According to schedules on Orbitz, the 900 is coming back in September for flight 6383 at 2:55pm.

Yeah I know that is in there...but what I'm saying the fall schedule hasn't been loaded yet to my knowledge. I'll do some checking.

Oh man, all the abbreviations are killing me. Does HP stand for America West? How do they get HP from America West? And I don't know some of the 3-letter city abbreviations.

Anyway, I know less about this than most of you, but it seems to me that we are better equipped to be a hub than most cities. We are about to complete a $110 million reconstruction of our airport. There are future plans to expand even more, and no city is going to build a facility big enough for a hub until they know they're getting one. Also, not all hubs are in major cities. Salt Lake City has a very large airport only because it's a major hub for Delta. If not for that, it would likely be only the size of our airport. Salt Lake's MSA is smaller than ours I believe. They do have some extra traffic due to tourism, but only skiers for the most part. So basically OKC would be a hub where most of the traffic is just stopping here along the way to somewhere else, but considering how much cheaper our fares are (and would be), we might start getting a lot of people that normally would go to DFW. Of course that situation doesn't have a direct affect of bring more people into the city itself, but it will expose our underrated and overlooked city to many more people.

On another note, I recently (June 1st or 2nd I believe) travelled back to OKC on America West from Fresno, CA. Fresno is a smaller city and a smaller airport, but not that much smaller. They also have tourist traffic on the way to Yosemite (it's actually called Fresno-Yosemite Int'l). But the flight from there to Phoenix was maybe half full. The flight from Phoenix to OKC (on the same size plane) was full to the brim.

One thing to watch for going forward is the deal with the Wright Amendment concerning Love Field. Right now there are many travelers that take Southwest to OKC and do the Texas Two Step to be able to travel to cities outside the permitted W.A. area. If Southwest gets their way and the WA is abolished, Dallas is going to be exposed to new nonstops nationwide on Southwest. This in turn will reduce traffic on Southwest at airports like OKC, TUL, LIT, etc.

The key when talking about hubs is to remember, there is significant over capacity in the industry right now - at least in traditional markets. I agree with your assessment about SLC and how it fits in the world of hubs. It is the old Western hub...that Delta kept around. Southwest is also fairly large there, thanks to their purchase of Morris Air sometime back. The trend in the industry is reducing capacity and shutting unprofitable hubs. Delta shut DFW, America West axed CMH, US Airways cut PIT, etc. And yes you are right...a city is not going to spend millions on building a terminal with a ton of gates unless they have a guarantee from an airline to fill it. Lets not also forget the driving factor for hub cities is O&D traffic. As you pointed out an OKC hub would be mostly connecting traffic and little originating (O&D) traffic.

As far as the short hand...yes HP is the code for America West. That is what they were assigned...much like how Southwest got WN, Frontier - F9, and JetBlue - B6.

If you need any help with any of the city codes...just ask.

On another note, I recently (June 1st or 2nd I believe) travelled back to OKC on America West from Fresno, CA. Fresno is a smaller city and a smaller airport, but not that much smaller. They also have tourist traffic on the way to Yosemite (it's actually called Fresno-Yosemite Int'l). But the flight from there to Phoenix was maybe half full. The flight from Phoenix to OKC (on the same size plane) was full to the brim.


I think that is impressive. Hopefully OKC will be introduced more mainliners, especially once the merger goes through.

As for the Wright Agreement, dont count on it being reversed!!! American and its fortress will expend nothing lesss than $$$$ to protect its interests in town. But in all honesty, even if the Wright Agreement was modified or reversed, to allow longer range flights out of LUV, would it really have a detrimental impact?

Sure, WN would pick up on the O/D out of central Dallas but I think that would be it. WN does not operate a hub and spoke system, so there is no need to worry that LUV would set up a DFW style fortress at LUV. Besides, the local residents would not stand for that much noise, traffic, and pollution!!!

Great news for OKC, maybe we could put that Wright Agreement crap to rest and encourage WN to set up a minihub here!!!

LUV is only going to have 24 of the 32 gates at Love Field when all is said and done...so not really a big deal. The only effect I can see this having on Oklahoma City is a cut back of a couple flights. LUV has slowly been cutting flights back in OKC...not adding. Unfortunately as LUV has been building up their focus operations in BWI, MDW, MCO, BNA, etc...they have ignored adding n/s flights from OKC.