similar metro size. And our options will always be less than those out of similar cities. For a metro our size, we should easily break 4 million a year.

I saved $400 total for my family (me, wife and babe in arms) on Labor Day weekend flying out of DFW... I hated the drive, but the savings (even w/ gas and parking cost) was just too good to ignore.

I'm not saying it never happens, just that it's rare. It's not unusual at all for fares to be lower from OKC for many destinations than leaving from DFW even if you have to fly there for a connection.