AUSTIN | ABIA Updates

[Schertz1]

Originally Posted by M1EK

San Antonio's cheap sprawl housing is a liability, not an asset, when gas keeps getting more and more expensive...

This relates to an airport how? Also, if you want to see cheap sprawl, look at Buda to the south and Round Rock - and beyond - to the north.

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by Schertz1

Also, if you want to see cheap sprawl, look at Buda to the south and Round Rock - and beyond - to the north.

Sprawl is nasty no matter where it is. None of it is inhabitable. Honestly, I don't view the sprawl in Northwest San Antonio, Schertz, Live Oak, Selma, Buda, Kyle or Round Rock or on the fringes of Austin any differently between each other. It's all gross and turns me off.

[Trae]

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

This just shows how well ABIA is positioned not only locally but regionally. With Jet Blue creating a connector-hub here and news of expansion announcments to come later this year, ABIA will definatly become the main airport in Central and South Texas.

I agree. ABIA is doing good. Only thing it needs is maybe a direct freeway connecting to it. Does it have room to expand?

[KevinFromTexas]

From the Austin American-Statesman
http://www.statesman.com/news/conten...2terminal.html

International carriers, new nonstops launch at Austin-Bergstrom

Friday, May 02, 2008

Thursday was a big day at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport: Two new international carriers started service, and airlines added a total of seven new nonstop destinations.

Discount carrier Viva Aerobus launched service to Cancún and Monterrey in Mexico, operating out of the lime green no-frills terminal at the south end of the airport. After passengers, right, boarded the first Viva Aerobus flight on Thursday, fire trucks gave the inaugural flight a water cannon salute, above.

In the main terminal, Air Canada started nonstop service to Toronto. JetBlue started nonstops to Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Long Beach and San Francisco.

More new nonstops are on the taxiway: Northwest Airlines starts daily nonstops to Indianapolis today, and US Airways flights to Charlotte, N.C., start Monday.

Interactive map of non-stop flights out of Austin.
http://www.statesman.com/news/conten...2/nonstop.html

[LoneStarMike]

I noticed that the KVUE story that Jdawgboy linked to mentioned that on Thursday the VivaAerobus flights were booked solid. If true, that would mean that 592 international passengers flew into or out of AUS yesterday. And that's not counting the folks who flew on AeroMexico to Mexico City or Air Canada to Toronto.

Statistically, that's pretty significant if you consider the fact that for the entire month of February, AUS only had 1,593 international passengers.

Prior to yesterday, AUS had a grand total of 100 daily available international seats in and out of the airport - 50 AeroMexico seats to Mexico City and another 50 from Mexico City. This would mean 3000 available international seats per month assuming a 30-day month.

With the addition of VivaAerobus and Air Canada, the number of daily international seats into and out of AUS has increased to 842 - a 742% increase over previous levels. This would mean 25,260 available international seats per month assuming a 30-day month.

It will be interesting to see the international passenger count for May when ABIA releases those statistics - probably towards the end of June/first part of July.

[Jdawgboy]

Originally Posted by Trae

I agree. ABIA is doing good. Only thing it needs is maybe a direct freeway connecting to it. Does it have room to expand?

Eventually ABIA will have 3 freeways/Tolls around it. ABIA has enough space to expand. Also lets not forget its super huge runway that I believe only DFW has one as long. The largest planes in the world can easily land at ABIA due to the fact that it once was an airbase...

[MAH4546]

It's not all good news at AUS, although there is certainly more good than bad.

AeroMexico ends all service to Austin on June 12th.

American Eagle ends service to Dallas Love Field on July 1st.

American Airlines ends service to Orange County, Raleigh, and Seattle on September 3rd.

[texboy]

My I ask where you got that info from?

[MAH4546]

Originally Posted by texboy

My I ask where you got that info from?

Arline reservation systems. Flights are gone.

AeroMexico and the AA/Orange County flights are no longer showing on any reservation systems, including public.

The AA Raleigh/Seattle flights are no longer showing on internal reservation systems, which are updated before public systems are.

[LoneStarMike]

So what nonstop destinations are left for American out of Austin? After Sept. 3 I see DFW - 16 daily, Chicago - 5 daily, Los Angeles - 3 daily, San Jose - 3 daily and St. Louis 2 daily for a total of 31 daily. Is 5 destinations still enough to even qualify Austin as an AA focus city? I guess Miami would make it 6 if and when it comes.

And with only 31 daily departures after September 3, I wonder if AA will give up gate 25.

[texastarkus]

Did anyone happen to see on the news an idea being floated by someone on the Silly Council where they would sell the Airport to a private company from Austraila? The monies would fund the light rail from Mueller to downtown.

[Dale]

Originally Posted by texastarkus

Did anyone happen to see on the news an idea being floated by someone on the Silly Council where they would sell the Airport to a private company from Austraila? The monies would fund the light rail from Mueller to downtown.

Doesn't sound so silly to me.

[hookem]

Could just be a plot by the Aussies to grab our coveted AUS airport code...

[Mikey711MN]

Originally Posted by texastarkus

Did anyone happen to see on the news an idea being floated by someone on the Silly Council where they would sell the Airport to a private company from Austraila? The monies would fund the light rail from Mueller to downtown.

No, but I would bet that company would be Macquarie, which has a staggeringly large investment fund for infrastructure projects, but typically along the lines of roadways and not airports.

[ATXboom]

Friday, May 2, 2008
Could ABIA be privatized?Austrailian powerhouse mulls the option
Austin Business Journal - by Kate Harrington ABJ Staff
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Sarah Kever
Proponents of leasing all or part of ABIA say the newfound revenue could pay for projects such as light rail.
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City leaders are talking with Australian infrastructure powerhouse Macquarie Group Ltd. about potentially leasing all or part of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

Macquarie representatives approached some council members and business leaders individually in recent months, says a source familiar with the conversations. While there is no formal proposal yet, sources say Macquarie representatives would like council members to post an agenda item so it can engage the city's Aviation Department in discussions about the possibility of a private company managing the airport.

City leaders discussed the possibility of eventually privatizing the airport in 2007, but this is the first time that a private company has been linked with ABIA.

Proponents of a leasing deal say that leasing ABIA could add up to $500 million to the city's general fund annually, but acknowledge that the road to privatization is fraught with hurdles and public wariness of putting public infrastructure into private hands.

The Macquarie Group owns and operates five airports in cities worldwide, including Sydney Airport, Bristol International Airport and Japan Airport Terminal. In the United States, the company is also involved in private toll road development. Worldwide, Macquarie Group has about $200 billion invested in infrastructure, from electric utilities to roads and airports.

Macquarie executives couldn't be reached for comment.

Federal law prohibits the city from spending airport revenue on anything but the airport, says Council Member Betty Dunkerley, so ABIA currently contributes nothing to the city's general fund -- which in many years, including this one, falls short of revenue expectations. Other city departments, such as the convention center and Austin Energy, do funnel profits into the city's general fund.

ABIA's total operating revenue for the 2007 fiscal year was $81.9 million, and $17 million of that revenue went back into the airport's capital fund, says ABIA spokesman Jim Halbrook.

"We are entirely at a very, very conceptual level about how this might work," says a source familiar with Macquarie's conversations in Austin. "Plus, while the big banana might be to go for an FAA exemption ... there are many other steps short of that that Macquarie may be willing to talk to the city about. [Possibilities] run all the way from a management contract to turn over airport operations through a contractual arrangement ... to having them come in and manage one piece of the airport. There's all kinds of ways the city could unload some of the headaches of operating the airport, short of privatization."

Under a 1996 federal pilot program, U.S. airports can apply for an exemption from the Federal Aviation Administration. Under that program, up to five U.S. airports can be leased to a private company if the FAA and 65 percent of airlines using the airport give their approval.

[texboy]

This confirms at least some of MAH 4546's earlier post on flight cuts at ABIA...

One thing to note though is that American will be adding one Dallas flight to both SA and Austin giving both cities 16 daily flights to Dallas each.

Capacity cuts – American axes some Texas flights

cheapflights.com

In these days of $120 per barrel petroleum, if an airline route doesn’t perform properly, or if the airplane that plies that route is too fuel inefficient, the run is a candidate for capacity cuts. And so it is that the nation’s largest carrier — American Airlines — is axing a number of flights to and from Texas, its home turf.

The Dallas Morning News reports that in addition to eliminating thrice-daily Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) to Oakland (OAK) service on September 3, American is also axing a trio of flights from Austin-Bergstrom International (AUS). Gone will be nonstops to Orange County, California (SNA), Raleigh/Durham (RDU), and Seattle/Tacoma (SEA). Also out the window will be nonstop service from Los Angeles International (LAX) to San Antonio (SAT), and from LAX to Fort Lauderdale (FLL).

What that means is that there will be no nonstop service between the world’s third-busiest airport, DFW, and Oakland. Best bet for Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex flyers will be to take a one-stop flight on discount airline Southwest out of Dallas Love Field (DAL). As for Austin, once American pulls the plug on nonstops to Orange County, Raleigh/Durham and Seattle/Tacoma none of those cities will have nonstop service to the Texas capital. Southwest will continue to offer one-stop service to SEA, SNA and RDU from AUS.

On the Los Angeles to Fort Lauderdale run, the closest you’ll come to no-change-of-plane service is a three-stop on Southwest. Los Angeles–San Antonio fares far better. Both United Express and Southwest ply the route nonstop.

American’s strategy here seems to be to cut fuel costs while encouraging flyers to use its nearby hubs. Instead of flying nonstop from Los Angeles to Fort Lauderdale, for instance, American also offers service from LAX to its nearby Miami (MIA) megahub. Instead of flying nonstop from Oakland to Dallas/Fort Worth, AA offers frequent nonstop flights from cross-bay San Francisco International (SFO) to DFW.

Internationally, American Airlines is putting its Chicago O’Hare (ORD) to Rome (FCO) flight into seasonal hibernation. It goes away on October 26, and plans are for it to re-emerge in April 2009. Italian flag carrier Alitalia also offers nonstop service on the O’Hare–Rome route.

In all, American is cutting its seat capacity by just under 5 percent. The move follows flight cuts by United Airlines and Delta Air Lines announced earlier.

Strategies for coping with all the airline cuts we’re seeing are out there, and Cheapflights will keep you abreast of them

[M1EK]

What this shows to me is further confirmation that the hub/spoke system is on its way out. A plane running non-stop between Austin and San Jose is far more fuel efficient than one smaller plane doing the hop to Dallas and a second one to SJ. You can still have connections without hub/spoke, as Southwest shows, of course.

And of course, the bigger the plane the better on that metric too. If we simply charged by how long a runway was in use instead of stupidly doing so by weight, we'd not have artificially incented these stupid little planes to begin with - but I doubt there's time left to fix it now; the old carriers are clearly on their way out, and smaller planes HURT them rather than helped them (I'm remembering folks I used to argue with at a previous jorb who laughed at the big Airbus and said it would never work - that the future was these stupid regional jets).

Of course, American learned the wrong lesson and protected the hub. That's why they're dying - I only wish one of the airlines that will survive was serving Hawaii so I could stop flying AA on business for the miles.

[KevinFromTexas]

AeroMexico is also leaving.

Austin loses Aeromexico and American nonstops
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/conte...co_and_am.html

[Jdawgboy]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

AeroMexico is also leaving.

Austin loses Aeromexico and American nonstops
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/conte...co_and_am.html

As far as Aeromexico is concerned, I doubt it will matter much. Not sure how many people were really flying to Mexico City from here anyways. With VivaAerobus flying to Cancun and Monterrey wich IMO more people would like to go, I think will do much better.

[KevinFromTexas]

Council member: No airport deal
http://www.statesman.com/news/conten...09roundup.html