2018 Oklahoma City Aviation Thread

[Laramie]

If we could ever get an international flight system established into WWRA; we have Tulsa and Wichita which would probably be a better alternative drive to OKC than to St. Louis, Dallas or Kansas City.

[BG918]

If we could ever get an international flight system established into WWRA; we have Tulsa and Wichita which would probably be a better alternative drive to OKC than to St. Louis, Dallas or Kansas City.

Doubtful, people in Tulsa and Wichita would just use DFW or ORD as they do now. Only exception would maybe be a LCC like Wow Air to Iceland. I know some people who are driving from Oklahoma to KC for the Icelandair flight this summer.

[Laramie]

nm double post...

[OUman]

I think one international flight alone would be a miracle here haha. Best bets as have already been pointed out are either Mexico City, Cancun or somewhere in Canada (either Toronto or Calgary). Back in the day when Champion Air (yes, that long back) ran charter 727s between OKC and CUN I recall the flights were fairly popular. I think Champion did twice-weekly service. I believe it also had nonstops to Puerto Vallarta for a small period before it went out of business. The obvious issue back then of course was that the terminal at OKC did not have customs/immigration facilities, but it looks like that will not be an issue now once the east side terminal expansion gets done.

WOW is actually starting Iceland flights at DFW this Spring, as is Icelandair (interestingly enough the Icelandair announcement came just weeks after WOW's did). I'm guessing that pretty much eliminates OKC as a contender for WOW's service.

[gopokes88]

Emirates to Dubai is a possibility, as Dubai sorta functions as the worlds hub.

[tillyato]

I would think WOW is still a possibility. They fly to a number of smaller markets, and recently announced service to St. Louis and Kansas City.

[Jeepnokc]

I would think WOW is still a possibility. They fly to a number of smaller markets, and recently announced service to St. Louis and Kansas City.

Almost makes sense to hit markets without non stop flights to Europe. I have looking at them online thinking about a trip. Out of OKC...I have to take 2 flights minimum to get to Europe. With WOW...still two flights but breaks up the flight about halfway which is preferable to me.

[OUman]

A far-out possibility but WOW is starting thrice-weekly flights between DFW and Iceland this May, so I doubt it will add OKC to its network when it's already starting flights at an airport just a couple hundred miles away. Icelandair will also be starting flights at DFW with four times a week service. Now stranger things have happened and it would be awesome if OKC gained even a twice-weekly nonstop to Europe, but the odds are not that high.

I'm wondering exactly how many passengers fly to international destinations from OKC on average on a daily basis. I would bet that Kansas City and St. Louis have better international passenger counts than OKC does.

As for Emirates starting service, you can pretty much count that out also. EK has already cut back on flights to/from the U.S. last year due to tourist numbers dropping. The Big 3 U.S. carriers have been calling for greater transparency from the Middle East carriers since there have been accusations of them receiving unfair subsidies for expansion, especially to the U.S. Recently, the U.S. signed an agreement with Qatar which called for transparency of Qatar Airways' revenues and such. On the same subject, AA discontinued its oneworld codesharing agreement with Etihad, and as a result Etihad will be ending service at DFW this year. So things are kind of shaky at the moment as far as any new service goes with the Big 3 Middle East carriers.

[BG918]

A far-out possibility but WOW is starting thrice-weekly flights between DFW and Iceland this May, so I doubt it will add OKC to its network when it's already starting flights at an airport just a couple hundred miles away. Icelandair will also be starting flights at DFW with four times a week service. Now stranger things have happened and it would be awesome if OKC gained even a twice-weekly nonstop to Europe, but the odds are not that high.

I'm wondering exactly how many passengers fly to international destinations from OKC on average on a daily basis. I would bet that Kansas City and St. Louis have better international passenger counts than OKC does.

As for Emirates starting service, you can pretty much count that out also. EK has already cut back on flights to/from the U.S. last year due to tourist numbers dropping. The Big 3 U.S. carriers have been calling for greater transparency from the Middle East carriers since there have been accusations of them receiving unfair subsidies for expansion, especially to the U.S. Recently, the U.S. signed an agreement with Qatar which called for transparency of Qatar Airways' revenues and such. On the same subject, AA discontinued its oneworld codesharing agreement with Etihad, and as a result Etihad will be ending service at DFW this year. So things are kind of shaky at the moment as far as any new service goes with the Big 3 Middle East carriers.

The only US destination I see the ME3 starting service in the near future is DEN. Otherwise they have the country well-covered and as you mentioned it's pretty contentious.

[tillyato]

American is also starting a nonstop daily to KEF starting in June as a response to the new WOW and Icelandair routes, so DFW is going from 0 to 3 carriers on that route in the next couple of months...

[stjohn]

Emirates to Dubai is a possibility, as Dubai sorta functions as the worlds hub.

LOL what? Smallest plane Emirates flies is a 777. 300+ passengers flying from OKC to Dubai? Even DFW only has one daily.

[BG918]

American is also starting a nonstop daily to KEF starting in June as a response to the new WOW and Icelandair routes, so DFW is going from 0 to 3 carriers on that route in the next couple of months...

I remember people were surprised when I told them I was flying nonstop to Reykjavik from Denver in 2013. Now it seems all the large cities and even places like Kansas City and Pittsburgh have flights to Iceland. Crazy.

[Jeepnokc]

I remember people were surprised when I told them I was flying nonstop to Reykjavik from Denver in 2013. Now it seems all the large cities and even places like Kansas City and Pittsburgh have flights to Iceland. Crazy.

I have several friends in CT that fly up to Reykjavik often for boy's weekends. Suppose to be a great place for weekend trips.

[HOT ROD]

Reykjavik is positioning itself as the reliever hub for flights to Europe; in competition to London Heathrow, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam. It actually makes sense since Island is roughly half way to nearly every major destination in NA or Europe so why not take advantage and get some tourism out of it. ...

I wish OKC had this thought back in the late 1970's with regard to Will Rogers WORLD Airport; that OKC is in the center of the country - equidistant to most major US cities so why not build a DFW style airport to capitalize on our geography. Back then OKC and DFW were not too much different.

[BG918]

Reykjavik is positioning itself as the reliever hub for flights to Europe; in competition to London Heathrow, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam. It actually makes sense since Island is roughly half way to nearly every major destination in NA or Europe so why not take advantage and get some tourism out of it. ...

I wish OKC had this thought back in the late 1970's with regard to Will Rogers WORLD Airport; that OKC is in the center of the country - equidistant to most major US cities so why not build a DFW style airport to capitalize on our geography. Back then OKC and DFW were not too much different.

That ship sailed when Dallas and Ft Worth agreed to build a joint airport, and was a major driver in making DFW one of the largest and wealthiest metros in the country. The biggest "missed opportunity" in our region is when Austin built a new airport at Bergstrom AFB instead of a joint Austin/San Antonio airport outside San Marcos. That would likely be a legitimate hub with the combined metros at nearly 4 million.

[PhiAlpha]

That ship sailed when Dallas and Ft Worth agreed to build a joint airport, and was a major driver in making DFW one of the largest and wealthiest metros in the country. The biggest "missed opportunity" in our region is when Austin built a new airport at Bergstrom AFB instead of a joint Austin/San Antonio airport outside San Marcos. That would likely be a legitimate hub with the combined metros at nearly 4 million.

I don't know how feasible a San Antonio/Austin combined airport would've been. The city centers of Dallas and FTW are 30 miles from each other. Austin and San Antonio are 80 miles apart. San Marcos wouldn't be that far for people that live in each city center or between them, but it would be a pretty big hike from the north and east side of Austin or the south and west sides of San Antonio. It would be more similar to throwing an OKC/TUL airport in Stroud than DFW being located in Grapevine. I'm sure it could've been done, but it seems like a stretch.

[stjohn]

Never would have worked. Austin and San Antonio are more than twice as far apart as Dallas and Fort Worth, and DFW only happened because the FAA forced it. San Antonio would NEVER have agreed to having their primary airport in San Marcos, 50 miles from downtown.

[damonsmuz]

Stillwater will be adding a 3rd flight in June to DFW on AA that will leave Stillwater in the evening. According to AA they are doing this to relieve congestion out of OKC. I'm not sure about that explanation because Ive been under the impression that Stillwater flights have been doing well. But whatevs

[sooner333]

Stillwater will be adding a 3rd flight in June to DFW on AA that will leave Stillwater in the evening. According to AA they are doing this to relieve congestion out of OKC. I'm not sure about that explanation because Ive been under the impression that Stillwater flights have been doing well. But whatevs

Maybe it means that Stillwater doesn't have to guarantee as much revenue for the third flight?

[OUman]

Don't mean to extend the Austin-San Antonio airport discussion but I've read that residents of San Antonio and Austin had that idea pitched to them by the FAA of all entities (back in the '70s or so when the City of Austin started looking at alternative sites for an airport) but few Austinites supported driving halfway to San Antonio for a flight. This information is referenced as coming from The Daily Texan on Austin Bergstrom's Wikipedia page, and it sounds legit.

This might sound like I'm an AUS cheerleader but it's just my enthusiasm for aviation and the growth of traffic at AUS is pretty insane. AUS has climbed to almost 14 million annual passengers, has more than 200 daily nonstop departures (about 260 on average) to about 70 cities, has at least a couple daily flights to non-hub and not-typical hubs (in most cases, between Southwest, Allegiant and Frontier multiple daily flights), in addition to your "usual" hubs. Delta and SAS will be operating special charters for SxSW to/from Amsterdam and Stockholm respectively, and starting this Spring, AUS will have 10 weekly flights to London. BA is actually upgrading to a 747-400 this summer, while Norwegian will start 3X weekly service with a 787-9. Condor will be increasing its summer-seasonal service to FRA to thrice weekly this year. And Frontier's mad expansion at AUS continues, it just announced 14 cities in addition to the ones it's already announced last year (granted, they're mostly seasonal, but still that's crazy). And you're getting an east concourse expansion with nine additional gates, three of which can accomodate widebody jets for international flights. That gives AUS a 34 gate terminal, and if trends continue even that will not be enough. It's a good thing AUS has re-opened the South Terminal for Allegiant, Sun Country and now Via Air. Keep in mind that the Big 3 carriers have been either adding routes or flights, or added larger aircraft. So while there's no actual hub airport for Austin and San Antonio combined, I think things have turned out pretty well and AUS consistently keeps beating its own passenger records.

I would be ecstatic to have half of that at OKC, but we're definitely moving in the right direction, let's hope the momentum keeps going this year.

p.s. Some statistics have the Austin-Round Rock metro population at 3 million by 2030 or so, which if it holds will add millions more to the airport passenger counts.

[BG918]

Growth at AUS has been impressive, too bad it’s not currently connected to OKC and TUL (until ViaAir starts but it’s not daily service).

[OUman]

Just a heads-up for any aviation enthusiasts/people working at the airport, Atlas Air has a 747-400F coming in from ANC (Anchorage International Airport) today, if it's on schedule then it will be coming in at 12:12p.m. Should be pretty cool to watch.

[LakeEffect]

Just a heads-up for any aviation enthusiasts/people working at the airport, Atlas Air has a 747-400F coming in from ANC (Anchorage International Airport) today, if it's on schedule then it will be coming in at 12:12p.m. Should be pretty cool to watch.

Hmmmmm. Now I know what I might do for lunch.

[OUman]

^Keep in mind I said "if it's on schedule" - showing more than 3 hours late now. Hopefully you can still go out and watch it!

[HOT ROD]

saw that Alaska Airlines is mainline now. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/ASA9443