Huntsville updates

[HSVTiger]

Originally Posted by HSV79

No new talks with VW about plant, state says
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Automaker exec quoted about possible factory

Responding to a report in the German automotive press, the state's economic development director said Friday that Alabama officials have held no new talks with Volkswagen about locating a plant in Huntsville.

In fact, Neal Wade said, the state has turned its focus to recruiting suppliers for VW's planned $1 billion assembly plant in Chattanooga.

In July, the German automaker chose Tennessee over Alabama and Michigan for its U.S. plant, which is expected to employ 2,000 people and produce up to 300,000 vehicles by 2018.

Wade said the state is sending an economic development delegation to Germany next month to meet with potential suppliers.

"VW has hundreds of suppliers," he said. "What we're doing now is learning which of those will supply the Tennessee plant."

On Wednesday, a VW executive speaking at a Moscow auto show said the company could still locate a plant in Huntsville.

Automobilwoche (Automobile Week), a Crain Communications trade publication in Germany, quoted Jochem Heizmann, group production director and a member of VW's management board, as saying, "Huntsville will always be an option for the VW Group for future projects in the U.S. And so too for a new component factory."

Before VW's official selection of Chattanooga over Huntsville, a British trade publication reported that the German automaker eventually could put a plant in both locations - one for assembly and one for, say, engines.

Heizmann stressed in his talk that VW had made no preliminary decision in favor of Huntsville for an additional U.S. plant.

"As always," he was quoted as saying, "we will thoroughly examine several options for the components plant."

Mayor Loretta Spencer and officials from the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce, both heavily involved in the VW assembly plant recruitment, declined to comment on the new report.

Last week, Tennessee economic development officials revealed that state's total incentives package for VW: $577 million. Wade and Gov. Bob Riley have said Alabama's package was about $400 million.




© 2008 The Huntsville Times. All rights reserved.
.

I would hope that the local and state officials are working on this, now that this story is public. Take some lessons on what Tenn and Chatty did, make
and maintain contacts, work on the infrastructure, improve weaknesses,
keep VW up to date on what's going on. It's almost like VW is asking if they can come, in other words do you want us?

[HSVTiger]

As is happening everywhere, Huntsville will lose some flights

By MARIAN ACCARDI
Times Business Writer marian.accardi@htimes.com
October to have 6.5% fewer flights out of Huntsville

The scheduled cutbacks that airlines have warned for months were coming will hit Huntsville in three weeks.

Delta Air Lines, which has flown nonstop from Huntsville International Airport to Orlando, Fla., since December 2002, will end that service Sept. 30, airport officials told the Huntsville-Madison County Airport Authority Tuesday morning. That will leave Huntsville with no direct flights to Orlando.

"That's a big loss for us," said Barbie Peek, the airport's marketing director. Orlando "is both a leisure and business market for us."

In other local cuts, American Airlines will drop one of its two daily nonstop flights to Chicago and two of its five daily nonstops to Dallas. American's new schedule also takes effect Oct. 1.

Carriers have cited soaring jet-fuel costs and record losses as reasons for cutting flights this fall, after the traditionally busy summer travel season.

Huntsville's October schedule will have 6.5 percent fewer flights, Peek said, adding that "the industry average for capacity loss is 15 to 20 percent."

Peek noted, however, that the airport actually will gain 1 percent more seats in October compared with a year earlier. That's because some airlines are switching to bigger planes here.

For example, American is switching from three regional jets and two larger jets for its flights to Dallas to three mainline jets and no regional jets, Peek said.

"We like the larger equipment, but the disadvantage is less frequency," she said. "The biggest impact of capacity loss is for the last-minute traveler. Seats become a premium."
Delta is discontinuing all of its point-to-point regional jet service to Orlando, Peek said, and Huntsville is one of the last five cities to be halted.
Passenger traffic at the airport fell 7.6 percent in August, compared with a year earlier, but traffic year to date is up 5.1 percent from 2007.

[HSVTiger]

Downtown demolition

The city closed one lane of Holmes Avenue downtown this morning to make it easier and safer for crews to demolish what was left of the building that used to house Old Towne Brewery. A fire gutted the building last year.

Brewery co-owner Don Alan Hankins, whose beer-making operation is up and running bigger than ever on Leeman Ferry Road, said today he has offers for the cleared downtown site. It may be developed, Hankins said, and it may become parking for the restored Sentinel building.

The easy guess is it will become parking.

[David1502]

Originally Posted by HSVTiger

As is happening everywhere, Huntsville will lose some flights

By MARIAN ACCARDI
Times Business Writer marian.accardi@htimes.com
October to have 6.5% fewer flights out of Huntsville

The scheduled cutbacks that airlines have warned for months were coming will hit Huntsville in three weeks.

Delta Air Lines, which has flown nonstop from Huntsville International Airport to Orlando, Fla., since December 2002, will end that service Sept. 30, airport officials told the Huntsville-Madison County Airport Authority Tuesday morning. That will leave Huntsville with no direct flights to Orlando.

"That's a big loss for us," said Barbie Peek, the airport's marketing director. Orlando "is both a leisure and business market for us."

In other local cuts, American Airlines will drop one of its two daily nonstop flights to Chicago and two of its five daily nonstops to Dallas. American's new schedule also takes effect Oct. 1.

Carriers have cited soaring jet-fuel costs and record losses as reasons for cutting flights this fall, after the traditionally busy summer travel season.

Huntsville's October schedule will have 6.5 percent fewer flights, Peek said, adding that "the industry average for capacity loss is 15 to 20 percent."

Peek noted, however, that the airport actually will gain 1 percent more seats in October compared with a year earlier. That's because some airlines are switching to bigger planes here.

For example, American is switching from three regional jets and two larger jets for its flights to Dallas to three mainline jets and no regional jets, Peek said.

"We like the larger equipment, but the disadvantage is less frequency," she said. "The biggest impact of capacity loss is for the last-minute traveler. Seats become a premium."
Delta is discontinuing all of its point-to-point regional jet service to Orlando, Peek said, and Huntsville is one of the last five cities to be halted.
Passenger traffic at the airport fell 7.6 percent in August, compared with a year earlier, but traffic year to date is up 5.1 percent from 2007.

One important line from the article you didn't quote is, "Peek said her strategy remains the same: try to land a low-fare carrier and enhance service from airlines already here." It is significant that the Airport is continuing efforts to recruit a low fare carrier - most specifically, AirTran. The loss of Delta's Orlando service could increase the likelihood of their (AirTran) starting service here since Orlando is AirTran's second strongest city after the Atlanta hub. The Airport Authority repeatedly says that a third of the market here is lost to those passengers who drive to the Birmingham and Nashville airports (for Southwest)and low fare service from AirTran could end that. The full impact of BRAC will also help as AirTran could consider providing mainline jet service from HSV to Washington National (the #1 destination here)whereas the present service is all regional jets.

[jmanhsv]

AirTran would be a great addition to Huntsville International, and I hope the Airport Authority's doing everything they can to get them here. And a little correction to your post, David-- if AirTran decided to start a Huntsville-DC nonstop, it would be to their hub at BWI. Our airport is already saturated with flights to Dulles and National, but there are currently no flights to BWI. That being said, it would probably cater more to NASA employees/contractors going to Goddard.

[neilson]

Originally Posted by jmanhsv

AirTran would be a great addition to Huntsville International, and I hope the Airport Authority's doing everything they can to get them here. And a little correction to your post, David-- if AirTran decided to start a Huntsville-DC nonstop, it would be to their hub at BWI. Our airport is already saturated with flights to Dulles and National, but there are currently no flights to BWI. That being said, it would probably cater more to NASA employees/contractors going to Goddard.

I'm sure there's also a lot of traffic from Huntsville to Fort Meade too.

[David1502]

Originally Posted by jmanhsv

AirTran would be a great addition to Huntsville International, and I hope the Airport Authority's doing everything they can to get them here. And a little correction to your post, David-- if AirTran decided to start a Huntsville-DC nonstop, it would be to their hub at BWI. Our airport is already saturated with flights to Dulles and National, but there are currently no flights to BWI. That being said, it would probably cater more to NASA employees/contractors going to Goddard.

Jman, excellent point. BWI is the fourth strongest market from HSV with 32,922 passengers for the year ended 9/07. By comparison the #1 market, Washington National (DCA), had 102,519 passengers and that explains why Delta, and US Air have 7 daily nonstop flights. Orlando is the #2 market with 45,977 passengers - so this will certainly be an attraction for AirTran as well since there is no longer nonstop service to accomodate those passengers. The NASA Goddard facility in MD as well as Fort Meade provide a strong base of customers from HSV to BWI (which has an easy Amtrak connection to DC). AirTran would be able to provide nonstop service to two of HSV's top 4 markets as well as connections through their ATL hub. My source for the passenger figures was found under the Resources Section of www.hsvairport.org

[g-man435]

Airtran? Screw that. You guys deserve Southwest and JetBlue.

[neilson]

Originally Posted by g-man435

Airtran? Screw that. You guys deserve Southwest and JetBlue.

Birmingham and Nashville have Southwest, so that's a non-starter for Huntsville.

JetBlue? Are they even in the South outside of ATL(like 1 or 2 flights), Nashville, and Raleigh-Durham?

Airtran makes the most sense. Always has.

[g-man435]

Neilson, we're talking about Huntsville here not Augusta. You guys are home to NASA for crying out loud. You deserve more.

[OCA REP]

Originally Posted by neilson

JetBlue? Are they even in the South outside of ATL(like 1 or 2 flights), Nashville, and Raleigh-Durham?

Yes; they are. But not in ATL or BNA. The 800-lb gorilla (Delta) slapped their asses in ATL and I do not know why they never really caught on in BNA. Maybe it was that Southwest was already there and so well entrenched.

http://www.jetblue.com/wherewejet/

[neilson]

Originally Posted by g-man435

Neilson, we're talking about Huntsville here not Augusta. You guys are home to NASA for crying out loud. You deserve more.

Southwest will not fly to Huntsville if we can drive 100 miles north to BNA or 100 miles south to BHM. Simple as that. There's no cost benefit.

[jmanhsv]

Yeah, I think it's funny that Southwest keeps using the proximity excuse to stay out of Huntsville when they serve 4 airports in the Los Angeles area, two of which (Burbank and LAX) are 20 miles away from each other. Maybe it's the larger population, but then again, they only serve one airport (Long Island/Islip) in the New York metro.

[OCA REP]

Originally Posted by jmanhsv

Yeah, I think it's funny that Southwest keeps using the proximity excuse to stay out of Huntsville when they serve 4 airports in the Los Angeles area, two of which (Burbank and LAX) are 20 miles away from each other.

Of course it's the population. Plus, on a bad day, the drive between those two could push 2 hours. YIKES! Would be a lot easier to drive to BNA or BHM in that time frame...

[David1502]

Originally Posted by g-man435

Airtran? Screw that. You guys deserve Southwest and JetBlue.

As has already been addressed, there is no way that SW will begin service at HSV when it will cannibalize their existing business at BHM and BNA from existing customers who make the drive to those respective airports. Another critical point to be made is that while SW says they have a "hub" at BNA, it in no way compares to the real hub which AirTran has at ATL where passengers can make connections to all of the major business centers several times a day. For example, Southwest does not fly into either NYC or Boston, so HSV passengers would still have to fly Delta or USAir to reach those cities. Jet Blue has limited service in the Southeast and does not offer a hub for connecitons - all they offer is service to JFK in New York. What about the 37,000 passengers traveling to and from LAX who would like a low fare airline option? (source: www.hsvairport.org/rc/stats_hia.html) AirTran at their ATL hub provides this option as well as numerous others.

[jonnie256]

Wow! Huntsville is dead it seems like eh?! Nobody has said anything in like 6 days,and the last thing dicussed was about freakin airplanes!LOL Huntsville needs to get on the ball! I am glad I will be moving to brentwood,tn or chatanooga,tn nxt yr!

[OCA REP]

Originally Posted by jonnie256

the last thing dicussed was about freakin airplanes!

I love airplanes!

[Shawn35816]

Originally Posted by jonnie256

Wow! Huntsville is dead it seems like eh?! Nobody has said anything in like 6 days,and the last thing dicussed was about freakin airplanes!LOL Huntsville needs to get on the ball! I am glad I will be moving to brentwood,tn or chatanooga,tn nxt yr!

Well, there is construction going on around the city on various projects that have been discussed, such as in the Providence development and at the Constellation site. I think the news is slow because we are in the middle of a transitional period with the local government here. There is a runoff for the mayor position in Huntsville, so right now different agendas are not getting looked at. I don't look for any big news in development around here until next year.

[HSVTiger]

New Army Material Command on Redstone Arsenal breaks ground



By Kenneth Kesner
Times Staff Writer kenneth.kesner@htimes.com
$127M building also will house security command

Four-star Gen. Benjamin Griffin, chief of the Army Materiel Command, is presiding over groundbreaking ceremonies this morning for the command's headquarters at Redstone Arsenal.

The $127 million, nearly 603,000-square-foot building will also be home to the Army Security Assistance Command. Both are to be based on Redstone in 2011 as part of the 2005 base realignment and closing decision.

[HSVTiger]

President Bush in town Thursday

The White House has announced that President George W. Bush will be in Huntsville tomorrow morning to tour the city's Waste-to-Energy Facility and attend a congressional fundraiser.

The President will fly into Huntsville on Air Force One Thursday morning, then depart for the tour of the steam plant on Triana Boulevard, the only such facility in Alabama.

After that, Bush will attend a fundraiser at the Twickenham home of Leslie and Moss Crosby. Money raised will go to the campaigns of Republican congressional candidates Wayne Parker, a Huntsville insurance executive seeking the District 5 seat, and Jay Love, a state legislator from Montgomery.

The Secret Service field office in Birmingham said the president's motorcade route or potential street closings won't be disclosed for security reasons, so people wanting to see the president drive by will have to figure out for themselves the best vantage point.
HSV Times

the President is staying in Washington and will send VP Cheney instead.