2018 Oklahoma City Aviation Thread

[gopokes88]

https://flyokc.com/sites/default/fil...nplanement.pdf

[gopokes88]

That’s a huge number even when taking out frontier.

[damonsmuz]

Wow! Great numbers in what is traditionally a slow month for flying. Nice way to start the year. And good for Frontier. The is certainly demand for an ULCC carrier here and given the way Frontier likes to toss around flights means they may be more inclined to add a few more oddball flights here.

Your turn Alaska. What say you?? PDX???

[HOT ROD]

Wish List for Alaska Airlines:
1) upsize the SEA-OKC flight to mainline first,
2) then add PDX via Horizon regional. (can be simultaneous btw)
3) add'l frequencies to the aforementioned as the market matures (would love to have a red-eye SEA-OKC mainline; proof that 'you've made-it' as an airport)
4) add un-served options E of OKC.

[whatitis]

Looking at the Will Rogers Map of Non Stop Cities. The 4 biggest ones missing I see are New Orleans, Boston, Portland, Miami. I could see Alaska adding New Orleans. Allegiant flies so much Around florida they could add Miami/Ft Lauderdale. Looking at their route map allegiant flies quite a bit in and out of New Orleans so they could add either one.

Boston is great for international flights. A lot of ULCC fly out of boston logan so that would be a nice addition but I don't know who would take it.

[Richard at Remax]

I have to go to Austin in early May, what are the chances that the ViaAir service makes it off the ground. I probably wouldn't take the flight there due to the schedule, but the flight back would be perfect.

[Jeepnokc]

Looking at the Will Rogers Map of Non Stop Cities. The 4 biggest ones missing I see are New Orleans, Boston, Portland, Miami. I could see Alaska adding New Orleans. Allegiant flies so much Around florida they could add Miami/Ft Lauderdale. Looking at their route map allegiant flies quite a bit in and out of New Orleans so they could add either one.

Boston is great for international flights. A lot of ULCC fly out of boston logan so that would be a nice addition but I don't know who would take it.

Would love to see MSY added. New Orleans is building a new terminal which will add 35 gates next year. Currently they serve 57 cities non stop but most (not all) look to be bigger markets than OKC. Spirit added four new non stops last year and is adding a seasonal to Columbus Ohio in March 2018.

It would be torture for me to have a non stop to one of my favorite cities (NOLA) on an airline (Allegiant) that I refuse to fly due to cancellations and safety concerns.

[whatitis]

Would love to see MSY added. New Orleans is building a new terminal which will add 35 gates next year. Currently they serve 57 cities non stop but most (not all) look to be bigger markets than OKC. Spirit added four new non stops last year and is adding a seasonal to Columbus Ohio in March 2018.

It would be torture for me to have a non stop to one of my favorite cities (NOLA) on an airline (Allegiant) that I refuse to fly due to cancellations and safety concerns.

Haha yeah I've never flown allegiant, but I've flown spirit a lot. it's not a great experience but I also just do non stop flights. usually 2 or 3 hour flights. so even while not terribly enjoyable for under 3 hours I can make it work.

[BG918]

Looking at the Will Rogers Map of Non Stop Cities. The 4 biggest ones missing I see are New Orleans, Boston, Portland, Miami. I could see Alaska adding New Orleans. Allegiant flies so much Around florida they could add Miami/Ft Lauderdale. Looking at their route map allegiant flies quite a bit in and out of New Orleans so they could add either one.

Boston is great for international flights. A lot of ULCC fly out of boston logan so that would be a nice addition but I don't know who would take it.

I wouldn't put it past Frontier to try something like OKC-FLL or OKC-MSY, if they are doing well on their other flights. Allegiant tried TUL-MSY a couple years ago but it didn't last very long. It's another one of those perfect regional routes Southwest would dominate if they had a smaller plane than the 737, something like an E-175. That would be perfect for MCI, AUS, SAT, BNA and MSY.

[catch22]

Allow me throw this wildcard out there for New Orleans service.

Silver Airways out of Florida is the NA launch customer for the new ATR 600's. They begin to receive 20 of them in April. Some will replace the Saab 340 fleet, but others may be slated for some expansion. I have heard rumors that New Orleans could possibly become a base for some of those ATR's. OKC, TUL, MEM etc. would be likely markets if they did in fact go that route.

Not holding my breath, but I am interested in their next plans. They are a great little airline with solid operating history. I've flown them before when they were a United Express carrier. They are no longer the UA brand but they are managing quite well in this cut throat industry.

[OUman]

It's actually the ATR 42/72-600. Judging from the "46 seats" that the ATRs will have according to Silver Airways' website, it's going to be mostly the ATR 42-600 that replaces the Saab 340Bs that the airline currently flies (the deal is for 16 ATR 42-600s and four ATR 72-600s). And the new planes will be replacing the entire fleet of Saabs the airline currently flies (which makes sense) so I'm thinking initially all of the ATRs will be used for existing Florida and Caribbean routes. It had plans to start service between New Orleans and both, Birmingham and Jacksonville back in 2015 but then dropped those. I'm also hoping Silver Expands westward with a new base, MSY does seem like a good fit for such service.

I have flown in the ATR 72-500, great aircraft especially for a turboprop. Having flown in the Dash 8-Q400, the ATR beats the Dash hands-down in my opinion. The ATR is roomier, feels and sounds a lot more like a jet and no vibrations in the cabin. The Q400's cabin (not really "Q" from my experience) vibrates in-flight, the props have a continuous drone (not the case in the ATR) and in general is just not a pleasant ride.

The ATR 42/72 is an ideal aircraft actually for routes like OKC-MSY and even OKC-AUS. It's much more fuel-efficient than an RJ on the same distance and is basically just as fast in terms of flight time.

[damonsmuz]

I agree with what you said about the ATR. Back in my ASA days we had a ton of ATR's. The cargo was in the front so you entered from the rear. Overall liked how roomy it was on the inside.

[OUman]

^Wow, cool that you worked for ASA! I recall ASA had many ATRs based at ATL, and some at the DFW hub at its peak. I think they were the variant -200 though, which had the four-bladed prop instead of the six-blade props the -500 and now the -600 do. I didn't fly in any of ASA's ATRs but did fly in American Eagle's ATR 72-200 when it had essentially what amounted to a shuttle service with those things back in the late '90s (American and American Eagle had a combined 14 or so flights a day to DFW in those years!). Have to admit, the -200s were quite a lot noisier and slower though, I remember the only flight I had in those from DFW to Oklahoma City took about 1 hour, when I took the -500 down it took about 37 minutes, same as a jet.

[Buffalo Bill]

I have to go to Austin in early May, what are the chances that the ViaAir service makes it off the ground. I probably wouldn't take the flight there due to the schedule, but the flight back would be perfect.

Supposedly starting up April 22nd.

https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/n...-off-more.html

[s00nr1]

Yeah, those January numbers are eye-opening. I'd be interested to see what AA's actual LF's are on all of their flights now that they've seemingly added a decent amount of capacity.

[Plutonic Panda]

http://journalrecord.com/2018/02/15/...form=hootsuite

[Plutonic Panda]

https://apnews.com/amp/f220b4b464a04...mpression=true

Another article about preparing for international flights.

I don’t know if way finding signage project has gone up yet, but it seems now it’s take so long to get this done, technology has already improved to fully LED wayfinding signs that could chosen instead. Obviously a higher cost, but worth it.

[catch22]

Airlines are finalizing early summer schedules this week and next, I'm watching the summer schedules closely for any changes.

Here's a good one: United will begin mainline service to Chicago-ORD on June 7 with an A319. Will remain 4x daily, (1x 319, 3x E75)

[HOT ROD]

OMG! YES!

OKC has made it finally in the business world - the return of mainline to ORD again. and still keeping the 3 regionals to boot - a very nice boost...

[catch22]

Reading this in the airport trust meeting this week. On the surface it sounds like Field Aerospace is wanting to expand their operation? I believe They are Hangar 84 LLC.

https://agenda.okc.gov/sirepub/view....fileid=3966720

[catch22]

Also throw this in the rumor basket. I was talking to a SkyWest flight attendant the other night on my way home and she mentioned that there's a strong rumor of a SkyWest crew domicile opening up in OKC. Not sure if just f/a or if a pilot base would open up too. With the amount of SkyWest flying in OKC it would make sense, as at some point the cost of overnighting so many crews can cost more than the administrative cost of basing crews here.

[Bellaboo]

Also throw this in the rumor basket. I was talking to a SkyWest flight attendant the other night on my way home and she mentioned that there's a strong rumor of a SkyWest crew domicile opening up in OKC. Not sure if just f/a or if a pilot base would open up too. With the amount of SkyWest flying in OKC it would make sense, as at some point the cost of overnighting so many crews can cost more than the administrative cost of basing crews here.

Maybe due to the maintenance facility being built ?

[HOT ROD]

best shot at a hub in OKC

[OUman]

Maybe due to the maintenance facility being built ?

If I'm not mistaken, I think it has more to do with the number of crews staying overnight in Oklahoma City before returning to work for flights the next day.

Also, there are crew domiciles in cities that are not hubs, so having a domicile doesn't necessarily mean you're getting a hub. But it's good for jobs and potential pilots/flight attendants. Catch22 will know more though but that's just from what I gather.

[catch22]

OUman correct. SkyWest for example might overnight 10 trips a night here, each flight has 4 crew. So that is 40 rooms a night they have an agreement with some hotel for. Assume they have a contract rate of $85 a night. That's $1.2 million a year in lodging alone in OKC. By making OKC a crew base, they can make OKC the start and end of a crew's trip, thus not needing hotels here. The crew would live here just like anyone else. The administrative cost to run a crew base isn't terrible expensive, but it is probably around $1 million a year or more. So I'm not sure if it is likely to happen, although it would give them some added flexibility in order to use the maintenance base to rescue a flight somewhere else (for example a maintenance delay in Wichita will result in the crew there timing out, they could dispatch an airplane and a crew from OKC to Wichita to save the flight).

Like I said, just a rumor I heard that is going around! Aviation industry is full of rumors that people start in the hope they come true!