In his presentation to the City Council, Jim Smith said "Everybody who flies at the airport pays the same fees so that cannot be modified." In his response letter to Southwest he wrote "...users of the GECAS facility will pay the same airfield charges (
landing fees, RON charges, etc) as users of the Barbara Jordan Terminal.
Those fees make up for the majority of the costs of carriers operating at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
If you go here:
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/austinair...aus_fall07.pdf
and scroll down to Page 2, on the right hand side of the page, it shows the different rates the airlines pay at AUS as of October 2006. Most rates are the same, but the landing fees can differ depending on whether or not the airline is a signatory carrier. Signatory carriers at AUS pay a landing fee of $2.92 per 1,000 lbs. of maximum landed aircraft weight, while Non-Signatory carriers pay a fee of $5.84 per 1,000 lbs. of maximum landed aircraft weight.
I'm not really up on the differences between the two, but I was under the impression that a signatory carrier was one who signed a long-term lease with the airport (at least a year) for it's gates, apron space, etc, while a non-signatory carrier might lease the same on on a month-to-month or per-use basis.
Looking at the
Nov. 5 press release on ABIA's website, it says:
The simple nature of the [ULCC] terminal---such as no jet bridges or sophisticated baggage handling system, and common use hold rooms, gates and ticket counter areas---positions Austin to better compete for air service for these kinds of business models.
So is Viva Aerobus going to be a signatory carrier or a non signatory carrier?
My first thought was that they'd be a non-signatory carrier. Since the gates are common-use, I didn't think Viva Aerobus could sign an actual lease for them. Aren't common-use gates/space to be used by any ULCC and/or shared by more than airline? If that's the case and they were Non Signatory, wouldn't the higher landing fees offset the lower terminal fees?
Then again, GECAS (not the City) is going to be the "landlord" to the airline(s) using the ULCC Terminal, and GECAS
did (or will) sign a long term lease with the City for the land & apron space and is paying the construction costs for the terminal, so does that give GECAS signatory status that they can "pass on" to any airline using their ULCC Terminal? I don't quite understand how all that works.
One of the other fees listed was - Terminal Equipment Fee - $33,600 per gate, per annum. What does "terminal equipment" consist of? Loading Bridges? Furniture and/or light fixtures? Departure/arrival monitors? Other stuff?
I also saw where it said Conditioned Apron Space $13.74 per square foot, per annum and Unconditioned Apron Space $8.59 per square foot, per annum. Can someone explain what the difference is between the two?
And finally,
ABIA's Nov. 5 press releasealso says
Once approvals have been granted seats will be put on sale through its Web site
www.vivaaerobus.com
Viva Aerobus filed their application with DOT back in August.
Here is a link to the pdf file of their application.
http://dms.dot.gov/search/document.c...docketid=28919
I'm assuming DOT hasn't given approval, because it still says status pending and flights still aren't bookable on vivaaerobus' website. Any ideas on how much longer an approval might take?
BTW, it's really too bad that the tickets aren't bookable, yet. If you go to
VivaAerobus' website, they're having a huge sale right now:
When we say ALL the tickets, we mean ALL the tickets
All the tickets at $1* Mxn plus taxes
VivaAerobus has ALL the tickets, ALL the destinations, ALL the departure times, ALL the flights, everyday costing only $1 plus taxes
Buy your tickets from January 11th through 16th and fly every day in Febraury, March, April, May and June. (From February 6th to June 30th. Except March 14th through March 31st and April 30th to May 6th.
* Final price may vary from $256 Mxn to $293 Mxn depending on the destination
At today's conversion rates, in US Dollars, that last sentence would read
* Final price may vary from $23.42 to $26.81 depending on the destination.
Looks like Central Texas is gonna miss out on this particular promotion, but maybe they'll have something similar if/when VivaAerobus launches AUS operations.
LoneStarMike