A LOT RIDING ON AIRPORT TRAIN
The speedier Skylink may pull in more connecting fliers - and D/FW revenue
06:40 PM CDT on Saturday, May 7, 2005
By SUZANNE MARTA / The Dallas Morning News
When Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport's new Skylink opens later this month, passengers will trade a plodding, jerky trip on the airport's 31-year-old train for a fast, sleek ride with a view.
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport's Skylink will begin carrying passengers from terminal to terminal on May 21. It will be the world's largest airport train. But airport officials are counting on the $880 million project for a lot more than that. Opening to passengers on May 21, Skylink seeks to address one of D/FW's critical flaws. Although the airport's sprawling layout makes it easier for pilots to park big jets, it can frustrate passengers rushing to make connecting flights. The automated Skylink – the world's largest airport train, with a fleet of 64 cars and a route nearly five miles long – will transport passengers between most terminals in about five minutes.
Skylink cars can travel in both directions, so the longest trip between D/FW's four existing terminals and a new international terminal will take just nine minutes.
"This solves the No. 1 customer service issue at D/FW," said Jeff Fegan, the airport's chief executive. Aviation consultant Mike Boyd said the new train transforms D/FW. "It's the equivalent of building a whole new airport with one terminal," he said. "Skylink really brings D/FW up to date."
Skylink could mean more passengers, air service and concessions revenue, and it may even change perceptions of the world's third-busiest airport, D/FW officials said.
Opened in 1974, D/FW isn't an old airport, but it was designed for a different era of air travel, when passengers pretty much got on planes at their home airports and got off the same planes at their destinations. After deregulation in 1978, leading airlines began to develop vast hub-and-spoke networks, which allowed them to serve midsize and smaller cities more efficiently. D/FW grew into a major hub. Today nearly two-thirds of passengers connect, rather than end their trips, at the airport.
Major carriers such as American Airlines Inc. also got a lot bigger, making transfers even more complex. When D/FW opened, "no one ever intended for any airline to be bigger than one terminal," Mr. Fegan said. Now American operates in terminals A, C and part of B. And soon, it will move its international flights into Terminal D, which opens in July.
Connecting passengers are critical to the North Texas economy because they attract direct air service that couldn't be supported by the local market alone.
But connections between carriers at D/FW's four horseshoe terminals can prove lengthy and frustrating for harried travelers, sometimes requiring a trip on a shuttle bus and an additional trip through security. "If you were connecting from San Antonio to Des Moines, you could literally have to walk a half mile," Mr. Boyd said. "As a connecting airport, D/FW was a disaster."
'A NIGHTMARE'
The current D/FW train, Airtrans, has been the bane of connecting travelers – and the butt of jokes – since it opened with the launch of the airport.
Skylink will transport passengers between most terminals in about five minutes.
Officials have jokingly called Airtrans "the little train that could," referring to the way it barely seems to have enough momentum to complete its winding route.
The original train operated several routes around the terminals on the public side of the airport. In 1991, American opened its TrAAin, which uses Airtrans cars and equipment and runs on the secure side of the airport through the carrier's operations in Terminals A, B and C. The loop goes in only one direction and takes 17 minutes to complete.
Until Skylink opens, the TrAAin is the only part of the original Airtrans system that continues to take passengers. The rest of Airtrans was closed to passengers in late 2003 and is used only by airport employees. Tonya Stringer, who travels weekly for her job as a district sales manager, is careful not to waste time when she connects at D/FW, especially when she has to switch terminals. Her strategy? "I just go fast and don't make any stops," she said as she boarded the TrAAin, connecting between flights from Kansas City, Mo., to her home in Little Rock, Ark. "I have 40 minutes between flights, and it will probably take me the full 40 minutes to get to my gate with this train," Ms. Stringer said. "Forget the bathroom, and forget getting food."
Ms. Stringer said she always asks her travel agent to allow an hour between flights at D/FW when possible to avoid missing a connection. "D/FW is great for local passengers," she said. "But for the person connecting, it's a nightmare."
A SHORTER PATH
D/FW has been aggressively marketing Skylink, holding focus groups about such details as selecting station and onboard music and even developing a "signature" chime when the train starts or stops. The goal is to get travelers comfortable with the train, said Joe Lopano, D/FW's executive vice president of marketing. "Once people trust that Skylink is going to move every two minutes, they'll feel more comfortable to go to another terminal to shop," Mr. Lopano said.
Initially, Skylink will be capable of carrying 5,000 people per hour in each direction, using two-car trains. Eventually, the system will accommodate four-car trains.
Each Skylink car can carry 60 people, compared with about 20 on the old train. And at about 35 miles per hour, Skylink is more than twice as fast. Like the TrAAin, Skylink runs on the air side of the terminal, meaning passengers can avoid a second trip through security.
Terminal navigation makes a big difference in airport customer satisfaction studies, said Linda Hirneise, a partner in J.D. Power and Associates' global travel practice.
"Anything to expedite the customer experience will have tremendous rewards in satisfaction," she said. At D/FW, "the walkways are so narrow, and the [passenger] carts are always honking at you to get out of the way," Ms. Hirneise said. "It can be very difficult to get around." With two train stations in each terminal, those marathon walks that wind through the concourse won't be necessary.
Travelers who are beginning or ending their trips at D/FW and check their luggage won't benefit from Skylink because they have to go outside the security gates. They'll still use the shuttle service to return to parking garages at different terminals. But Skylink will be useful for local travelers who bring only carry-on luggage. Road warriors will be able to choose the carrier with the best flight times for the departure and the trip back even if the terminals differ, said Tom Parsons, owner and fare watcher for Arlington-based Bestfares.com. "Before, if you flew out on Delta, you'd make sure you came back on Delta just so you didn't have to use that stupid train" to get back to your car, Mr. Parsons said. "Now you can fly Delta if that's the best time out, and fly American if that's the best time back."
Mr. Parsons agreed that the train's convenience could make D/FW more attractive as a connecting hub. "People might start connecting through Dallas instead of Chicago or Atlanta," he said. "That's where the real payoff comes." The new train also makes the airport easier to sell to new and existing airline tenants looking to expand but counting on quick connections for passengers. "In the airport world, you need size and flexibility," D/FW's Mr. Fegan said. "We had size; now with Skylink, we have flexibility."
Skylink's fast terminal connections factored heavily in a recent D/FW business pitch to Korean Air, which operates in Terminal B. Now if Korean Air passengers want to connect to flights on the carrier's interline partner Delta Air Lines Inc., they have to take a Terminal Link shuttle bus to Terminal E, which isn't served by the TrAAin.
With Skylink, "Korean Air can have as good of connections as American Airlines," Mr. Lopano said.
American chairman and chief executive Gerard Arpey described the train as "very fast and very convenient." "The train is the link that makes our connections work," he said at a recent event for international media. Efficient terminal navigation could translate into more business for American and other carriers whose passengers want to make quicker connections with international networks. "If it takes 10 hours and 30 minutes for an international trip that connects through D/FW and 12 hours if you connect through Chicago, that's a competitive advantage for us," Mr. Fegan said.
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