2018 Oklahoma City Aviation Thread

[gopokes88]

Yes and yes. They don't have the same leakage to a nearby hub like we do to DFW, and thus have a larger catchment area to themselves. Also, business demand is a fair bit stronger in OMA.

It also services pretty much all of Nebraska as well.

[brianinok]

I don't know what OMA's passenger numbers were in 2017 but in 2016 they were 4.4 million. OKC was just under 4.0 million in 2017. If we can keep growing, OMA's service that we don't currently have is something we can look to as realistic for our airport to try to bring to OKC over the next couple years. At least, that's what I would think.

[BG918]

It also services pretty much all of Nebraska as well.

Omaha is the hub for a large hinterland of farming communities in Nebraska and western Iowa, around 2.5 million people between the two. Lincoln is the only other decent airport with daily flights to ORD, DEN, MSP & ATL. There are a few EAS airports like North Platte, Grand Island and Kearney.

The business community there drives a lot of demand, it's somewhat similar to XNA in that regard. Our neighbors in NW Arkansas have daily nonstop service to DFW, IAH, SFO, LAX, LAS, DEN, ORD, EWR, LGA, DCA, CLT, SFB, MSP, CVG and ATL.

[catch22]

I'm curious if there will be any ramifications to getting 2 daily to PHL.

Reduced service to ORD, or changing the CLT Airbus flight back to an RJ are some thoughts I have. I hope not but even with good growth that is quite a bit of extra capacity.

[HangryHippo]

Catch - do you think AA is getting close to adding MIA from OKC? Karen Carney mentioned it as a desired destination in a video on NewsOK. She also said the two destinations they’re working hardest to land are LGA and DCA.

[catch22]

Catch - do you think AA is getting close to adding MIA from OKC? Karen Carney mentioned it as a desired destination in a video on NewsOK. She also said the two destinations they’re working hardest to land are LGA and DCA.

I'm not sure. They've got a lot of new routes this year in their system. They may not have the aircraft to add much.

[damonsmuz]

Per the AA schedule we will lose the mainline service to CLT come June. The flights will be operated on a CRJ900. This must be a ramification of the new PHL service.

[catch22]

Per the AA schedule we will lose the mainline service to CLT come June. The flights will be operated on a CRJ900. This must be a ramification of the new PHL service.

Everything after May is a dummy schedule.

[Eef062]

I recently flew to Nashville on SWA thru BWI & drove back. The door to door travel time was about the same. Although the numbers of passengers on this route is modest per the "thread" data, I suspect some of this reflects the long travel time for air. This creates a Catch 22 where long travel time suppresses reservation numbers, which would increase were a short flight available. There are shorter connections thru DFW on AA or Houston Hobby, but if missed for any reason, who knows when the "next available " might be? Considering the growth of Nashville, its tourist attractions, Vanderbilt Medical tertiary center & other attractions, I suspect 1-2 nonstop flites, even MWF, might be used if the option existed. It would also offer another connection option on SWA or AA. Anyone hear any rumor of potential nonstops?

[catch22]

^^^^^

Induced demand is a real thing in the airline world, although they call it "market stimulation".

Southwest would be the best bet for Nashville. I don't see it as a likely addition anytime soon though.

[catch22]

Via Air reduces Austin to 3x weekly for March.

So far haven't seen or heard any advertising, I would be surprised if they even start service to be honest.

[catch22]

OKC-PHL is loaded for sale this morning but don't look at the prices! The revenue system lags the schedule and is confused by the new service so it places a premium on it. I imagine when the office jockies punch in tomorrow they will load in the proper fare buckets.

[gopokes88]

http://www.oklahoman.com/article/558...o_redirect=yes

HOLDING PATTERN
Saturday, January 20, 2018 | by Jack Money

Related Photos

Photo - This illustration provided by the Oklahoma City Airport Trust shows what a planned expansion of the terminal at Will Rogers World Airport will look like when finished. [RENDERING PROVIDED] Photo - Mark Kranenburg, director of airports for Oklahoma City, discusses a passenger facility charge airlines collect from many of the travelers who pass through Will Rogers World Airport. [Photo by Steve Sisney, The Oklahoman]
+1
Photo - Improvements made to the baggage handling system are shown at Will Rogers World Airport. [Photo by Steve Sisney, The Oklahoman]
Flyers know all about passenger facility charges.

What they may not know, however, is that a pending budget measure in the Senate proposes to allow airports to nearly double that fee.

Commercial airline passengers pay the charge as part of their airline ticket costs.

The charge, currently capped at $4.50 per airport, is collected by the airline or airlines a traveler uses at the first two airports he or she passes through as part of a trip.

Airlines return the money to the airport where the charge is levied for the airports' use to help pay for projects enhancing the movement of passengers and bags through their facilities.

Airport administrators generally back the proposed charge increase to a maximum of $8.50 per ticket included in Senate Bill 1655, the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2018.

The act was approved by the Senate's Appropriations Committee in late July but has not been voted on by the full chamber.

That maximum amount only could be charged at an originating airport, likely only by some of the nation's largest ones, officials said. The fee charged at the second airport would be limited to $4.50, under the proposal.

Mark Kranenburg, Oklahoma City's director of airports, said he supports the increase. He said Congress authorized a passenger facility charge in 1992, and authorized its increase to the current $4.50 maximum in 2000.

"We all have increasing needs for capital improvement programs to maintain and develop our airports, and there's only so much federal money to go around," he said. "So the passenger facility charge is a huge part of the airport's capital business for most of the commercial service airports using the charge."

Granted, the proposal isn't getting much interest during the current federal budget debate. There is some opposition, though.

Airlines for America, an organization that represents commercial passenger carriers, issued a news release this week announcing a Stop Air Tax Now campaign that criticizes the plan, saying it would be an added tax on travelers that airports don't need.

OKC's uses

Kranenburg said one only needs to travel through Will Rogers World Airport to gain some understanding of how passenger facility charge money is used.

He points to various projects the airport has completed with the help of bonds backed by the charge's revenue stream, including a major makeover of the terminal concourse in 2006 and the overhaul of its baggage handling system a couple of years ago.

He said 90 percent of that project was funded by the Department of Homeland Security, and that the Oklahoma City Airport Trust paid the remainder using passenger facility charge revenues.

"That greatly improved our ability to handle bags here at Oklahoma City as they go from ticket counters through screening by the Transportation Security Administration on their way to departing aircraft," he said. "We now have a redundant security system we didn't have before, and it's much more efficient and fast.

"We had a record week (the final week of 2017) during the last holiday, where we processed more than 34,156 bags."

Kranenburg said the trust also replaced its Will Rogers fire station in the 1990s using bonds backed by passenger facility charges, and also used it to replace fire trucks.

Kranenburg said the trust will use revenues from the charge in future years to back about 73 percent of a pending $88 million project to expand Will Rogers' terminal. Work to design that expansion nearly is complete, and Kranenburg said the trust hopes to bid the project before the end of 2018.

A key part of the project redesigns the terminal's screening portal to speed the flow of passengers and guests into the airport.

He said it also initially will add three gates on the terminal's east end for domestic aircraft and one gate to handle a wide-bodied jet capable of flying to international destinations. It will have a larger ramp, a larger hold room and also space meeting U.S. Customs requirements for international passengers.

The design also includes plans to expand the terminal again later.

"The initial construction plans, we believe, would serve the airport well for the next 10 to 15 years. We don't want to overbuild."

The trust, the government body that runs Will Rogers and Oklahoma City's other airports, estimates it will get $7.2 million during the current fiscal year through passenger facility charges.

"We are talking about local dollars helping to build local projects," Kranenburg said. "Everything we are doing is leaning forward to getting more air traffic to Oklahoma City.

"Without that fee, we would have to charge the airlines for the projects, and that would drive up costs for them and could potentially hurt air services."

[no1cub17]

This is awesome! Philly, aside from JFK, might be the largest need filled at Will Rogers in a while. It opens up Europe on a new scale for us Oklahomans.

Any other destinations on the horizon?

OKC-PHL is loaded for sale this morning but don't look at the prices! The revenue system lags the schedule and is confused by the new service so it places a premium on it. I imagine when the office jockies punch in tomorrow they will load in the proper fare buckets.

Question for you - looks like both outbound OKC-PHL flights will serve meals in F. Does AA use local catering out of OKC or will the flights be double-catered? I love the E75 - such an amazing F to Y ratio!

[catch22]

Question for you - looks like both outbound OKC-PHL flights will serve meals in F. Does AA use local catering out of OKC or will the flights be double-catered? I love the E75 - such an amazing F to Y ratio!

Every carrier does round trip catering to OKC. There is no flight kitchen or provisioning here for any carrier.

For United, we had refrigerators where we would take the galley carts out of the overnight aircraft and store the contents in. In the morning, the carts would be rebuilt and stocked with ice and then placed back on the aircraft before boarding. We were not even allowed to stock water bottles or soda, those had to be round trip catered.

[HangryHippo]

Every carrier does round trip catering to OKC. There is no flight kitchen or provisioning here for any carrier.

For United, we had refrigerators where we would take the galley carts out of the overnight aircraft and store the contents in. In the morning, the carts would be rebuilt and stocked with ice and then placed back on the aircraft before boarding. We were not even allowed to stock water bottles or soda, those had to be round trip catered.

Catch - do you no longer work for United?

[catch22]

Catch - do you no longer work for United?

I commute to Denver for work. United outsourced the work in OKC to a vendor.

[Plutonic Panda]

When will Service from San Diego to OKC start? It’s Frontier I think.

[whatitis]

When will Service from San Diego to OKC start? It’s Frontier I think.

looking on Frontier's website it looks like April 9th is the first non stop flight I see.

[Mike_M]

OKC-PHL is loaded for sale this morning but don't look at the prices! The revenue system lags the schedule and is confused by the new service so it places a premium on it. I imagine when the office jockies punch in tomorrow they will load in the proper fare buckets.

As a frequent flyer to NY, I'd MUCH rather fly from OKC to Philly and drive rather than driving to Dallas. Helps support WRWA and Philly->NY is a much more appealing roadtrip than OKC->DFW. Huge win if the prices are reasonable.

[d-usa]

Not OKC specific, but I always find stuff like this pretty interesting:

[no1cub17]

As a frequent flyer to NY, I'd MUCH rather fly from OKC to Philly and drive rather than driving to Dallas. Helps support WRWA and Philly->NY is a much more appealing roadtrip than OKC->DFW. Huge win if the prices are reasonable.

Haha wow - that drive between Philly and NY can be absolute hell, but go for it!

From glancing at schedules looks like AA's flight to PHL will definitely allow for connections to the NYC airports so that's also an option.

[Mike_M]

Haha wow - that drive between Philly and NY can be absolute hell, but go for it!

From glancing at schedules looks like AA's flight to PHL will definitely allow for connections to the NYC airports so that's also an option.

Oh I'm with you from the perspective of tolls/traffic. But yes, the possibility of connecting to LGA is appealing, and really I could make Philly part of the trip (I have people there and there's a lot to do). The drive to Dallas is just additional travel time for me.

[shawnw]

It's been 8 years since I made the drive from Philly to NYC, but the biggest pain at the time was the backup at the tunnels.

[OUman]

I flew DL from OKC to TRI (Tri Cities Regional Airport) on Thursday last week for a friend's wedding in Abingdon, VA. Flew back yesterday. Routing was OKC-ATL-TRI and back the same way. Had my first experience in the 717-200, great aircraft. Very quick on the climbout as well (not that surprising given that the much larger and powerful engines sit on what is essentially a DC 9-30 fuselage and wings). It is pretty loud though in the back during taxi where I was sitting (on top of the trailing edge). Both, the outbound and inbound OKC flights were full. OKC itself was hopping when I went on Thursday (had the early morning 7:30 departure). Also got two more CRJ 200 flights between ATL and TRI (like I haven't flown in it more than a dozen times already). Overall a good experience with DL.