Quote:
Originally Posted by texastarkus
After speaking with a former Airside Operations person, who stated "The runways at SAT are too short for any long haul routes - plus the runways cannot be lengthened because there are neighborhoods on one side and loop 410 on the other." Somewhere in this thread someone asked if it was wise to renovate the terminal while the runways/taxiways need work.
As far as a gateway to Mexico - look for Skybus from US cities to Austin and VivaAerobus from Aus into Mexico. There will be a partnership that will bring passengers from the San Antonio area to Austin.
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They looked into the whole airport expansion/relocation issue about a decade ago (for those of you on here old enough to buy a lottery ticket, you'd remember the discussions back then about possibly building a regional airport with austin). Both cities decided to go their own way, so here we are...
But there are a few errors posted on here. 1) The argument above about the runways being too short for long haul flights is just plane (ha) wrong. SAT lands 3 or 4 DC-10 FedEx cargo flights a day. Two weeks ago Air Force One landed there, which is a Boeing 747-200B. 2) the runways are scheduled for lengthening and upgrades here in the near future (it's somewhere on the city's website under strategic plan for the dept of aviation). I believe they are even going to add a new runway or two if I remember correctly. I seem to recall the runway expansion would only necessitate the condemnation of a stretch of Jones-Maltzberger parallel to the runway and some of the office park adjoining. With the planned expansion of Wurzbach Parkway passing to the north, it would remove most of the traffic and making the expansion feasable. The NW-SE runway (and the addition of another parallel) would be the majority of the lengthening and addition - approx 80% of the time this is the runway that is used due to our weather patterns here (rare is the wind from the NE or the SW). The NE-SW runway could also be lengthened to the NE as there is room there. Finally, there are noise abatement procedures in place that pilots must follow, and all homeowners in a certain designated area are eligible for a FAA grant to further soundproof their homes. (dont know if grant funds still exist for this - last I heard of the program was three or four years ago).
Anyway, it's feasible now, and they already have plans for expansion. Plus, I kinda like having the airport in the geographic center of town. Were so damned used to a 45 minute drive outside of a town to get to the airport, we think thats the way it is supposed to be. I like the airport a quick 10 minute ride from downtown, and knowing that no matter where you are in town you're only 20 - 25 minutes max from it.