United, American, Delta, and Great Plains ran OKC-TUL at various times through history.

I flew Delta OKC-TUL one time in the 90's. It was the only time I walked into the airport in OKC and purchased a ticket at the check-in counter then flew to TUL about an hour later. If I remember correctly it was just under a 30 min flight that was part of a TUL-OKC-DFW routing. That was back when Delta was a big player at DFW. They had an odd-ball AMA-LBB flight too that operated DFW-LBB-AMA.

Delta Route Map from the 1990's
https://live.staticflickr.com/586/23780909326_011bd92ff1_b.jpg

And I flew Great Plains once TUL-OKC-COS. We stopped in OKC and some people got on and off. I'm surprised more airlines don't have a stop in either city on their way somewhere else. I've long thought this could work for connecting OKC and TUL to cities like New York JFK, Boston, Toronto, etc that may not have enough demand for a single city but would for OKC and Tulsa combined.

With these new routes announced. How many passengers(pre-pandemic) were flying from OKC to San Antonio? New Orleans? Tampa?

EMB-190 will be a new equipment type for OKC. I don't think we've ever had that regularly serviced to here before.

I’ve flown them on KLM a few times, comfortable plane.

With these new routes announced. How many passengers(pre-pandemic) were flying from OKC to San Antonio? New Orleans? Tampa?

EMB-190 will be a new equipment type for OKC. I don't think we've ever had that regularly serviced to here before.

Frontier used them in 2009-2010 for their OKC-TPA/MCO route, and they also appeared on OKC-DEN. No different than an E175 from an interior perspective. Same airplane just stretched (think 737-700 to 900)

Off the top of my head. OKC-SAT and TPA were around 65-80 passengers per day each way. MSY was the lowest around 50.

They will clearly need to stimulate the markets.

Now we wait to see how other airlines respond to Breeze. The legacy carriers may not care much since AA and United run hubs through DFW and IAH. The only airline that may do something about Breeze would be Southwest. Will they bring back DAL or open up new routes to SAT and New Orleans ? Time will only tell I guess...

Will Southwest or Delta try Austin?

Will Southwest or Delta try Austin?

I think one of the two will start flights within the next couple years. Likely Delta which would probably use the E-170 potentially the A-220 if demand is there. I’d rather see 2x daily E-170 vs 1x A-220

I think one of the two will start flights within the next couple years. Likely Delta which would probably use the E-170 potentially the A-220 if demand is there. I’d rather see 2x daily E-170 vs 1x A-220
I agree with your last thought 100%.

As an airplane nerd I’d love to get some A-220 routes. Haven’t seen any here in OKC aside from the occasional DFW divert

Now we wait to see how other airlines respond to Breeze. The legacy carriers may not care much since AA and United run hubs through DFW and IAH. The only airline that may do something about Breeze would be Southwest. Will they bring back DAL or open up new routes to SAT and New Orleans ? Time will only tell I guess...

I think it would have to be daily service and last for more than 6 months before any of the other airlines will give it a second thought.

OKC and Tulsa both getting daily service to Austin on American Airlines. OKC’s flights begin October 7th and will be on either an Embraer 175 (yay!) or a Boeing 737. Tulsa’s flights begin in November.

This is a chance to see if the route is actually viable on a real carrier. Provided the times are decent it should do fine for them. Probably an E175. AA is providing monster coverage in OKC. Tremendous.

This is a chance to see if the route is actually viable on a real carrier. Provided the times are decent it should do fine for them. Probably an E175. AA is providing monster coverage in OKC. Tremendous.I really like the E175. Good ratio of first and MCE, which are generally all I'll fly. I wish AA would change out our CRJ-700 and CRJ-900 flights to E175s.

Odd that the airport website still has not posted April or May statistics.

Another great service add! Wonder if AA brings back the Philly flight?

On another note, AA has been sending alot of 321s in from DFW and CLT...seats in/out of OKC have sure been increased.

I saw the other day that Delta sent an A321 from ATL to OKC. Previous slots had it as 717. Not sure if the 717 had issues or if Alabama softball and FSU were on the flight so they upgauged it. Either or, cool.

Press release:

************

American Airlines Announces Nonstop Service to Austin – Bergstorm International Airport

OKLAHOMA CITY, June 10, 2021 – American Airlines announced today that it will begin nonstop service from Oklahoma City’s Will Rogers World Airport to Austin – Bergstorm International Airport in Austin, Texas (AUS) beginning October 7, 2021.

With Dell, Inc’s headquarters located in Austin and OKC home to Dell Technologies, this new nonstop service will serve the business community well. “This is great news for Oklahoma City,” says Mark Kranenburg, Airports Director. “Austin is one of our largest markets without nonstop service and a popular destination for both leisure and business travelers. We appreciate American’s commitment to our community by adding this great market for our passengers.”

“We’re eager to add new service from Oklahoma City to Austin, giving local customers another choice for their travel plans,” said Brian Znotins, American Airlines Vice President of Network Planning. “We look forward to welcoming more Oklahomans back to travel with American to experience all that Austin has to offer, as well as further connecting them to our global network.”

With the addition of Austin, Texas, nearly every American Airlines hub is served nonstop from Will Rogers World Airport. As of today’s announcement, American’s nonstop destinations from WRWA will include Dallas/Ft. Worth, Austin, Chicago, Charlotte, New York LaGuardia, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Ronald Reagan Washington National. The new service will bring the average number of daily departures by American to 21.

The new Austin service will operate once daily utilizing the Embraer 175 aircraft offering two-classes of service. The current schedule is as follows*:

AUS to OKC
Departs 4:20pm
Arrives 5:51pm

OKC to AUS
Departs 6:30pm
Arrives 8:00pm
*Times may vary slightly


Flights go on sale Saturday, June 14 and may be booked through aa.com.

Press release:

************

American Airlines Announces Nonstop Service to Austin – Bergstorm International Airport

OKLAHOMA CITY, June 10, 2021 – American Airlines announced today that it will begin nonstop service from Oklahoma City’s Will Rogers World Airport to Austin – Bergstorm International Airport in Austin, Texas (AUS) beginning October 7, 2021.

With Dell, Inc’s headquarters located in Austin and OKC home to Dell Technologies, this new nonstop service will serve the business community well. “This is great news for Oklahoma City,” says Mark Kranenburg, Airports Director. “Austin is one of our largest markets without nonstop service and a popular destination for both leisure and business travelers. We appreciate American’s commitment to our community by adding this great market for our passengers.”

“We’re eager to add new service from Oklahoma City to Austin, giving local customers another choice for their travel plans,” said Brian Znotins, American Airlines Vice President of Network Planning. “We look forward to welcoming more Oklahomans back to travel with American to experience all that Austin has to offer, as well as further connecting them to our global network.”

With the addition of Austin, Texas, nearly every American Airlines hub is served nonstop from Will Rogers World Airport. As of today’s announcement, American’s nonstop destinations from WRWA will include Dallas/Ft. Worth, Austin, Chicago, Charlotte, New York LaGuardia, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Ronald Reagan Washington National. The new service will bring the average number of daily departures by American to 21.

The new Austin service will operate once daily utilizing the Embraer 175 aircraft offering two-classes of service. The current schedule is as follows*:

AUS to OKC
Departs 4:20pm
Arrives 5:51pm

OKC to AUS
Departs 6:30pm
Arrives 8:00pm
*Times may vary slightly


Flights go on sale Saturday, June 14 and may be booked through aa.com.

Saturday is the 12th. do we know if it's saturday or the 14th (monday)?

Saturday is the 12th. do we know if it's saturday or the 14th (monday)?

The sent a revision that changed the date to Monday, June 14th.

I wonder what this route addition means for a return of MIA service. Will MIA return by the end of the year or will it wait until next summer?

I would expect all destinations to return. PHL will probably be the slowest and most dependent on Europe openings.

Southwest Airlines is adding service between OKC and New Orleans and Tampa beginning September 12.

The schedules kind of suck as it’s weekends only through end of October/early November, so I’ll be sticking with Breeze, but good to have extra service!

I didn’t expect AA to start this service but pretty cool nevertheless. E175 is the perfect plane to start 1x then maybe upgauge to 2x.

Hopefully TUL can pick up some additional AA adds now with the recent addition of PHX and return of LAX. LGA, MIA and PHL would be good. With the Mx base they can run half empty planes heading in for repairs. I know they used to do this with MIA several years ago.

Southwest Airlines is adding service between OKC and New Orleans and Tampa beginning September 12.

The schedules kind of suck as it’s weekends only through end of October/early November, so I’ll be sticking with Breeze, but good to have extra service!

Where did you see this, or are you just looking at the Southwest website?

Southwest Airlines is adding service between OKC and New Orleans and Tampa beginning September 12.

The schedules kind of suck as it’s weekends only through end of October/early November, so I’ll be sticking with Breeze, but good to have extra service!

Leave it to Southwest to show ZERO interest in expanding OKC until someone else does, then they suddenly add routes the exact same routes to squash the competition.

Yep. What a crock.

Yep. What a crock.

It’s the same game they play with their entire existence. They made fun of the legacy carriers in their advertising for years for flying into busy, expensive, crowded airports; opting to serve the cheaper alternative airports, or ignore entire regions altogether. Then, when they finally see how much money they are leaving on the table, they come in and demand preferential treatment and take advantage of the infrastructure other airlines have funded to improve those busy airports. They crapped on UA and AA for years about the ORD experience; but guess who is starting service at ORD and complaining that they can’t get all the gates they want? Same thing at Hobby and IAH. I bet we’ll see them serve DFW at some point also; despite being in court for 30 years insisting that they be the only carrier to serve Love Field. They have to be one of the most stubborn companies in existence.

I wonder what this route addition means for a return of MIA service. Will MIA return by the end of the year or will it wait until next summer?MIA is operating now. It came back a few months back if I recall correctly. I was watching for it and LAX to return because of upcoming trips.

Leave it to Southwest to show ZERO interest in expanding OKC until someone else does, then they suddenly add routes the exact same routes to squash the competition.I've been looking at Southwest's schedule lately and it appears that MCO (Orlando) is Sat Sun non-stop from OKC but M-F has a one-stop no plane change option. I have an upcoming trip to Orlando in February and trying to decide whether to go ahead and book on AA (we normally fly one of the legacy carriers) or wait for Southwest's schedule to come out. I wouldn't necessarily mind a non-stop flight on SW if it was non-stop, but our trip isn't Sun - Sun. But we are planning on Sunday departure from OKC, so that would work. But on the return there is a one-stop no change plane flight during the week. I wonder what the chances of SW keeping that flight when they extend the schedule? Should I wait to book until SW extends through February and see if this option is available? If not, I'll be booking on AA.

MIA is operating now. It came back a few months back if I recall correctly. I was watching for it and LAX to return because of upcoming trips.
You're right. I must've missed it.

Southwest Airlines is adding service between OKC and New Orleans and Tampa beginning September 12.

The schedules kind of suck as it’s weekends only through end of October/early November, so I’ll be sticking with Breeze, but good to have extra service!

If they had started before Labor Day they could pick up some of the OU passenger traffic heading to the Tulane game on Sep 4

It's great adding all these routes but until the prices come down at OKC i'll look else where for flights. I don't fly much but used Tulsa and Wichita way cheaper. Why is OKC so expensive?

^^^. Demand ? ^^^

Love AA

OKC- MIA had been suspended since August, but just returned on June 1st. This route, I believe, is the single best addition to OKC’s air service in the last several years. You can have your “toes in the sand” in just three to four hours after takeoff.

I really like the E175. Good ratio of first and MCE, which are generally all I'll fly. I wish AA would change out our CRJ-700 and CRJ-900 flights to E175s.



Totally agreed! I'm happy the LAX nonstops are back, but it's quite obnoxious that both dailies are now on CR7s instead of the E75s which are 1 million times more comfortable.

It's great adding all these routes but until the prices come down at OKC i'll look else where for flights. I don't fly much but used Tulsa and Wichita way cheaper. Why is OKC so expensive?

Cool

American is within shouting distance of southwest.

https://www.flyokc.com/sites/default/files/May2021Enplanement.pdf

May of 2019 had 209,000 enplanements. So we’re about 75% of the way back to pre pandemic levels.

https://www.flyokc.com/sites/default/files/News/May2020Enplanement.pdf

With the growth in routes and strong months, it’s feasible 2022 is larger than 2019 passenger wise.

https://simpleflying.com/portland-opportunities-alaska-airlines/

With a renewed focus on PDX, and to take connecting pressure off of SEA; it wouldn't be a huge surprise to see Alaska add OKC-PDX.

It appears that OKC-SEA has matured enough over the past 6 years to reliably and profitably fill a 737 to SEA. I notice they are running 900s lately (their largest type). Any expansion in OKC will likely not be feasible in their maxed-out SEA operation. A second frequency to SEA leaving OKC in the morning would be terrific, but there is nowhere for them to put it in the schedule. An E175 departing OKC for PDX at 630am with a 8am arrival would be a great option to give AS some sort of a morning schedule in OKC; this would be an ideal flight time for local traffic on the route, and early enough to facilitate connections to SEA or points north (PAE, YVR, BLI). I'm not necessarily betting on it, but the circumstances may line up as they pursue increased market share in Portland; and dealing with a full SEA.

PDX is the last west US connection we’re missing right?

Denver, Vegas, Phoenix, salt lake, LA, SF, SEA all covered. Is SD considered a major destination?

PDX is the last west US connection we’re missing right?

Denver, Vegas, Phoenix, salt lake, LA, SF, SEA all covered. Is SD considered a major destination?

Yep. SAN is actually a much larger market than PDX in terms of passenger demand from OKC. Frontier flew SAN a few summers ago, but that seems unlikely to return. So SAN and PDX to the west. Really just BOS to the east is the last realistic east coast city, assuming AA resumes PHL and starts LGA. OKC is pretty well covered these days.

Yep. SAN is actually a much larger market than PDX in terms of passenger demand from OKC. Frontier flew SAN a few summers ago, but that seems unlikely to return. So SAN and PDX to the west. Really just BOS to the east is the last realistic east coast city, assuming AA resumes PHL and starts LGA. OKC is pretty well covered these days.
Huge thanks to AA for that. Absolutely insane the amount of coverage they’ve added.

https://www.faa.gov/airports/airport_rescue_grants/media/20210622_ARP_Allocations.pdf

OKC Receives $17.9 million FAA COVID-19 relief grant.

Other commercial airports:

TUL, $13.8 million
LAW, $1.3 million
SWO, $1.2 million

Anyone know why WN has dropped BWI? It doesn't even appear as "suspended" on the WRWA website; it is simply not there. Surprising since it is their main East Coast hub that feeds their mid-Atlantic and New England stations. We used to always fly through there (even last year in the middle of the pandemic) to connect to MHT each year. Now we have to go through MDW instead. Is this where they are deciding to send their East Coast traffic because they are serving DCA from OKC now, giving them a presence in the DC/Baltimore area already? Just curious.

Not sure. They have stretched themselves too thin at the moment. They are cancelling hundreds of flights a day to crew availability. They added a ton of new flying this year, and you have to fund that flying by reducing in existing markets or adding airplanes. This year they are doing both.

Anyone know why WN has dropped BWI? It doesn't even appear as "suspended" on the WRWA website; it is simply not there. Surprising since it is their main East Coast hub that feeds their mid-Atlantic and New England stations. We used to always fly through there (even last year in the middle of the pandemic) to connect to MHT each year. Now we have to go through MDW instead. Is this where they are deciding to send their East Coast traffic because they are serving DCA from OKC now, giving them a presence in the DC/Baltimore area already? Just curious.

WN will drop any route that's used as a hub too, as we saw with OKC-LUV

Tonight: Flew the AA A319 from CLT and it was full. On a side note, I noticed Allegiant flying out at 12:25am to LAX. I thought for sure this was a delayed flight and that it was supposed to take off sooner, but it wasn't. That's it's original flight time. It lands at LAX at 1am. Who are they trying to target with a flight time like that? After midnight departure from OKC?

People who are fine with a redeye if it saves a few bucks. Given how high some prices are this summer I can see the allure

By looking at the equipment type (A320) and only about 25 people in line to board, it doesn't seem like OKC is a market that has the demand for "red-eye". Plus, wouldn't a "red eye" flight be one that departs the night before and lands in the morning? Technically, this is just a "late flight." Departs at midnight and arrives at 1am.

Well a couple other explanations. One, a Wednesday flight might just have fewer travelers than normal. Two, if you track the inbound flight it came from LAX so this could also just be a positioning flight for the following day and they might as well get a little bit of revenue on it. Those late night flights into LAX have lower gate fees than getting a gate there during the main rush-hour.

At one point America West had a flight that left OKC and arrived in LAS at around 11:30 in their respective time zones. America West used Vegas as a midnight hub so you could even connect there for flights that left around midnight in Vegas (probably best for west coast travelers taking a redeye east). I guess it was a way to squeeze revenue out of every minute of the day.

I wish we had more redeyes from here. Didn't even know about that one.

Hey, on the L.A. end, at least you presumably wouldn't have to deal with traffic getting to your final destination in SoCal! That might be worth it alone! Being a night owl and a loather of bad traffic, I would seriously consider this option. But it's certainly not for everybody (probably most everybody) but might be worth one of their $63 one way fares, though.

Personally, I would absolutely take a $63 redeye, then a fly-away shuttle from LAX to Union Station, and then the Dodger Stadium Express from there to catch a day game. And if possible be on a flight back that night (not that I wouldn't stay longer, just saying fitting such a thing into a weekend would be awesome).

Personally, I would absolutely take a $63 redeye, then a fly-away shuttle from LAX to Union Station, and then the Dodger Stadium Express from there to catch a day game. And if possible be on a flight back that night (not that I wouldn't stay longer, just saying fitting such a thing into a weekend would be awesome).

I'd love to do a trip like that, too!

Yep. SAN is actually a much larger market than PDX in terms of passenger demand from OKC. Frontier flew SAN a few summers ago, but that seems unlikely to return. So SAN and PDX to the west. Really just BOS to the east is the last realistic east coast city, assuming AA resumes PHL and starts LGA. OKC is pretty well covered these days.

Think I flew that SAN a few times either via Frontier or some other line (?express jet? Northwest air charters?) Seems like SAN would get a lot of business, Miramar and Scripps are right there. I don't see the allure of PDX but I am not their target visitor most likely.

Glad AA is catching Southwest in terms of volume.

Personally, I would absolutely take a $63 redeye, then a fly-away shuttle from LAX to Union Station, and then the Dodger Stadium Express from there to catch a day game. And if possible be on a flight back that night (not that I wouldn't stay longer, just saying fitting such a thing into a weekend would be awesome).

Why not take a 7am flight that arrives in LAX at 8am. You can be at Dodge stadium by 10am. What is the importance of arriving at 1am?

Why not take a 7am flight that arrives in LAX at 8am. You can be at Dodge stadium by 10am. What is the importance of arriving at 1am?

Nothing good happens anywhere at 1am. Just take the 7am flight, you are right Catch.