WRWA Phase III on hold

[Patrick]

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 "

[Patrick]

Here's my reply to Karen:

"Karen,

Thank you for the detailed information on Phase III. I can understand that at the present time demand doesn't meet the need for Phase III, but I hope the original plans aren't dropped altogether. As with MAPS, our city needs to keep with it's progressive thinking and stick with the thought "build it and they will come." Obviously we don't need the extra space right now, but we probably will in the near future, especially as more low cost carriers enter the market.

I actually know several officials inside America West, and I will tell you in confidence that they are using OKC as a test market. Will this lead to a possible hub in OKC? Well, don't rule it out. Continue to think big. It's obvious that America West wants to expand eastward, and in order to do that they will need a central hub. St. Louis, KC, Dallas, Houston, and Chicago are already filled. OKC is in a great location to possibly land a central hub for a smaller airline, like America West, that is wanting to expand. What we need to do as a city, and what the airport trust needs to do is to continue to market our city to these up and coming airlines, pushing agressively, and using agressive marketing tactics to get them here.

America West has all of the options on the table right now. Locating a new central hub is not out of the question. They're also looking into possibly taking over US Airways to open up the east market. What our airport trust needs to do is agressively encourage America West to choose the former option, making them realize they're a fast growing airline, whereas US Airways is sinking in debt.

Thanks again for the information, and thanks in advance for working on the airport's website. I hope to see changes soon.

Patrick, moderator, www.okctalk.com"

[mranderson]

Whenever I hear or read something like this delay, I wonder why I had the bad luck to be in a city that is so lame and closed minded.

Nearly every major city in the country are improving their commercial airports and building more gates than they need at the present. What they are doing is planning for the future.

Funny thing. A financial planner or other professional will advise you to plan for your future... However, when it comes to the city officials, they refuse to take that advise. Seems two faced to me.

In addition. The Boy Scout motto is "plan ahead." A lot of people need to take that lesson... Especially this city. Before you know it, Oklahoma City will be caught with "it's pants down," and egg on our face.

[Pete]

Thanks for the update, Patrick.

Since Phase III was part of the original budget, are they just planning to sit on the extra money now? Seems like if they had it allocated and they are already in full construction mode, it would be more efficient to build it now than to completely stop then start up again -- not to mention the ever-increasing cost of materials and labor.

I have the bad feeliing that once this project stops, it will never start again.

[John]

Not surprised...

I just wonder what is being done with the money that was apportioned for the east wing.

[Patrick]

Thanks for the update, Patrick.

Since Phase III was part of the original budget, are they just planning to sit on the extra money now? Seems like if they had it allocated and they are already in full construction mode, it would be more efficient to build it now than to completely stop then start up again -- not to mention the ever-increasing cost of materials and labor.

I have the bad feeliing that once this project stops, it will never start again.

I'll ask Karen what's being done with the money that was budgeted or the east wing.

Her reasoning for not completing the concourse would be that we already have 3 empty gates in the existing terminal, thus there's no need to create a new concourse at the present time. She probably feels that the East Concourse would simply sit empty, possibly for years! See the pessimistic thinking in that. Yeah, some would say it's reality, but I say it's simply pessimism.

[ErnieBall]

I'm sure America West would find it hard to justify making OKC a hub without existing gate capacity in place to accommodate them. The trust doesn't want to build the new east concourse without commitment from an airline (presumably America West) that the gates will be used. Sounds like a self-perpetuating problem to me.

[mranderson]

I'm sure America West would find it hard to justify making OKC a hub without existing gate capacity in place to accommodate them. The trust doesn't want to build the new east concourse without commitment from an airline (presumably America West) that the gates will be used. Sounds like a self-perpetuating problem to me.

This is the EXACT reason we need that east concourse NOW and not when they feel like building it. In additon, we need to plan a second terminal opening onto SW 104, to accomodate America West when they DO declaire Oklahoma City a hub.

[ErnieBall]

This is the EXACT reason we need that east concourse NOW and not when they feel like building it. In additon, we need to plan a second terminal opening onto SW 104, to accomodate America West when they DO declaire Oklahoma City a hub.

I agree, but I don't see it happening considering how conservatively the trust in playing their hand. It's unfortunate that we don't have more visionary people in leadership positions that would be willing to take the risk.

[JOHNINSOKC]

Perhaps the city council and city manager should take over the entire operation so the vision will be the same at the airport as it is with the rest of the city. Right now, the airport situation is keeping this city from realizing its full potential. No matter what we've done so far or what we are planning to do economically, we will not get the kind of companies we need to locate here if we continue to lack air service to major cities across the country. If AW establishes a hub here, it will open up a whole new world for OKC and really put this place on the map. We've already addressed Downtown, now the next major overhaul is the airport.

[mranderson]

Perhaps the city council and city manager should take over the entire operation so the vision will be the same at the airport as it is with the rest of the city. Right now, the airport situation is keeping this city from realizing its full potential. No matter what we've done so far or what we are planning to do economically, we will not get the kind of companies we need to locate here if we continue to lack air service to major cities across the country. If AW establishes a hub here, it will open up a whole new world for OKC and really put this place on the map. We've already addressed Downtown, now the next major overhaul is the airport.

This is the reason I am considering running for city council. Representing ward five would give me a lot of control over all the airports in Oklahoma City.

[metro]

mranderson, I was just curious, what made you change your mind to run, i know at one point you were talking about saving up and moving to Cali. If you need any political advice, let me know as you know i'm tuned into the local scene and ran myself in Bethany. Thanks

[OUman]

A second terminal is not needed, WRA's passenger traffic cannot grow that big in that short of a time. But the east concourse should be built sooner, I agree with that.

Besides, the new terminal's design allows it to be expanded big time, you would be able to add tons more gates before you would need to build a completely new terminal.

OUman