2023 Oklahoma City Aviation Thread

[Plutonic Panda]

We have flown into and out of Long Beach and Santa Ana. Both great airports. Would love directs into there, but most of the connections there would be through Denver or phoenix.

Do you think there’s a chance OKC could ever get a direct connection to one of those airports? Even if it was Long Beach, I would be fine with that. I would just take the a line to 7th metro and then connect with the B line. Though I would prefer Hollywood Burbank. Hell I’d be happy with Ontario. Anything to not have to deal with LAX.

Maybe that experience will change the automated people Mover and K line station comes online. Currently I either use flyaway or Uber. It’s too much of a pain in the ass to use the metro rail right now.

[Soonerinfiniti]

At least there is non-stop to LAX. What about non-stop to Boston?

[warreng88]

Do you think there’s a chance OKC could ever get a direct connection to one of those airports? Even if it was Long Beach, I would be fine with that. I would just take the a line to 7th metro and then connect with the B line. Though I would prefer Hollywood Burbank. Hell I’d be happy with Ontario. Anything to not have to deal with LAX.

Maybe that experience will change the automated people Mover and K line station comes online. Currently I either use flyaway or Uber. It’s too much of a pain in the ass to use the metro rail right now.

Probably not anytime soon. We have direct flights to LAX and Phoenix, Vegas and Denver offer flights to Santa Ana and Long Beach multiple times a day so I would think they would stick to that for now.

I am not sure how the hierarchy of adding flights work, but I would guess all flights to LAX would have to be full and then the airlines would add more flights or maybe a larger plane and then they would look at expanding to direct flights to LGB or SNA.

[Celebrator]

At least there is non-stop to LAX. What about non-stop to Boston?

Hey, there's the correct term usage! Nonstop versus direct. I know I am a stickler on that, but there is a difference, folks. If you want to use the industry terminology, nonstop is the correct term for no stops to a destination. Direct means same plane service between two destinations, but there may be a stop[s] involved. Southwest does this the most often these days. I was on a direct flight to OKC from Steamboat Springs in June, with just a stopover in DEN. It was great! But if I said I was on a direct flight from Steamboat Springs (Hayden to be accurate) to OKC some people on here might call me a liar! Haha. I hope the term nonstop can catch on in our discussions about air service here. I know, I know, "Get a life, man", but I just like precision in communication, sorry.

[Anonymous.]

That terminology choice is just awful. I looked up the reason, and it is super dated and basically non-applicable to modern air transport.

The term “direct” became popular in the early days of commercial air travel, when propeller aircraft had to hop-scotch around the country, or even a region, in order to travel from point A to point B. They were marketed as “direct" services in that they flew between major destinations, stopping along the way for fuel or passengers, but required no plane changes or separate tickets.

Why doesn't the industry just change it to be Non-Stop and No-Change? That has actual clarification.

Is this another one of those "It has to be OAK instead of OKC because it always has been" things?

[s00nr1]

Breeze is discontinuing its TUL service and will be completely out of Oklahoma as of Nov 27.

[Richard at Remax]

Didn't those TUL-MSY flights literally just start up recently?

This is why they are struggling.

[BG918]

Didn't those TUL-MSY flights literally just start up recently?

This is why they are struggling.

Yep, I was at TUL when they had their "second" first flight in September. Breeze flew to MSY then canceled it, then brought it back and now canceled it again. I was booked on their Nashville flight in 2022 but it also was canceled before I could actually fly it. I like the strategy, which is similar to Allegiant and Frontier, but they need more consistency to gain any kind of following.

[damonsmuz]

Just listened to an interview with the CEO of Southwest on CNBC. He said they'll be cutting capacity by quite a bit for early 2024. Citing business travel has not returned to pre-Covid era.

[Richard at Remax]

From WRWA FB page:

You now have more options next summer with Southwest Airlines! Southwest has increased daily seasonal service to BNA; LAS has increased to 3x daily M-F; MDW increased to 2x on Saturday and Sunday’s and STL increased Saturday service to 2x. Thank you Southwest Airlines! #fly_okc

[chssooner]

From WRWA FB page:

You now have more options next summer with Southwest Airlines! Southwest has increased daily seasonal service to BNA; LAS has increased to 3x daily M-F; MDW increased to 2x on Saturday and Sunday’s and STL increased Saturday service to 2x. Thank you Southwest Airlines! #fly_okc

Not bad at all!

[Celebrator]

Not bad at all!

Yeah, those STL and MDW increased frequencies will make it easier for east coast connections for sure.

[chssooner]

Yeah, those STL and MDW increased frequencies will make it easier for east coast connections for sure.

Yep! Would be nice for Baltimore to start up again. Get that, EWR, and DTW, and, less likely, Boston, and then the east coast and eastern US is set for OKC.

[BG918]

Southwest doesn’t seem to be building up Baltimore in favor of other hubs. Is there construction, gates, landing slots or something else limiting growth there? BNA has really good East Coast connections and is a great connecting point for Florida especially the Gulf beach towns. I wish Southwest would add TUL-BNA now that Breeze has left (at least temporarily)

[gopokes88]

Southwest doesn’t seem to be building up Baltimore in favor of other hubs. Is there construction, gates, landing slots or something else limiting growth there? BNA has really good East Coast connections and is a great connecting point for Florida especially the Gulf beach towns. I wish Southwest would add TUL-BNA now that Breeze has left (at least temporarily)

SWA avoids hubs. If an airport starts being used that way expect them to cut service. Same reason they pull the OKC to dallas Love flights.

[gopokes88]

From WRWA FB page:

You now have more options next summer with Southwest Airlines! Southwest has increased daily seasonal service to BNA; LAS has increased to 3x daily M-F; MDW increased to 2x on Saturday and Sunday’s and STL increased Saturday service to 2x. Thank you Southwest Airlines! #fly_okc

The post above talked about Southwest cutting back in 2024, good to see we absorbed some.

[chssooner]

SWA avoids hubs. If an airport starts being used that way expect them to cut service. Same reason they pull the OKC to dallas Love flights.

They may not have hubs, but they have hubs. I mean, there are aboutn10 or 12 airports for them that are "focus" cities, which are basically hubs. They travel everywhere.

[gopokes88]

They may not have hubs, but they have hubs. I mean, there are aboutn10 or 12 airports for them that are "focus" cities, which are basically hubs. They travel everywhere.

Right but if too many pax on the route are connecting, they'll drop the route and allocate elsewhere. We literally watched them do it OKC to Love.

[chssooner]

Right but if too many pax on the route are connecting, they'll drop the route and allocate elsewhere. We literally watched them do it OKC to Love.

I know. I still think it's dumb they did that, but it fits their model (which, until last year, hadn't really failed miserably).

[Celebrator]

In this case, it was the start of DCA flights (and the pandemic, too) that killed BWI flights. The Congressional delegation undoubtedly fought hard for DCA flights and a midsize market like OKC could not command or sustain flights on the same airline to two airports in the same market. And I'm not sure the whole "avoiding hubs strategy" is as set in stone for Southwest today as it once was. No, they don't fly to some fortress hubs (like DFW and IAH) but they do at DEN, ATL, CLT, PHX, MSP, DTW, SFO, SLC, SEA and even ORD now. BWI is their own hub, and I haven't heard anything about them cutting ops there.

[gopokes88]

In this case, it was the start of DCA flights (and the pandemic, too) that killed BWI flights. The Congressional delegation undoubtedly fought hard for DCA flights and a midsize market like OKC could not command or sustain flights on the same airline to two airports in the same market. And I'm not sure the whole "avoiding hubs strategy" is as set in stone for Southwest today as it once was. No, they don't fly to some fortress hubs (like DFW and IAH) but they do at DEN, ATL, CLT, PHX, MSP, DTW, SFO, SLC, SEA and even ORD now. BWI is their own hub, and I haven't heard anything about them cutting ops there.

You're conflating 2 different things.

When SWA evaluates a route a they want a certain % of the pax to be direct, if it doesn't hit those metrics they cut the route.

The airports you listed are big enough the % of passengers meet their hurdles for direct flights. Turns into a de facto hub, but each route has to stand on its own.

[oktxatty]

That terminology choice is just awful. I looked up the reason, and it is super dated and basically non-applicable to modern air transport.



Why doesn't the industry just change it to be Non-Stop and No-Change? That has actual clarification.

Is this another one of those "It has to be OAK instead of OKC because it always has been" things?

Why change what is already easy to understand?

[Richard at Remax]

Massive cuts in Austin via AA. Bummer

https://onemileatatime.com/news/amer...ustin-flights/

[mugofbeer]

Massive cuts in Austin via AA. Bummer

https://onemileatatime.com/news/amer...ustin-flights/

This seems very odd considering Austin's explosive growth.

[chssooner]

This seems very odd considering Austin's explosive growth.

The article mentions how the growth seems to be slowing (at least based off the price of housing lowering precipitously). OKC-AUS is one of those "made for Southwest" routes. American is a hub and spoke airline, and Austin will never be a connector airport.