Your metro's airports, are you satisfied?

[Buckeye Native 001]

I love PHX's name, "Phoenix-Sky Harbor" and all things considered, it's a good airport. I'm sad to see Terminal 2 be demolished but that's out of my control. Sky Harbor is kind of weird in the sense that it's right in the middle of the city, but it opened in 1928 and at the time was probably considered to be way out in the middle of nowhere. Terminal 4's undergone some good renovations. I haven't flown in or out of Terminal 3 since it's massive renovation.

PHX used to be notorious for how long it took to get your bags from baggage claim. It's gotten better in the last decade.

The only thing that sucks for me is having to drive two hours from Flagstaff and deal with parking. I've flown out of Flagstaff a couple of times and while it's pricey, getting through security and getting my bags takes less than five minutes.

I've never flown out of Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. Only Allegiant flies there. My parents live about ten minutes away and they like it because for whatever reason, Allegiant offers nonstop flights to CVG. Fun fact: The voice you hear making certain announcements over the PA is my dad's, since he used to work in radio and has worked for the City of Mesa for the past fourteen years.

[mhays]

Originally Posted by JManc

I've only connected through Sea-Tac on my way to Alaska but it always seems to be crazy busy for its size.

We're working on it. In addition to International Arrivals (see dirt area, plus there's now a bridge from the South Satellite), the North Satellite is being expanded and renovated, we added a "hardstand" waiting terminal for people who would be taken by bus to their planes, the central food hall is being rebuilt with a mezzanine for more room, etc. All of this uses every spare inch.

Next will be a vertical rebuild at the intersection of Concourses B and C. This will include a lot of operational improvements at ground level, then widen the terminal and add a second retail level above. On top of that will be airport offices. The site is the rectangular building shown here.

While we're using the googles, one of my favorite things about Sea-Tac...you can walk right off the property from the terminal using the transit station and its skybridges.

[JAYNYC]

For an MSA of NYC's size, its airport options are pretty atrocious.

[BG918]

Denver International (DEN) is a fantastic airport, lots of domestic routes and frequencies and cheap airfare due to being a hub for three airlines: United, Southwest and Frontier. Also the number of international destinations has improved a lot recently with a number of cities in Mexico, Canada and Central America, several cities in Europe and the lone Asian connection to Tokyo.

The worst part is its location 20 miles from downtown in the middle of BFE. A pain to get to from just about anywhere in the metro. It is also a very dated looking airport as most of it hasn’t changed since it was built in the early 90’s. They are currently renovating the Great Hall so that will be improved and the concourses are being expanded. The bathrooms and food options are still pretty sub-par for such a large airport.

[azliam]

Originally Posted by Buckeye Native 001

I love PHX's name, "Phoenix-Sky Harbor" and all things considered, it's a good airport. I'm sad to see Terminal 2 be demolished but that's out of my control. Sky Harbor is kind of weird in the sense that it's right in the middle of the city, but it opened in 1928 and at the time was probably considered to be way out in the middle of nowhere. Terminal 4's undergone some good renovations. I haven't flown in or out of Terminal 3 since it's massive renovation.

PHX used to be notorious for how long it took to get your bags from baggage claim. It's gotten better in the last decade.

The only thing that sucks for me is having to drive two hours from Flagstaff and deal with parking. I've flown out of Flagstaff a couple of times and while it's pricey, getting through security and getting my bags takes less than five minutes.

I've never flown out of Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. Only Allegiant flies there. My parents live about ten minutes away and they like it because for whatever reason, Allegiant offers nonstop flights to CVG. Fun fact: The voice you hear making certain announcements over the PA is my dad's, since he used to work in radio and has worked for the City of Mesa for the past fourteen years.

Construction under way for 8th Concourse in Terminal 4 at Sky Harbor.

Besides Allegiant, Swoop (Edmonton, Winnipeg) and WestJet (Calgary) also fly out of Gateway Airport. Not sure what the future holds.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by JManc

I fly through O'Hare all the time, it's actually decent for a connection given that it's a monster of an airport. I will go out of my way to connect through ORD over Newark.

Interesting. The vast majority of people I've spoken with about connecting through ORD usually have a whole litany of reasons for why the LOATHE the place, often relating to delays, missed connections, bad weather, crowdedness, and the absolute fucking ass-rape prices for beer.

But like I said earlier, it's one of the best connected airports on the planet, so it's a great airport to live close to if you care about nonstop destination and schedule options.

[suburbanite]

Originally Posted by JAYNYC

For an MSA of NYC's size, its airport options are pretty atrocious.

This past July I had the pleasure of visiting all three airports in one day, chasing down promises of flights that weren't cancelled until reaching the end of the road at Laguardia. Not an experience I ever wish to repeat. Although I ended up staying at a dingy hotel in Flushing in the last open room in the city, and walking around Main & Roosevelt at 11 pm was pretty cool.

[Kngkyle]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Interesting. The vast majority of people I've spoken with about connecting through ORD usually have a whole litany of reasons for why the LOATHE the place, often relating to delays, missed connections, bad weather, crowdedness, and the absolute fucking ass-rape prices for beer.

But like I said earlier, it's one of the best connected airports on the planet, so it's a great airport to live close to if you care about nonstop destination and schedule options.

Eh, I feel these people just remember bad experiences from before the recent runway re-alignment. Are beer prices really that high at ORD? I don't recall that, but being in NY for 4 years now has skewed my perception, nowhere is expensive in comparison. Board a flight at JFK, LGA, EWR and look at the menu and it's all basically 50% off. The cheapest place to have a beer in Manhattan is 30,000 feet above it.

[Buckeye Native 001]

Originally Posted by BG918

Denver International (DEN) is a fantastic airport, lots of domestic routes and frequencies and cheap airfare due to being a hub for three airlines: United, Southwest and Frontier. Also the number of international destinations has improved a lot recently with a number of cities in Mexico, Canada and Central America, several cities in Europe and the lone Asian connection to Tokyo.

The worst part is its location 20 miles from downtown in the middle of BFE. A pain to get to from just about anywhere in the metro. It is also a very dated looking airport as most of it hasn’t changed since it was built in the early 90’s. They are currently renovating the Great Hall so that will be improved and the concourses are being expanded. The bathrooms and food options are still pretty sub-par for such a large airport.

DEN has Bluecifer, which means it wins everything, ever.

[Buckeye Native 001]

Originally Posted by azliam

Construction under way for 8th Concourse in Terminal 4 at Sky Harbor.

Besides Allegiant, Swoop (Edmonton, Winnipeg) and WestJet (Calgary) also fly out of Gateway Airport. Not sure what the future holds.

Forgot that WestJet flies to Gateway now. They fly to Regina or Saskatoon? Half the Province of Saskatchewan comes to Mesa in Winter...

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Kngkyle

. Are beer prices really that high at ORD?

Maybe not compared to other major hubs nationwide, but any time you have to pay 12 bucks for goddamn macro-swill, and there isn't even a concert or sporting event taking place, that definitely qualifies as an ass-rape to me.

[jtown,man]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Interesting. The vast majority of people I've spoken with about connecting through ORD usually have a whole litany of reasons for why the LOATHE the place, often relating to delays, missed connections, bad weather, crowdedness, and the absolute fucking ass-rape prices for beer.

But like I said earlier, it's one of the best connected airports on the planet, so it's a great airport to live close to if you care about nonstop destination and schedule options.

I remember when my family was completing one of our horrifying trips from Japan to Memphis for Christmas like in in the 90s when we got snowed in in Chicago. We thought we were LIVING when we got a free hotel and food credit to spend at the airport. I'll never forget that trip.

So for Memphis and Norfolk, I LOVED the airports. They were easy as hell to deal with, small lines, and simple. The drawbacks(moreso with Norfolk) was limited direct-flights and price.

I've only lived in Chicago for like 5 months so far and only used O'Hare once but I was delightfully surprised by the ease of the experience. So far, I am quite satisfied I suppose.

[muppet]

London currently has 7 international airports and operates as the world's busiest hub nearing 180 million passengers p/a. It's often the world's most visited city and a handy stopover for changing planes.

However it has only 8 runways in total, only allowed to run in daytime, 3 of which are the world's busiest single strips despite. This is due to huge problems building any new ones, despite available land a small village blocks it, and hundreds of thousands who live in the vicinities complain of increasing any noise. It's at over-capacity already, despite the demand booming.

It's taken over a decade to even bitterly argue which airport should get the new expansion (Heathrow, currently with 81 million passengers p/a and long the world's busiest international airport, now overtaken by Dubai), and now there's the appeals process to go. Meanwhile local airhubs in Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid, Frankfurt and even as far as Istanbul are poised to take the slack, particularly from Asia.

Note how in the last few years Heathrow, stymied by its lack of expansion, has fallen from second busiest to 7th.

• Video Link

Paris and Istanbul currently see in 110 million to their airports, whilst Madrid Barajas has capacity for over 100 million (and Istanbul 200 million when fully completed)

[muppet]

London airports LY (all with the pre-fix 'London'), and their expansion plans (without any new runway):

Heathrow: 81 million
Gatwick: 47 million > 60 million
Stansted: 28 million > 43 million
Luton: 18 million > 38 million
City: 5 million > 8million
Southend: 2 million > 20 million
Oxford: ? Not alot

with a new runway Heathrow will expand to 130-142 million. If everything miraculously got granted London hub would rise from 180 million today to 310 million.

[mrnyc]

just for comparison the 3 major nyc metro airports had 132M in 2017.

[azliam]

Originally Posted by Buckeye Native 001

Forgot that WestJet flies to Gateway now. They fly to Regina or Saskatoon? Half the Province of Saskatchewan comes to Mesa in Winter...

Pre-Covid-19:

At Sky Harbor, WestJet flies to Calgary, Edmonton, Kelowna, Regina, Saskatoon, Toronto-Pearson, Vancouver, and Winnipeg. Air Canada flies to Calgary, Toronto-Pearson, and Vancouver. Air Canada Rouge to Toronto-Pearson and Montreal-Trudeau. AA flies to Vancouver.

Sky Harbor expansion plans

8th Concourse design animation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaYflJE1CIM

Sky Train expansion: https://azbigmedia.com/business/tran...rs-experience/

Here is the Sky Harbor CAMP report from September of last year that specifically addresses among other things (cargo, Air National Guard needs), the short and long-term development plans for the airport. If you skip to pg. 32, you will see the preferred terminal concept that includes a proposed new West Terminal, proposed new Terminal 3 North Concourse 2 and Terminal 3-Terminal 4 Connector, and new Concourse S1 and International Concourse at Terminal 4 (to replace N3 and N4): https://www.skyharbor.com/docs/defau...rsn=73516889_4

New hotel and transit hub:
https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news...t-hub-11409044

Phoenix-Mesa Gateway expansion plans

Phoenix-Mesa Gateway to get new control tower:
https://www.eastvalleytribune.com/ne...edc885d28.html

Also, Skybridge Arizona broke ground late October at the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport and will serve as the nation’s first-ever joint U.S. and Mexico inland port and customs processing hub: http://properties.cbre.us/skybridge/

[JManc]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Interesting. The vast majority of people I've spoken with about connecting through ORD usually have a whole litany of reasons for why the LOATHE the place, often relating to delays, missed connections, bad weather, crowdedness, and the absolute fucking ass-rape prices for beer.

But like I said earlier, it's one of the best connected airports on the planet, so it's a great airport to live close to if you care about nonstop destination and schedule options.

Virtually every airport will fuck you on beer prices. It comes with the territory. I don't even think twice about it anymore. Maybe it's because i know ORD like the back of my hand but never had an issue connecting outside weather delays. Even flying into it directly is pretty straightforward outside the Uber pickup lots which is a fuster.


@mhays: Sea-Tac seemed like it was ripe for expansion/ modernization. I'll be anxious to see what they do next time I fly through there.

[Dariusb]

Originally Posted by muppet

London currently has 7 international airports and operates as the world's busiest hub nearing 180 million passengers p/a. It's often the world's most visited city and a handy stopover for changing planes.

However it has only 8 runways in total, only allowed to run in daytime, 3 of which are the world's busiest single strips despite. This is due to huge problems building any new ones, despite available land a small village blocks it, and hundreds of thousands who live in the vicinities complain of increasing any noise. It's at over-capacity already, despite the demand booming.

It's taken over a decade to even bitterly argue which airport should get the new expansion (Heathrow, currently with 81 million passengers p/a and long the world's busiest international airport, now overtaken by Dubai), and now there's the appeals process to go. Meanwhile local airhubs in Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid, Frankfurt and even as far as Istanbul are poised to take the slack, particularly from Asia.

Note how in the last few years Heathrow, stymied by its lack of expansion, has fallen from second busiest to 7th.

• Video Link

Paris and Istanbul currently see in 110 million to their airports, whilst Madrid Barajas has capacity for over 100 million (and Istanbul 200 million when fully completed)

According to the video, DFW has taken a big drop over the years. Atlanta's still holding on to the #1 spot .... for now.

[muppet]

I think every projection will be out the window from now of course. I reckon Atlanta and many US airports, whose large proportion of passengers are domestic, will increase to a bigger lead (even if all travel slumps) as international journeys slump even more round the world.

It's crazy but Anchorage was briefly the world's busiest airport last week.

[The North One]

There isn't a single New York airport in the top 20?