Quote Originally Posted by catch22 View Post
The city, state, nor the airlines, have any control over Customs and Border Patrol staffing. There is a good probability that if OKC or TUL got an international Mexico flight, it would still have to land in DFW on the way up to clear customs because of the CBP electing to not staff an immigration facility at either airport. The city can build a facility that meets the requirements (really it is just segregated walkways leading to a document check room, a separate baggage claim, and some other security features to ensure that passengers and bags are separated from the non-international area of the airport until they have cleared). There's nothing special about it, but it does need to be in a specific configuration. I doubt they would even purchase or setup any equipment (as needs change through the years). So really OKC's "international" facility is nothing more than unfinished space that would be built out in the event CBP staffed a immigration facility at the airport. Tulsa's will be the exact same: a configured, but unfinished space.

In the event OKC or TUL landed a Canadian flight, it would preclear customs in Canada and would not need to use any of the international facilities at OKC or TUL.
Is the OKC one attached to the terminal? I feel like I've seen discussions on it in the Will Rogers thread but can't find any pictures/site plan of where it is and how it interacts with the main terminal.

I would be curious what the international numbers are to destinations if you totaled up OKC, Tulsa, NWA, Joplin/Springfield, and Wichita. Just given the size of the facility being built in Tulsa it's hard to see anything more than a summer time few days a week service similar to how they operate flights to Destin and other vacation areas like 2x a week once a day part of the year or something like that.

I'd imagine there's enough demand regionally, question is would a direct flight to Cancun or Mexico City from either Tulsa or OKC be much cheaper than booking one with connections in Texas if they could land at least once a day flight for everyday of the week. That you could convince people to drive to either from other cities instead of booking a connecting flight from say NWA - DFW - Mexico City. The layover probably isn't that much more time than you're added time to drive to Tulsa or OKC from Wichita or NWA etc.