I know this could've gone with the Airport Thread, but I thought the news was worthy enough to start a new thread. Looks like our dreams of having Will Rogers World Airport completed as planned will be put on hold, possibly indefinitely. The Airport Trust has no current plans to finish Phase III. Construction will stop at Phase II. This means the East Concourse will not be constructed anytime soon, if ever. Again, this is your airport trust at work for you. Thinking as small as they can possibly think.

At least she does leave some light open.....she says they'd be happy to build a new concourse for America West if they chose to hub here.

Here's the response I got from Karen Carney verifying this:

"Patrick,

In our original planning, we fully anticipated beginning construction of Phase III (the east concourse) at the completion of Phase II. Several things have changed since that time.

In our original plan, TWA was still in existence and leased two gates and a ticket counter space. When American acquired TWA, they did not take any of the space that TWA had leased. Also at the time of planning, Great Plains airlines leased a gate and ticket counter space. This airline has since gone bankrupt. That leaves the concourse with three available gates and the terminal with three ticket counter spaces at the completion of Phase II. In addition, the climate in the airline industry today is to maximize gate utilization and ticket counter space versus leasing more space as they have done in the past.

Three gates would allow any one airline to operate a significant number of daily operations if they chose to do so. Three gates would also serve several low-fare carriers. Once we see that we are nearing filling the remaining capacity of the building we will begin Phase III.

At this point in time, America West has not indicated to any airport employee or Trust member plans to open a hub here. Since opening a hub it is a significant process and investment, it would be unusual if they didn't announce their plans to the airport well in advance. Of course, if they do announce plans we will definitely work to accommodate their needs, including building the east concourse if needed.

Karen "