Going to get this going to keep things organized into the New Year. A lot has happened over the last year and we look for a lot more coming up. I wanted to focus this thread on the commercial side of air service and open it up to all of Oklahoma. We aren't like most states that have several commercial airports - we have just a few.

Here is where we are starting 2012 with Commercial service in Oklahoma...

Oklahoma City (KOKC) - Will Rogers World Airport (http://www.flyokc.com)

Atlanta: Delta (2x M88, 1x CR9, 2x CR7)
Baltimore: Southwest (1x 73G)
Chicago Midway: Southwest (Starts June 3rd - 1x 733)
Chicago O'Hare: American (2x CR7, 2x ER4), United (4x CR7, 1x ER4)
Dallas/Fort Worth: American (7x M80)
Dallas Love: Southwest (3x 73G, 2x 733)
Denver: Frontier (2x 319), Southwest, United (1x 319, 3x ER4)
Detroit: Delta (2x CR7)
Houston Hobby: Southwest (4x 733)
Houston Bush Intercontinental: United (3x DH4, 6x ER4)
Kansas City: Southwest (1x 73G, 1x 733)
Las Vegas: Southwest (1x 73G, 1x 733)
Los Angeles: American (2x CR7) , United (1x CR7)
Memphis: Delta (3x CRJ)
Minneapolis/St. Paul: Delta (2x CRJ)
New York/Newark: United (1x ER4)
Phoenix: Southwest (2x 73G)
Salt Lake City: Delta (2x CR7)
San Francisco: United (1x CR7)
St. Louis: Southwest (1x 73G, 1x 733)
Washington Dulles: United (1x CR7)


Tulsa (KTUL) - Tulsa International (http://www.tulsaairports.com/)

Atlanta: Delta (1x M88, 1x CR9, 3x CR7)
Chicago O'Hare: American (1x M80, 2x ER4, 1x ERD), United (1x CRJ, 4x ERD)
Dallas/Fort Worth: American (2x 757, 1x 738, 4x M80, 1x ERD)
Dallas Love: Southwest (2x 73G, 3x 733, 1x 735)
Denver: Southwest (2x 73G, 1x 733), United (1x 320, 1x 319, 1x CR7, 1x ER4)
Detroit: Delta (2x CR7)
Houston Hobby: Southwest (1x 73G, 2x 733)
Houston Intercontinental: United (1x 735, 2x DH4, 6x ERJ)
Las Vegas: Southwest (1x 73G)
Los Angeles: United (1x CR7)
Memphis: Delta (3x CRJ)
Minneapolis/St. Paul: Delta (2x CRJ)
New York/Newark: United (1x ERJ)
Phoenix: Southwest (2x 73G)
Salt Lake City: Delta (1x CR7)
St. Louis: Southwest (1x 73G, 1x 733)
Washington Dulles: United (1x CR7)


Lawton (KLAW) - Lawton/Ft. Sill Regional Airport (http://www.flylawton.org/)

Dallas/Fort Worth: American (5x AT7)


Other Oklahoma Airports that use to have recent commercial airline service:

Enid: http://www.enidairport.com/default.htm
Guymon
Ponca City
Woodward: http://www.cityofwoodward.com/airport-89/

Other Oklahoma Airports that use to have recent commercial airline service:

Enid: http://www.enidairport.com/default.htm
Guymon
Woodward: http://www.cityofwoodward.com/airport-89/


Ponca City also had commercial airline service. It ended at the same time that Enid lost their service.

Ponca City also had commercial airline service. It ended at the same time that Enid lost their service.

Got it added, forgot about them. Might want to edit your post since the quote is huge. LOL

Anyone know how full the 757'S usually are on DFW-TUL ?

Anyone know how full the 757'S usually are on DFW-TUL ?

I don't have the answer to your question, but that really jumped out at me. How can Tulsa have enough traffic to DFW to justify two 757s per day, but not OKC?

I don't have the answer to your question, but that really jumped out at me. How can Tulsa have enough traffic to DFW to justify two 757s per day, but not OKC?

Someone with knowledge can probably confirm this but my guess is that they funnel the 757s to TUL for aircraft maintenance at the AA maintenance base.

Tulsa does maintenance for AA which justifies the reason for the larger aircraft into Tulsa. I once flew from ORD-DFW via TUL solely for the reason that there were a ton of seats available on that route and none available direct from ORD-DFW. FYI, if you ever get stuck in ORD and need to go to DFW and seats are sold out, request that they send you through Tulsa, you'd be amazed how much faster it is.

I know the Frontier flights that I took from Denver to OKC and back over Christmas were very full. It was the first time that I have flown into Will Rogers since the remodel and I even worked a little bit on that project. They did very nice job on it, so much better than the old terminal. I am sure we will be flying to OKC more since we will both be in Denver full time in February, it just didn't make much sense flying from Austin to OKC since there was no direct flight and there are several from DIA.

I know we've talked about this in the past, but the ball is rolling here. USAir is starting service from Charlotte to Des Moines and Omaha. With USAir breaking back into the Central Plains, any rumor of them coming to Oklahoma within the year?

What no service between Tulsa and OKC? LOL....

Bomber: Here's your OKC-TUL service http://flightaware.com/live/flight/FDX347

OK, so you may have to pack yourself up in a FEDEX box and be shipped, but it still counts right :) FYI, I hear the in-flight entertainment on this leg is not the best... nor are the free drinks :)

I know we've talked about this in the past, but the ball is rolling here. USAir is starting service from Charlotte to Des Moines and Omaha. With USAir breaking back into the Central Plains, any rumor of them coming to Oklahoma within the year?

The Des Moines and Omaha service is a little misleading. First they are both already served by US Airways to PHX & LAS. Due to the LGA/DCA slot swap with Delta, they are taking over DCA (Washington National) to both OMA and DSM. To make things make a bit more sense, they are adding in flights to a traditional hub - their strongest - in CLT. So this really doesn't have anything to do with a new initiative to get back into the Midwest and Plains more so replacing Delta and connecting dots.

I'm still hearing 2013 before they make a large push back into the Midwest/Great Lakes/Plains, but that could be up in the air should they pursue to purchase American.

What no service between Tulsa and OKC? LOL....

Careful, Delta use to operate it daily and then Great Plains did it as well. :-)

AA runs a seasonal 737 TUL-MIA route from Nov to Apr:

http://www.aa.com/i18n/aboutUs/newServiceRoutes.jsp?anchorEvent=false&from=Nav

Think there will be an increase in Seattle-OKC traffic with today's Boeing announcement?

Think there will be an increase in Seattle-OKC traffic with today's Boeing announcement?

I would expect a larger increase in trips to San Antonio than Seattle, since that is where the majority of work for the projects they are associated with is being done, though it will still be fairly small compared to general traffic.

Think there will be an increase in Seattle-OKC traffic with today's Boeing announcement?

I would hope, but I don't think these jobs will drive much to Seattle. Boeing HQ is in Chicago now, but like Snowman said...SAT has a bigger tie to them. SAT traffic will be served via American and Southwest through Dallas. Boeing employed thousands in Wichita, on both commercial and military side, but nonstop service to Seattle failed there miserably. The OKC-SEA O&D market is pretty decent and I really think Alaska could make it work if they wanted to, especially with rotating aircraft here for maintenance. However, it will be hard for people to give up fly Southwest/United/Frontier through Denver which is just as easy.

Careful, Delta use to operate it daily and then Great Plains did it as well. :-)

The Delta service was really just an afterthought with a plane operating between OKC, Tulsa, and Salt Lake. The service between OKC and Tulsa was never significant.

Come on guys, i was just joking. Although i have been on Delta flights before that went from OKC to TUL on their way to other places.

The Delta service was really just an afterthought with a plane operating between OKC, Tulsa, and Salt Lake. The service between OKC and Tulsa was never significant.

Yeah I'm aware of that. It was back when they use to do extensive tagging of flights. Up through the late 90s you could get on the same flight number that would make 5 stops until it go to its final destination.

Bomber, I know you were. :-) Not sure LJ picked up on it though. LOL

I don't have the answer to your question, but that really jumped out at me. How can Tulsa have enough traffic to DFW to justify two 757s per day, but not OKC?

757 load factors are typically in the low 70% range for Tulsa but aircraft assigned to the Tulsa-DFW route have far more to do with the logistics of routing aircraft out of the Tulsa maintenance facility than with demand characteristics of the route. As a result, overall load factors for TUL-DFW are usually 5-10 points lower than for OKC-DFW.

I've flown between OKC and TUL back in '96 twice when I flew with my mom and sister connecting at ATL for overseas connections (both inbound and outbound). The plane was full both times, then again there were plenty of days for that leg to be half empty or very empty, but I thought I would make that observation. It was operated either with a 737-200 or 727-200 Advanced. The west-bound run used to be something like ATL-TUL-OKC-SLC-SJC, then the reverse route was the opposite of that. But back in the day Delta and many other airlines had more point-to-point flying, I remember American had a flight on OKC-DFW-BNA-TYS (BNA being Nashville Metro Int'l and TYS being Knoxville McGhee-Tyson Airport). Operated by the good ol' Fokker 100 (pronounced FOLK-er). Which I've had the pleasure of flying in btw.

The only airline that still has such multi-stop flights today is Southwest. Then again, Southwest's model is point-to-point, not hub and spoke, the airports where it has a dominance is simply because those are "major" points-where so many flights pass through that it gives the impression of being a hub.

As far as OKC though, I think 2012 will be a pretty good year for passenger traffic, barring any unforseen challenges of course. Nice to see two DL mainliners to anywhere :P.

I've flown between OKC and TUL back in '96 twice when I flew with my mom and sister connecting at ATL for overseas connections (both inbound and outbound). The plane was full both times, then again there were plenty of days for that leg to be half empty or very empty, but I thought I would make that observation. It was operated either with a 737-200 or 727-200 Advanced. The west-bound run used to be something like ATL-TUL-OKC-SLC-SJC, then the reverse route was the opposite of that. But back in the day Delta and many other airlines had more point-to-point flying, I remember American had a flight on OKC-DFW-BNA-TYS (BNA being Nashville Metro Int'l and TYS being Knoxville McGhee-Tyson Airport). Operated by the good ol' Fokker 100 (pronounced FOLK-er). Which I've had the pleasure of flying in btw.

I miss the F-100s. Remember those on US through the Northeast. Nice little jet that was super quiet. Yeah the Westbound flight normally was ATL-TUL-OKC-SLC, but I want to say sometimes they swapped the OKC and TUL stops around. Delta loved their single flight numbers spanning the country. There was an a.net thread about this a year or so ago and some of them were crazy. ATL to Bangor, ME in the 80s had 3 stops en route. One of the airports that was west of were I grew up had a flight that went something like TOL-ATL-BHM-SHV-DFW-SLC-RNO. Great for someone who loved the 727, but sucked if you wanted to get to Reno before dark. LOL


The only airline that still has such multi-stop flights today is Southwest. Then again, Southwest's model is point-to-point, not hub and spoke, the airports where it has a dominance is simply because those are "major" points-where so many flights pass through that it gives the impression of being a hub.

As far as OKC though, I think 2012 will be a pretty good year for passenger traffic, barring any unforseen challenges of course. Nice to see two DL mainliners to anywhere :P.

Eh I think the notion of them not having a hub/spoke system is out the window now. They pretty much caved and called their main stations hubs now and do a good deal of connecting traffic. They still offer a lot of point-to-point O&D traffic, but not like they use to.

As far as 2012 outlook goes, we'll probably see decent growth around 3-5% for the year. Even with a US Airways take over of American, it shouldn't hurt us too much...probably the opposite.

Potential growth markets would be MDW - could go to 2 daily on Southwest and might see mainline return on the other guys to O'Hare Field. ATL we could see Southwest add in a couple of flights and add'l mainline from Delta to compete.

Potential lost markets...Denver could take a hit with the 3 way race to demolition there. Kansas City or St. Louis might lose a flight if Chicago does well.

New Entrants...eh, hard to say. JetBlue would be nice, but I think they are a long shot. Allegiant would be as well, but Florida from OKC is horrible and they won't bother going west from here. US Airways to CLT or PHL would be nice and should have happened a long time ago.

Bomber, I know you were. :-) Not sure LJ picked up on it though. LOL

Yes, I understood that. My response was just for information purposes.

Grew up in Lawton so I keep up with the news that goes on down there and they are finally getting rid of the turboprops. http://www.kswo.com/story/16439925/airport-to-get-new-jets

Grew up in Lawton so I keep up with the news that goes on down there and they are finally getting rid of the turboprops. http://www.kswo.com/story/16439925/airport-to-get-new-jets

I want to say they went to RJs once already and then put the AT7s in Dallas to help with costs. Honestly, the AT7s are better for that route than the ERJs. The 60% loads are horrible, but I doubt they have much traffic outside military fliers to really worry about pricing themselves out of the market. Costs will be going up a lot for the route and passengers will need to expect fares to go up. Now on the other side the AT7s that American Eagle uses are the older models and not newer generation, so they won't be as quiet and such as the new -600s. The thinking that RJs are what will save a community and increase service is long dead. We've seen many routes that had 7 to 12 daily flights get axed completely because of the skyrocketing price of fuel and the high costs of operating a 50-seat RJ.

How come no MD-80s from OKC to ORD, but one on TUL-ORD? And does TUL-DEN on UA get larger equipment than OKC-DEN because Frontier pulled out of TUL? And UA has one 735 on TUL-IAH! Anyway, I am just surprised by more mainline at TUL than at OKC and just am wondering why.

How come no MD-80s from OKC to ORD, but one on TUL-ORD? And does TUL-DEN on UA get larger equipment than OKC-DEN because Frontier pulled out of TUL? And UA has one 735 on TUL-IAH! Anyway, I am just surprised by more mainline at TUL than at OKC and just am wondering why.

I'm not sure what you're looking at for TUL to ORD but there aren't any MD80s from there to O'Hare. The only MD80 service requires a connection. On the nonstops on American and United there are only 737's and the Embraers. From OKC to DEN you get either an Airbus, 737, or Embraer. Tulsa has an Airbus, 737s, Embraers or Canadair Regional Jets. As mentioned many times previously, Tulsa gets some aircraft service to route planes to the maintenance center there. It's not based on amount of traffic or any other reason.

Now on the other side the AT7s that American Eagle uses are the older models and not newer generation, so they won't be as quiet and such as the new -600s.

Actually the Eagle ATR 72-500s are definitely much better with noise levels in the cabin then the Q400s, as I mentioned last year my experience with the Q400 wasn't that great, and I'm not one for complaining about aircraft cabin noise. The -500s sound much more like a jet in-flight, in the "Q"400s, the whole cabin vibrates and one hears a loud drone at cruise altitude, ascent, and descent. It never stops (unless you're on short final or taxiing), that's what was the most annoying part about my experience. Now Colgan initially transferred its older model Q400s from its EWR hub to IAH, so I haven't had a chance to fly in the Q400 NextGen, which supposedly has a better noise and vibration supression system, but I'll take an ATR anyday over a Q400. Sorry for the deviation, just thought I would post that bit.

How come no MD-80s from OKC to ORD, but one on TUL-ORD? And does TUL-DEN on UA get larger equipment than OKC-DEN because Frontier pulled out of TUL? And UA has one 735 on TUL-IAH! Anyway, I am just surprised by more mainline at TUL than at OKC and just am wondering why.

Much like what LJ said, for AA it is a manner of aircraft rotation into TUL for maintenance. Not saying every aircraft going in there is going to be pulled off the line, but it allows them to work an aircraft in when needed without having to adjust the schedule a lot. I would imagine it is more or less a wash on the DEN route. I noticed I forgot to put in the OKC-DEN info from WN (Southwest). Pulling it back up, both OKC and TUL have 3 WN flights to DEN during the week - I think I only put two for TUL originally. So yeah, I would say F9 (Frontier) not in the TUL market to DEN helps UA a bit.


I'm not sure what you're looking at for TUL to ORD but there aren't any MD80s from there to O'Hare. The only MD80 service requires a connection. On the nonstops on American and United there are only 737's and the Embraers. From OKC to DEN you get either an Airbus, 737, or Embraer. Tulsa has an Airbus, 737s, Embraers or Canadair Regional Jets. As mentioned many times previously, Tulsa gets some aircraft service to route planes to the maintenance center there. It's not based on amount of traffic or any other reason.

LJ, they were referring to the list in my first post that summed up what the scheduled ended at last year. When I pulled it the mainline on AA from TUL to ORD was an M80 but is now a 738.


Actually the Eagle ATR 72-500s are definitely much better with noise levels in the cabin then the Q400s, as I mentioned last year my experience with the Q400 wasn't that great, and I'm not one for complaining about aircraft cabin noise. The -500s sound much more like a jet in-flight, in the "Q"400s, the whole cabin vibrates and one hears a loud drone at cruise altitude, ascent, and descent. It never stops (unless you're on short final or taxiing), that's what was the most annoying part about my experience. Now Colgan initially transferred its older model Q400s from its EWR hub to IAH, so I haven't had a chance to fly in the Q400 NextGen, which supposedly has a better noise and vibration supression system, but I'll take an ATR anyday over a Q400. Sorry for the deviation, just thought I would post that bit.

Ahhh okay. Wish they would keep them around for markets that could use the extra lift.

Some random news bits...

- Southwest committed to retaining service in Wichita. It will transition to the Southwest brand next year. This was secured with a $7 Million annual subsidy. AirTran was previously getting a $3-5 million annual subsidy for service to Atlanta since it started. The service has never been self sustaining.

- AMR/American Airlines rejected leases on 11 operational 757s and a handful of MD-80s. An A300 was also rejected, but that fleet has been grounded since 2009 and it was already parked in the desert.

- 2011 numbers for OKC were posted in the old thread already - just under 3% growth for the year.

More detail figures from BTS through Q3 of 2011...

Airport wide load factors were around 78%, which is comparable to 2010.

American - 83.37%
American Eagle* - 74.06%
Continental (part of United) - 55.81%
Delta - 78.68%
Frontier - 76.75%
SkyWest (operating for United & Delta) - 76.25%
Southwest - 79.35%
United - 76.40%


* American Eagle is considered a Major airline in its own right and is reported separate of American Airlines.

Overall these are pretty good. Total Revenue Passenger Miles (RPMs) for the airport for Q1 to Q3 was 729,829 out of 931,911 Available Seat Miles (ASMs). Which you could translate to roughly 358,939 seats when unfilled for the first 9 months of 2011 or about 1330 seats a day. To put in perspective, that would be about 10 737s running empty. Still not horrible, but plenty of room for growth in the existing amount of capacity we are being fed. If the LF numbers were running in the 80s we would see more flights or a higher gauge of aircraft added.

Can anyone explain this flight? I haven't seen a revenue flight take off from Will Rogers before 5am ever. 4:50am departure from OKC-DTW? The flight # shows that it would be operating as a revenue flight since repositioning and charter flights typically start with a much higher number.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/FLG4417

^If you notice the flight history for this flight number on that same page, this is most likely not a revenue flight, it might be a re-positoning flight (which do sometimes use flight numbers in the "normal" range) or something else, like a training flight. At the moment DL Conxn only flies CRJ 700s or 900s between OKC and DTW for regular service.

There has also been another flight like this one that has run many times from Oklahoma City to, of all places, Elmira/Corning Regional Airport in New York with an ERJ 145 (Expressjet, if I recall correctly).

I would imagine it was probably in the shop at AAR. I've seen CRJs parked over there several times, including those that operate for Delta. Not sure if Pinnacle has a deal with them, but wouldn't doubt it.

Maybe a mail flight? I know the old 5:50 AM TWA flight from OKC to STL was a "mail flight" as they called it because they had a contract with USPS to carry mail on that flight, evidently passengers were just gravy for them.

Not likely. Mail flights used to be daily services. That concept is pretty much gone these days, except in remote regions like Alaska and Russia where scheduled cargo carriers have a contract with a regional carrier or two. Some examples are Everts Air Cargo which has a hub at ANC (Anchorage Int'l) and still flies DC 6s and C46 Commandos, and Trans Northern which, last I've read, has charter agreements with both, UPS and Fedex.

Btw, I do remember that 5:50a.m. TWA departure to STL. It was the very first departure from OKC for a while, started with a 727, then was operated with an MD 80 and finally with a 717-200 before TWA went out of business. I really do miss both, the red stripe and the new globe logo liveries of TWA. Nothing quite like them these days. I also remember flying out to DFW and then LGA back in the day in a TWA 727-200.

Flew back from SFO last night. Besides the inconsiderate people in front of me it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Was only about 2:45 instead of the 3 hours, 8 min it posted.

Flew back from SFO last night. Besides the inconsiderate people in front of me it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Was only about 2:45 instead of the 3 hours, 8 min it posted.

Why did you think it would be bad?

Flew back from SFO last night. Besides the inconsiderate people in front of me it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Was only about 2:45 instead of the 3 hours, 8 min it posted.

You get a pretty good tailwind this time of year heading that way. That flight is probably a good 30-45 min longer heading the other way. What's crazy is the EWR-OKC flight can be nearly 4 hours with the strong headwind this time of year. That's a LONG time on an ERJ-145.

Why did you think it would be bad?

3+ hours in a pringles can with wings isn't really my cup of tea

And I flew on that newark-okc flight a few years ago, I thought for sure time had stopped since it seemed to take forever.

You get a pretty good tailwind this time of year heading that way. That flight is probably a good 30-45 min longer heading the other way. What's crazy is the EWR-OKC flight can be nearly 4 hours with the strong headwind this time of year. That's a LONG time on an ERJ-145.

The Embraer jets have done more to stop me from flying than anything else, TSA included. I just hate them so much.

The Embraer jets have done more to stop me from flying than anything else, TSA included. I just hate them so much.

The ERJ doesn't bother me too much, when the flight is about an hour or less. When it is on cross country flights it gets to be too much. Unfortunately more people aren't flying to justify larger aircraft to EWR.

Side note...looks like in April, United will go down to only 1 flight to LAX.

I flew on the Continental flight from OKC to DCA (Washington Dulles) about a year and a half ago. Pringles can with wings is about right. Probably the most uncomfortable 3 hours of my life. Somehow, me (6'0, 220 lbs) got crammed up next to another guy about my size in those seats. I'm planning on doing the trip again in September and I will connect in O'Hare or Memphis just so I don't have to get on another one of those planes for that long.

The ERJ doesn't bother me too much, when the flight is about an hour or less. When it is on cross country flights it gets to be too much. Unfortunately more people aren't flying to justify larger aircraft to EWR.

Side note...looks like in April, United will go down to only 1 flight to LAX.

I'm 6'7", most of the airlines have the seats packed in so tightly that the seat pitch is insufficient for my feet to actually touch the floor. I can tolerate them, but it's pretty miserable. The worst was OKC to MSN, it was a 2.5 hr flight and was pretty bad.

I'm 6'7", most of the airlines have the seats packed in so tightly that the seat pitch is insufficient for my feet to actually touch the floor. I can tolerate them, but it's pretty miserable. The worst was OKC to MSN, it was a 2.5 hr flight and was pretty bad.
I usually get the stretch seats on Frontier (Airbus A319) for the Denver to Austin/OKC flights, the extra 5" is nicer than most. My wife even noticed the difference on one of her flights up here and she is 5'-2" tall.

The worst was OKC to MSN, it was a 2.5 hr flight and was pretty bad.

MSN is Madison, Wisconsin. By any chance did you mean MSP, which is Minneapolis?

Have there been any cities lately that have applied for EAS service in OK? With Great Lake hitting up Liberal and Garden City...what would the odds of adding Woodward on the route map. Perhaps a route of WWR-LBL-DEN ? I don't know the logistics to how a town gets EAS service, it just seems that NW Oklahoma is in one of those areas where a drive to AMA or OKC is far enough that EAS service could be warranted.

MSN is Madison, Wisconsin. By any chance did you mean MSP, which is Minneapolis?

No, I mean Madison. Though now that I think about it, it was actually DFW to MSN. I had a larger plane, an MD-88 I think to DFW, then had an E-170 to MSN. The MD-88 was just salt on the wounds!


I usually get the stretch seats on Frontier (Airbus A319) for the Denver to Austin/OKC flights, the extra 5" is nicer than most. My wife even noticed the difference on one of her flights up here and she is 5'-2" tall.

I do too, when they're available. It just seems that everywhere I end up going is serviced by the ERJs with no stretch option. I really just hate those planes. :P

I've enjoyed the EMB 170 series. Then again Im only 5'10 but thought that the plane was far roomier than all other "regional" planes.

I guess it could have been worse...it could have been a CRJ-100/200 for you.... ouch.

Have there been any cities lately that have applied for EAS service in OK? With Great Lake hitting up Liberal and Garden City...what would the odds of adding Woodward on the route map. Perhaps a route of WWR-LBL-DEN ? I don't know the logistics to how a town gets EAS service, it just seems that NW Oklahoma is in one of those areas where a drive to AMA or OKC is far enough that EAS service could be warranted.

I haven't seen anything. They use to be covered under EAS, but they were dropped. WWD definitely would come across as a typical EAS market since there really isn't a direct highway to OKC or AMA to ensure a quick connection to air service. However, the DOT eliminated them from EAS consideration. Here is the list of former EAS eligible cities in OK:

- McAlester (removed Jan 1, 1990)
- Enid (removed Sept 1, 2006)
- Ponca City (removed Sept 1, 2006)

I thought Woodward would be on that list, but it isn't...even though I'm certain they had service before. It is interesting to not that Oklahoma is one of 13 states that do not have an airport covered by the EAS program. The others being WA, ID, LA, FL, SC, NC, OH, IN, DE, NJ, CT, RI, MA, and NH.

I've enjoyed the EMB 170 series. Then again Im only 5'10 but thought that the plane was far roomier than all other "regional" planes.

I guess it could have been worse...it could have been a CRJ-100/200 for you.... ouch.

The E-Jet series (170/175/190/195) are definitely pretty roomy, especially with only a 2+2 configuration. It has been a major selling point that they give more space than a lot of mainline jets flying around. I guess at the end of the day we can reflect on any aircraft and be thankful it at least isn't flown by Spirit. :-)

My wife and 2 kids are flying to OKC this month and staying for a couple weeks. I can find plenty of good prices but what I am trying to find out is if there are any flights coming into OKC where the plane has three seats side-by-side. Keeping them together would be ideal for obvious reasons. The oldest is only 5. Any suggestions for flights?

Anything that is either a 737 or Airbus would work. The MD-80s will work as well as long as you put them on the right side of the aircraft (I think only TWA was revered at 3+2). So Southwest, Frontier, Delta, United, and American should all have something for you. You just need to send them through the proper connecting point. See the first post in this thread for aircraft types per route...it is still pretty accurate.

I am not seeing 737 or Airbus in the first post. What I am I missing? =)

Ooops. I used the codes for all of them. MD-80: M88 & M80... 737: 73G, 733... Airbus: 319

No, I mean Madison. Though now that I think about it, it was actually DFW to MSN. I had a larger plane, an MD-88 I think to DFW, then had an E-170 to MSN. The MD-88 was just salt on the wounds!

Well that makes more sense then. I knew we never had any nonstop flights from here to MSN. That American flight from DFW to MSN is actually 2 hours 10 minutes.

I accidentally posted this in the wrong thread..reposting: Flew on F9 Friday afternoon KOKC-KDEN and back yesterday. Full flight both legs. Impressed with F9 and their service. How can you not like the hot cookies? I believe I heard that F9 would be adding service to OKC. Rumor has it that F9/Republic may be taking over a large chunk of the flying for American Eagle in the near future. (This was told to me by a FA so take it for what it's worth).

Damon a lot of what is posted really doesn't make any sense. So i think some people are messing things up out there from what they are telling you.

1) Great that the flights were full, they haven't really been doing all that great here so that is good news.
2) The cookies are going away apparently.
3) F9 likely won't add much more to OKC from the way it looks. Florida flopped and most of the other major markets are already tapped.
4) Frontier has several dozen Airbus aircraft on order and won't be flying as a feeder for anyone.
5) Republic is working to spin F9 (Frontier) off right now. It isn't all that unexpected if they would pick up additional feeder contracts with American for American Connection service depending on labor agreements - aka the Scope Clause.

Again, this is from an FA headed back home, so take it for what it's worth. From what the FA told me, there is a good chance of increasing frequency to DEN with another F9 or Republic flight.

F9 won't be flying as a feeder for anyone, not with those size craft, but Republic will and apparently is taking in EMB-145's from Brazil.

Again, this is from an FA headed back home, so take it for what it's worth. From what the FA told me, there is a good chance of increasing frequency to DEN with another F9 or Republic flight.

F9 won't be flying as a feeder for anyone, not with those size craft, but Republic will and apparently is taking in EMB-145's from Brazil.

I would like to see their loads go up a bit before adding another flight to DEN. However they are going to go through a bunch of changes over the next year as they get spun off from Republic under the leadership of former US Airways CEO David Siegel. They've been picking up a bunch of ex-AirTran routes this week that Southwest discontinued. Don't be shocked to see something with Spirit come up.

Republic already has a ton of 145s at their Chautauqua subsidiary that flies for American, Delta, United, and US Airways. Their 145 agreement under the Frontier banner is ending. I doubt they will take on anymore 50-seaters. Most are completely out of production now as there are tons parked. They could find a way to land agreements to reactivate them, but nothing new will be delivered.

Flight crews are always great source of rumors, but unfortunately details get twisted around a lot and go contrary to reality.

^Not to beat a dead horse but I seriously doubt any airline would be taking more 50 seaters when most, if not all, airlines are taking them to the scrap yard since they're so fuel inefficient. That's a main reason why OKC and other airports that can support slightly higher-capacity jets are gettng the 70 and 90 seaters, including the very fuel-efficient turboprops.