AUSTIN | ABIA Updates

[OU812]

I'm just wondering when ABIA will get an automated people-mover system. Probably not till a whole new separate terminal is built I guess. The current one being curved is probably not conducive to having one burrowed into the existing ground.

[khowaga]

Originally Posted by masonh2479

That would be a construction nightmare for sure, I see how this would end up and think this might as well be the next large construction phase once the east extension is completed. I wonder if a west terminal infill will happen soon, that part of the terminal looks bare.

Devil’s Advocate: what would more space for drop off accomplish, other than just giving more room for the stupid? Part of the problem can’t be fixed through architecture: people are parking in the drop off lanes for far longer than they need to. The current space isn’t utilized well (also, the line markings are hella confusing, especially close to the terminal). I’ve seen the same problem at bigger airports: what happens is that you have a bunch of lanes free on the left for passing traffic and the exact same congestion in the two right lanes next to the terminal.

IMO, the problem could be dealt with by moving busses and taxis to the arrivals level, remove the island, and let traffic use the width of the upper deck. At that point, we have just as much room in front of the terminal as nearly every other major airport in the country, without the need for billions in new construction.

Inside the terminal itself, the west terminal infil would give a much larger security checkpoint 3 (by JetBlue).

Inside the airport the issue could be solved by thinking for the 21st century.

Common use check in desks would help a lot. Why do the BA desks, which service one flight in the afternoon, stand empty the rest of the day, when neighboring AA and UA are pandemonium first thing in the morning and could use the room to spread out?

And, yes, when Austin is ready for the secondary terminal, they need to think bigger...

[StoOgE]

Originally Posted by khowaga

Devil’s Advocate: what would more space for drop off accomplish, other than just giving more room for the stupid? Part of the problem can’t be fixed through architecture: people are parking in the drop off lanes for far longer than they need to. The current space isn’t utilized well (also, the line markings are hella confusing, especially close to the terminal). I’ve seen the same problem at bigger airports: what happens is that you have a bunch of lanes free on the left for passing traffic and the exact same congestion in the two right lanes next to the terminal.

IMO, the problem could be dealt with by moving busses and taxis to the arrivals level, remove the island, and let traffic use the width of the upper deck. At that point, we have just as much room in front of the terminal as nearly every other major airport in the country, without the need for billions in new construction.

Inside the terminal itself, the west terminal infil would give a much larger security checkpoint 3 (by JetBlue).

Inside the airport the issue could be solved by thinking for the 21st century.

Common use check in desks would help a lot. Why do the BA desks, which service one flight in the afternoon, stand empty the rest of the day, when neighboring AA and UA are pandemonium first thing in the morning and could use the room to spread out?

And, yes, when Austin is ready for the secondary terminal, they need to think bigger...

Keep the island and have "exits" for different airlines from the left lane. It would keep all the big dummies from jumping in the right lane when they are headed all the way down to SWA or someone on the other side of the airport.

For pick-ups a similar solution may be warranted.

Also, drop people off and LEAVE. Far too many people are allowed to go into the airport with their loved ones. Park your car in the garage if that is the plan.

[the Genral]

Originally Posted by StoOgE

Keep the island and have "exits" for different airlines from the left lane. It would keep all the big dummies from jumping in the right lane when they are headed all the way down to SWA or someone on the other side of the airport.

For pick-ups a similar solution may be warranted.

Also, drop people off and LEAVE. Far too many people are allowed to go into the airport with their loved ones. Park your car in the garage if that is the plan.

I agree, you have plenty of time to say goodbye on the drive to the airport. I used to park and accompany friends or family right to the gate, but those days are gone forever. Now its, pop the trunk and see you later, then get out of the way. But I'm a courteous traveler. I check my bags and seldom use the overheads.

[drummer]

Man, my wife and I were always terrified to get a ticket, so we'd park in the garage period - whether picking up or dropping off, unless it was intended to be a quick drop-off or something. I don't get how people can park in the drop-off areas and walk in....I've never understood it.

[freerover]

Originally Posted by The ATX

The Statesman has an article about Via Air expanded their ABIA presence and basing flight crews and maintenance workers here.

http://www.mystatesman.com/business/...mQFSsHthhydjJ/

Ha! Right on time! The South Terminal has been a huge slam dunk. I didn't think much of the project when its as announced but there weren't any major delays and the company running did a lot to the look and feel of the building with the limited amount of money they could put into it. I think its appeal will improve dramatically once they bulldoze all of the rundown shit buildings around it and they'll be ready to do that once the new maintenance facility opens.

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

The tunnel was mentioned in this thread a few pages back. There was a post about the tunnel in the Airliners.net forum a couple of months back. The Barbra Jordan Terminal is built over the north end with the idea that it would be used by the port in the future.

Yea, I remember a user mentioning the tunnel existing and could be used but I think that it might be a bit much to say that it's expected it will be a part of a future plan. It wasn't even ever mentioned in the last master plan as a part of the 2nd terminal.

Originally Posted by DoubleC

Orrrrrrrrrrrr they could trash these ideas about waiting until 2019 to jut out piers from the main terminal, consolidating everything around a tiny airport terminal built for a small medium-sized city, already having a bottleneck at the unloading zone like I-35, and get started on that South terminal now ?

Seriously though, I really hope it's all just rumors and the selected concept in the new master plan is something like that selected in the previous master plan; why complicate it with building around existing, active aircraft space?

There's plenty of room South already. They could build small if they don't want a lot of unused space, but in Austin, what is unused space ?

Everything is a rumor until the new Master Plan is out later this year. There is literally no official information to suggest any one proposal is more likely than another. You bring up the core question facing the airport planners: Centralized or Decentralized.

The previous master plan divided proposals into those two groups. The centralized concepts are like the pier extension I posted as well as the annex terminal another user posted. You can go so far as building a whole new freestanding building but the main terminal would still act as your processing center and people would be efficiently moved from the main terminal to the new terminal via trail or people mover.

The decentralized concept is what they eventually went with as their preferred option. It's a whole new terminal with it's own security lines, airline ticketing booths, car access etc. I think the big question with decentralization is deciding your ready to expand your employee count considerably to duplicate resources at 2 different locations. I think that's also when you'll see the proposed rail line to the airport heat up.

You're right about the land. There is a ton of it. The last preferred plan put a new terminal right in the center of the airport grounds (near the existing "south terminal"). They would need to modify the location a bit to accommodate the south terminal or they could go further south but you start to get into flooding zones the further south/east you go on the airport grounds.

At the end of the day, I think the choice of new terminal vs existing terminal expansion comes down to if Delta wants to make a major investment now.

[abigdeal]

I just can’t imagine that any plan today would include adding resources like significant head count given the price tag for planned capital improvements. Seems like every available dollar (including bond funding) is going to need to go into construction rather than permanent overhead. Also, I’m sure that airport management is very aware that the death of the major cash cow, parking and rental car revenue, is headed toward a major decline and will be very judicious about long term spending. Say what you want abou other parts of our city infrastructure, but the airport is a major success.

Also, I think I’ve heard that they have the land for 5x traffic of what they have now, so overall space isn’t a major concern.

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by abigdeal

Also, I’m sure that airport management is very aware that the death of the major cash cow, parking and rental car revenue, is headed toward a major decline and will be very judicious about long term spending.

Maybe not just yet. The airport just spent $600,000 installing the facsimile of a six-string guitar, using funds generated by concessions, parking and other Austin-Bergstrom revenue and now we find out out that Capital Metro will be eliminating both the 350 and the 100 Airport Flyer in June. The airport flyer really was a "flyer." There were only five stops between downtown and the airport.

Source

...the No. 350 will no longer serve the airport beginning in mid-June.

Neither will the No. 100, as I noted above. It will be erased from the Capital Metro system, and the East Riverside run to the airport will fall to a re-routed No. 20 bus. There is good news and bad news embedded in that switch.

The No. 20 will be a so-called “frequent” route, running for most of the day and evening (and weekends) on 15-minute intervals. That is twice as often as the No. 100, which runs once every 30 minutes.

However, the No. 20 will have 26 stops between Lady Bird Lake and the airport, five times as many as the No. 100.

Suddenly, driving and parking look a lot more appealing - especially if it's for business and your company reimburses you for the parking.

[masonh2479]

This is completely off topic from what is being currently discussed, but I had been wondering what is taking ABIA so long to announce Delta AUS-CVG? Both CVG and Delta did so within a day of it being added on Delta.com. Seems like ABIA is always the last to announce anything new.

[KevinFromTexas]

I moved the road construction posts to the transportation thread:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...37150&page=294

[khowaga]

My question got moved

at one point it seemed like a WOW air announcement of AUS-KEF (Keflavík/Reykjavik, Iceland) was almost imminent. Service was hinted at on the airport’s Facebook page... and then, nothing. Whatever happened with that? Does anyone know?

(Other than the fact that WOW, Icelandair, and American are all going head to head on the apparently lucrative Dallas-Keflavik route starting next year.)

I know we now have Norwegian stepping in on the low cost TATL end - just wondering? Icelandair just announced Kansas City - did we miss our shot?

[masonh2479]

Originally Posted by khowaga

My question got moved

at one point it seemed like a WOW air announcement of AUS-KEF (Keflavík/Reykjavik, Iceland) was almost imminent. Service was hinted at on the airport’s Facebook page... and then, nothing. Whatever happened with that? Does anyone know?

(Other than the fact that WOW, Icelandair, and American are all going head to head on the apparently lucrative Dallas-Keflavik route starting next year.)

I know we now have Norwegian stepping in on the low cost TATL end - just wondering? Icelandair just announced Kansas City - did we miss our shot?

Where was the service hinted? I had no idea that WOW looked to be coming to AUS but I can see why they would.

What I’m thinking about DFW, AA won’t give up and I can’t see all 3 airlines flying the route profitably. I’m thinking the airline doing the worse at DFW might take the move down to AUS and set up shop.

I’m not concerned that Kansas City got service to Iceland before us. We didn’t miss our shot.

[khowaga]

Originally Posted by masonh2479

Where was the service hinted? I had no idea that WOW looked to be coming to AUS but I can see why they would.

What I’m thinking about DFW, AA won’t give up and I can’t see all 3 airlines flying the route profitably. I’m thinking the airline doing the worse at DFW might take the move down to AUS and set up shop.

I’m not concerned that Kansas City got service to Iceland before us. We didn’t miss our shot.

Ah, jeez, maybe about a year ago? There was something on FB about an exciting new international destination (it was in one of those news roundup type posts), and there was also discussion on a.net about it. They basically made it sound like it was almost a done deal.

And, yeah, those three won’t last. I was surprised AA added service since the other two are mainly offering connections onward to Europe but hey. It’ll be fun to watch.

Still, Norwegian isn’t a bad alternative. Kind of hoping they might add Madrid or Paris after they’ve been here a while!

[Austin1971]

Originally Posted by masonh2479

This is completely off topic from what is being currently discussed, but I had been wondering what is taking ABIA so long to announce Delta AUS-CVG? Both CVG and Delta did so within a day of it being added on Delta.com. Seems like ABIA is always the last to announce anything new.

e

[masonh2479]

Originally Posted by khowaga

Ah, jeez, maybe about a year ago? There was something on FB about an exciting new international destination (it was in one of those news roundup type posts), and there was also discussion on a.net about it. They basically made it sound like it was almost a done deal.

And, yeah, those three won’t last. I was surprised AA added service since the other two are mainly offering connections onward to Europe but hey. It’ll be fun to watch.

Still, Norwegian isn’t a bad alternative. Kind of hoping they might add Madrid or Paris after they’ve been here a while!

Growth from Norwegian would be awesome and I really hope it happens. We'll have to see how well they compete with BA.

[427MM]

Originally Posted by LoneStarMike

Maybe not just yet. The airport just spent $600,000 installing the facsimile of a six-string guitar, using funds generated by concessions, parking and other Austin-Bergstrom revenue and now we find out out that Capital Metro will be eliminating both the 350 and the 100 Airport Flyer in June. The airport flyer really was a "flyer." There were only five stops between downtown and the airport.

Source



Suddenly, driving and parking look a lot more appealing - especially if it's for business and your company reimburses you for the parking.

I see the planned 820 Bus Rapid Transit route from Mueller to ABIA as a game changer. Of course the '14 rail route would have done wonders for ABIA (and for Austin) but hopefully we'll get it right when we try a similar route in 10-20 years...

[khowaga]

Originally Posted by Austin1971

Perhaps they're waiting for a "bigger" announcement at which time they'll include CVG resumption.

WoW was going to announce AUS but DY beat them to it.

2018 is going to be "huge" for AUS. Hold on to your hats.....And no I can't tell you so don't ask....

Is it the Korean Air 5x daily A380 service between AUS-ICN that the fanboy over on airliners.net insists would be super duper successful? Go on, you can tell me

[chinchaaa]

Originally Posted by 427MM

I see the planned 820 Bus Rapid Transit route from Mueller to ABIA as a game changer. Of course the '14 rail route would have done wonders for ABIA (and for Austin) but hopefully we'll get it right when we try a similar route in 10-20 years...

This. When is the 820 happening? I would actually ride it. It goes right by my house.

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by chinchaaa

This. When is the 820 happening? I would actually ride it. It goes right by my house.

The route as a high frequency(15 minute) local, the 20, is happening with the large set of changes CapMetro is doing summer 2018.

Conversion of the 20 to a 820 Metrorapid (with shelters, etc.) would be sometime later. CapMetro needs to find capital to do it (possibly FTA grant funding or the like).

[masonh2479]

Originally Posted by Austin1971

Perhaps they're waiting for a "bigger" announcement at which time they'll include CVG resumption.

WoW was going to announce AUS but DY beat them to it.

2018 is going to be "huge" for AUS. Hold on to your hats.....And no I can't tell you so don't ask....

Thank you for sharing, and thanks for popping back into the forum!

Originally Posted by khowaga

Is it the Korean Air 5x daily A380 service between AUS-ICN that the fanboy over on airliners.net insists would be super duper successful? Go on, you can tell me

Pfft 5x daily A380 at AUS, that's it?! I can see a highly successful 7x daily Concorde flight to Seoul and a 7x daily A380 flight to Seoul. I have been personally told by Korean Air's CEO this is what they plan to do with AUS.

Originally Posted by Novacek

The route as a high frequency(15 minute) local, the 20, is happening with the large set of changes CapMetro is doing summer 2018.

Conversion of the 20 to a 820 Metrorapid (with shelters, etc.) would be sometime later. CapMetro needs to find capital to do it (possibly FTA grant funding or the like).

Please don't tell me this thread will turn into transit thread pt 2 again