2017 Oklahoma Commercial Aviation Discussion

[no1cub17]

That will be interesting if it happens. Flying ALASKA Airlines from OKC to Dallas.

Haha - that's not unusual at all. Most of AS's routes don't even touch Alaska - they have an extensive network within the lower 48 and to Mexico.

[BG918]

Haha - that's not unusual at all. Most of AS's routes don't even touch Alaska - they have an extensive network within the lower 48 and to Mexico.

I know. It's less odd when Alaska connects the West Coast to inland cities but inland cities to...other inland cities is just strange. But I welcome the competition and more options.

Then again I flew Southwest from Portland, Maine to Baltimore a couple summers ago and that was about as far from the southwest as you can get in the Lower 48..

[OUman]

If you read the article, AS is going to start nonstops between Love Field and west coast destinations. I highly doubt Alaska will start DAL-OKC, WN has that covered pretty good. Besides, with 18 daily departures Virgin America/Alaska have both their gates at full capacity, and Southwest will not be giving up any more of its own gates. And I think the new terminal is restricted from adding any more under a clause.

[catch22]

July and August AA will run a 3rd daily to CLT. 2x CRJ9 1x CRJ7

This has been extended Sept and Oct. likely permanent.

[gopokes88]

This has been extended Sept and Oct. likely permanent.

Sweet

[no1cub17]

Wow - most DFW-OKC flights cancelled today. My wife and I rented a car - otherwise the next available seats were tomorrow night. What a mess!

[sbs]

Southwest has officially began its 1x week nonstop to MCO on Sundays. If anyone has any info on load factors I would be interested.

[no1cub17]

This has been extended Sept and Oct. likely permanent.

Wow - didn't realize AA was doing this well to CLT. Would be nice to get another link to DC or NYC but this is better than nothing!

[BG918]

Wow - didn't realize AA was doing this well to CLT. Would be nice to get another link to DC or NYC but this is better than nothing!

I bet a good chunk of that traffic is going to DC, NYC or Boston. Otherwise you only have 1x Dulles and Newark on United and 1x Baltimore on Southwest.

[s00nr1]

I bet a good chunk of that traffic is going to DC, NYC or Boston. Otherwise you only have 1x Dulles and Newark on United and 1x Baltimore on Southwest.

Would be much happier seeing one of those flights to CLT going to PHL instead. Hopefully that happens sometime in the next year or two.

[catch22]

August 27, 2017 Alaska will switch to Horizon Air for the E175 to Seattle. Same aircraft type and configuration, different operator.

I'm building May 2017's departure and capacity tables right now, Alaska is already completely sold out on several flights several weeks out. Not sure when or if they will ever add capacity to OKC. Flight to SEA seems to have been selling very well ever since it started. But no capacity bump in 2 years of service. Meanwhile, OMA (which started a year before OKC) got upgauged to a 737-800 to SEA, got an E175 to PDX and SAN. Alaska already did several huge rounds of expansions with the Virgin America merger and OKC got nothing -- they must not be too impressed with the OKC market, or are just content having a token presence.

[BG918]

Would be much happier seeing one of those flights to CLT going to PHL instead. Hopefully that happens sometime in the next year or two.

Yeah a 1x PHL in place of the 3rd CLT non-stop would be nice for NE and International connections on AA. Even better would be a 1x LGA or JFK but that's more of a long shot.

I wonder if AA would ever try a 1x or 2x OKC-PHX? Southwest owns that market but AA offers a good amount of West Coast connections and it's a decent O&D market.

[catch22]

Here is April, up slightly.

http://www.flyokc.com/statistics/Apr...nplanement.pdf


Detailed April 2017 OKC Market Data:





Load factors:

[BG918]

Southwest Top 20 markets (by departures) - OKC has non-stops to the ones in bold

So the only Top 10 holes:
- LAX (doubtful as they would compete with AA, United and Allegiant, TUL-LAX more likely)
- ATL (Southwest already tried this after the AirTran merger and ended it, would be great to see competition with Delta on this key route)
- OAK (how is United doing with OKC-SFO? This could be a nice alternate option for the SF Bay Area)

I bet we would see MCI, BNA and AUS served if Southwest had smaller planes but the 737 is too big for these regional routes, at least right now.

FLL would be a great add to connect to the growing number of international/Caribbean destinations being served out of there, and provide OKC with a link to S Florida.

1. MDW - 242
2. BWI - 223
3. LAS - 216
4. DEN - 200
5. PHX - 181
6. DAL - 180
7. HOU - 157
8. LAX - 130
9. ATL - 125
10. OAK - 121
11. MCO - 117 **not daily
12. STL - 104
13. SAN - 102
14. BNA - 95
15. TPA - 82
16. SJC - 76
17. MCI - 76
18. SMF - 70
19. AUS - 65
20. FLL - 63

[gopokes88]

http://www.flyokc.com/statistics/May2017Enplanement.pdf

Pretty good month. Sounds like we're through the worst and will return to growth.

[catch22]

Southwest is discontinuing OKC-MDW in January.

[s00nr1]

Southwest is discontinuing OKC-MDW in January.

Ouch!

I had a chance to take the OKC-MCO nonstop this past Sunday and spoke with the gate agent for a bit about it. She said rumor is this route will be discontinued soon and won't be returning due to poor performance (there were approximately 50 empty seats on my flight). Really unfortunate as that is a much better option to get to Orlando for conferences.

[catch22]

Ouch!

I had a chance to take the OKC-MCO nonstop this past Sunday and spoke with the gate agent for a bit about it. She said rumor is this route will be discontinued soon and won't be returning due to poor performance (there were approximately 50 empty seats on my flight). Really unfortunate as that is a much better option to get to Orlando for conferences.

No surprise. Southwest didn't seem very committed to it to begin with. They never announced it and never really made a big effort of getting awareness for it.

[LakeEffect]

Southwest is discontinuing OKC-MDW in January.

Just for winter, or entirely?

[catch22]

They say it is a seasonal discontinuation, but there is no reinstatement date like some other routes.

In airline lingo, seasonal discontinuation is the "it's not you, it's me" of route drops.

[OUman]

What a shocker. Orlando has never been successful for OKC, even DL Connection tried and failed. If memory serves correctly I believe only Champion Air flew somewhat successful service to/from MCO (charters). Orlando's supposedly one of our "Top 15" destinations but go figure.

BWI started out as Sat-only but has become a daily, even saw some -800s scheduled for the summer season on that route.

[HangryHippo]

Just an aside as I flew on a CRJ700 today - would it be so terrible for airlines to provide slightly wider seats? My god.

[OUman]

Just an aside as I flew on a CRJ700 today - would it be so terrible for airlines to provide slightly wider seats? My god.

I've found the Canadairs have had slightly narrower seats than the Embraers. Of course it also depends on what regional carrier you're flying also. Then again, the trend over the last decade has been toward narrower seats and less seat pitch, even in widebodies. The airlines are squeezing in one extra seat in both, the 787s and 777s (across), so you end up with 9-across in the 787 Y-class, and 10-across in the 777 Y-class. And now Airbus is considering 11-across in the new 380 "Plus". I guess the "Plus" stands for that additional seat in a layout that would be 3-5-3 LOL.

[BG918]

Ouch!

I had a chance to take the OKC-MCO nonstop this past Sunday and spoke with the gate agent for a bit about it. She said rumor is this route will be discontinued soon and won't be returning due to poor performance (there were approximately 50 empty seats on my flight). Really unfortunate as that is a much better option to get to Orlando for conferences.

I wonder if SW would rather send traffic through STL adding a 3rd daily nonstop? I had heard that is what they planned to do on the TUL-STL route. TUL-MDW was also recently cancelled. Surprising in that Midway is Southwest's largest hub and offers a ton of connections especially to the Midwest and Northeast but it's also growth-restricted while STL has plenty of room to grow with a good number of connections.

Regarding Orlando there is still daily nonstop service to nearby SFB on Allegiant. For the price sensitive family/Disney crowd that is probably a better option. Oklahoma-Florida has been tried many times and for whatever reason isn't successful.

[shawnw]

I don't trust allegiant. 4 hrs before a flight to vegas they cancelled the flight with no explanation. I couldn't find any indication of weather that would have caused a cancellation vs a delay. This was on a Thursday. Next outbound flight was Sunday, so weekend Vegas trip ruined.