Stillwater Regional Airport Still Pursuing Commercial Air Service

[OUman]

I know Ponca City and Enid had nonstops to/from Denver by Air Midwest or Big Sky Airlines (one of those "small-town" EAS carriers) with Swearingen III Metroliner turboprops, but that was way back in the day, mid-late 90s if memory serves well. After that, it's been only three airports in the state with scheduled commercial service. Nice to see Stillwater join that list.

Hope this one lasts for a while, it will be great for the international student population there as well, which I'm sure has grown quite a bit over the years.

[HOT ROD]

appears that the plane is based out of SWO given the overnight stay. ...

[catch22]

appears that the plane is based out of SWO given the overnight stay. ...

Likely a different airplane overnight.

[gopokes88]

http://m.ocolly.com/news/article_2af....html?mode=jqm

[gopokes88]

http://m.tulsaworld.com/business/aer....html?mode=jqm

[gopokes88]

Sounds like flights are going well. I've noticed lots of advertisements in around Stillwater for the air service as well.

[Bunty]

It's said Stillwater has two years to prove to American Airlines that it is a viable market for them. Surely nearby towns will help. http://www.stwnewspress.com/news/har...72ebff94a.html

[theanvil]

Looks like the Houston Rockets were re-routed to Stillwater because of the airport shooting in OKC yesterday.

[catch22]

Looks like the Houston Rockets were re-routed to Stillwater because of the airport shooting in OKC yesterday.

Strange to divert to SWO when TUL is much more capable of handling a diversion of that type.

[Bunty]

Strange to divert to SWO when TUL is much more capable of handling a diversion of that type.

They surely wanted to land the plane at the nearest available airport for the shortest bus trip to OKC. That's unfortunate that OKC only seems to have one airport able to accept a plane the size Houston Rockets were using.

[baralheia]

They surely wanted to land the plane at the nearest available airport for the shortest bus trip to OKC. That's unfortunate that OKC only seems to have one airport able to accept a plane the size Houston Rockets were using.

KPWA - Wiley Post Airport - actually has larger runways than KSWO - Stillwater Regional - and could easily accept the aircraft for landing. If I had to guess, KSWO was the closest diversion available with the equipment to handle a commercial jet. KLAW - Lawton-Fort Sill Regional Airport - could probably have handled the aircraft too, since American Eagle flies out of there.

[catch22]

Wiley Post does not have the runway weight capacity to handle a 757. The Operating Empty weight (no payload) exceeds the PWA Runway weight capacity for tandem-double wheel by nearly 25,000 lbs. (115,000 lbs OEW vs DDT 90,000 lbs)

[baralheia]

That's an important tidbit of information that I missed - I stand corrected.

[gopokes88]

http://www.fox23.com/news/fox23-inve...ghts/465400963

Read carefully, says flights have been full. Kinda a click baity article bring up lots of ifs and buts.

[Bunty]

http://www.fox23.com/news/fox23-inve...ghts/465400963

Read carefully, says flights have been full. Kinda a click baity article bring up lots of ifs and buts.

Lankford said “We can't continue to sustain programs that are economic development jumpstarts in communities where historically that program has not worked out in other communities most of the time,” So is it working out well in Manhattan, KS and Columbia, MO? If the federal government isn't putting up some of the money to subsidize empty seats, why should it try to be against such an arrangement? Anyway, I'm glad I never voted for Sen. Lankford.

[gopokes88]

Lankford said “We can't continue to sustain programs that are economic development jumpstarts in communities where historically that program has not worked out in other communities most of the time,” So is it working out well in Manhattan, KS and Columbia, MO? If the federal government isn't putting up some of the money to subsidize empty seats, why should it try to be against such an arrangement? Anyway, I'm glad I never voted for Sen. Lankford.

I like lankford, but if a city wants to invest in flight service they should be allowed too. And there's no way burns is going to let him push that through.

Without getting too polictical but if the Feds were subsidizing flights that's not cool, but a city I'm ok with. Sounds weird but I'm more ok with big city gov than big fed gov. Citizens have more control and ability to effect (affect?) a city than fed gov. Overall more power to cities, than states, than fed. Keep gov as local as possible.

[HOT ROD]

does American no longer have any prop jets?

I fear that the airplane may be too big and wonder if a daily prop would be easier to keep the service.

If SWO does eventually lose the service, OKC needs to jump on it and get scheduled bus service going between downtown Stillwater and OKC-WRWA.

[HOT ROD]

Looks like the Houston Rockets were re-routed to Stillwater because of the airport shooting in OKC yesterday.

Curious if the Rocket's 757 plane departed out of SWO or if it eventually flew to OKC after the restriction was lifted.


Also, weird that PWA is weight restricted when IT is the FAA designated reliever facility for Will Rogers. .... You'd think it should be able to handle most of the airplanes that WRWA is capable (757 would be middle-of-the-pack since OKC can handle widebodies up to a 747).

[Snowman]

Curious if the Rocket's 757 plane departed out of SWO or if it eventually flew to OKC after the restriction was lifted.


Also, weird that PWA is weight restricted when IT is the FAA designated reliever facility for Will Rogers. .... You'd think it should be able to handle most of the airplanes that WRWA is capable (757 would be middle-of-the-pack since OKC can handle widebodies up to a 747).

A lot of the relief is shifting the general aviation activity away from the airports with commercial flights, so they often do not have to cater to very large aircraft.

[catch22]

Curious if the Rocket's 757 plane departed out of SWO or if it eventually flew to OKC after the restriction was lifted.


Also, weird that PWA is weight restricted when IT is the FAA designated reliever facility for Will Rogers. .... You'd think it should be able to handle most of the airplanes that WRWA is capable (757 would be middle-of-the-pack since OKC can handle widebodies up to a 747).

There's simply no reasonable justification for spending the hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade the runway at PWA to handle commercial jets. I think upgrading Norman to handle larger jets would be a better use of funds, but that does not fall under the OKC Airport Trust. Norman has a better chance of actually attracting larger airplanes, and is far enough away from OKC that it would not be a duplication of services. PWA is literally only a few miles from WRWA, and WRWA has better access to downtown. There's really no reason a large aircraft would ever need to land at Wiley Post as the corporate/commercial traffic prefers WRWA for many reasons. Except, for strange operations that occur when airports shut down like what happened this week. Also, if this were another city located in a more geographical diverse area, the justification might exist because localized weather conditions may be poor at WRWA but clear skies at PWA, that very rarely happens in OKC. Usually the weather (the conditions which affect flight) are the same or similar no matter your location in the metro.

[baralheia]

does American no longer have any prop jets?

I fear that the airplane may be too big and wonder if a daily prop would be easier to keep the service.

If SWO does eventually lose the service, OKC needs to jump on it and get scheduled bus service going between downtown Stillwater and OKC-WRWA.

American (via Envoy Air) is flying the Embraer ERJ145 in and out of SWO; the ERJ145 has a seating capacity of 50. This puts it roughly in the middle between two very common turboprops formerly used in American's fleet - the ATR72 (~70 seats) and the Saab 340 (~34 seats). I'm not sure about total operating cost between the ERJ145 and a comparable modern turboprop on this route, however.

[pure]

They don't use the Saab 340 or the ATR-72 anymore, but they do have a Dash 8 w/ Piedmont Airlines. Looks cool with the new livery if you ask me.

[HOT ROD]

WHY?? do we have Wiley Post airport then? It seems to be a bit of a waste of space when WRWA is the preferred airport by far and (as Catch mentioned) Norman would be better utilized for transient traffic if you didn't use WRWA.

I always thought PWA would be a great location for an aircraft manufacturer or maintenance but even those and FBOs seem to only want to be at WRWA. So I ask, and am being honest, WHY do we have PWA? Is it time to shut it and CE Page down and focus resources?

[flyfisher07]

WHY?? do we have Wiley Post airport then? It seems to be a bit of a waste of space when WRWA is the preferred airport by far and (as Catch mentioned) Norman would be better utilized for transient traffic if you didn't use WRWA.

I always thought PWA would be a great location for an aircraft manufacturer or maintenance but even those and FBOs seem to only want to be at WRWA. So I ask, and am being honest, WHY do we have PWA? Is it time to shut it and CE Page down and focus resources?

PWA is meant to relieve GA(general aviation) traffic from Will Rogers, as is OUN given its reliever status. Given that PWA has 400 plus based aircraft (including 100 jets) based there and OUN has 100 plus aircraft I would say they're doing their jobs fairly well. OKC only has about 20k GA ops per year whereas PWA and OUN handle about 118k GA ops per year. That's not to say OKC can't have GA traffic because it does see some GA traffic due to its more convenient location for some businesses. If you'll remember, PWA used to have an aircraft manufacturer for a long time back in the heyday of aviation. And they currently have a decently sized aerospace maintenance/modification company out there now utilizing some of the old manufacturing facilities.

PWA can handle just about any aircraft in the GA fleet except for the BBJ type aircraft. To increase the strength of the runway to accommodate such aircraft would be outside the scope of what federal/state agencies could afford.....and the airport trust certainly isn't going to do it on their own dime. OUN is in a prime location to handle larger aircraft, but they're currently landlocked and can't handle much of an expansion in any direction.

[catch22]

Wiley Post certainly has a genuine function as a General Aviation and corporate airport. The flexibility offered from a general aviation airport cannot be matched by WRWA. WRWA, as the prime commercial airport of the area, is subject to much more strict security regulations that is a deterrent to GA traffic.

OU has adequate runway length, but also like PWA, it is the runway weight capacity which prevents larger movements. As traffic on I-35 between Norman and OKC continues to worsen with a growing population, OU and Norman may eventually be able to convince the deep pockets of town to invest in a runway strengthening program. OU afterall does charter quite a few commercial airplanes, and quite often their team is sitting in traffic on I-35. I used to work OU charters all the time when United still had its own people in OKC, and we would always have the plane waiting and the bus would be late to the airport due to traffic conditions. It really would be in OU and Norman's best interest to eventually spend the money to strengthen their runway. For now, OKC's metro airport system functions exactly how it should given how busy the region is.