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Originally Posted by masonh2479
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By several measures, Austin is well on its way to becoming a truly global city.
It’s become a haven for foreign real estate investors. Central Texas is home to one of the world’s largest technology companies in Dell Technologies Inc., and a hub for others including Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Facebook Inc. and Google Inc. And its music scene is known far and wide.
There’s just one catch.
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, the region’s primary link to the rest of the planet, needs to keep pace with the region’s explosive population and economic growth in order to capitalize on that potential.
And that potential could be realized now that a recent multimillion-dollar project and a massive expansion currently underway are significantly increasing the airport’s capacity for global traffic. In fact, new data shows how ABIA is doing more than just about any other U.S. airport when it comes to attracting international air carriers.
Austin “is perhaps the leading medium-hub market for international growth,” said Seth Young, director of the Center for Aviation Studies at Ohio State University and a national authority on the economics of air travel. “If anyone is primed for international growth, it’s Austin,” he added.
There were 14,800 international boardings at ABIA in 2012, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. That grew to 135,200 in 2016 — an 814 percent growth rate that was second in the nation among airports with at least 10,000 boardings. The data only reflects nonstop commercial flights.
“As a result of events such as South by Southwest and Formula 1, our name recognition and people’s awareness of Austin as a destination has increased exponentially,” said Jim Smith, executive director of ABIA. “Airlines are much more knowledgeable about the Austin market than they were three, four or five years ago.”
So far this year, Condor Flugdienst GmbH has said it will increase its flights out of Austin to Frankfurt, Germany, from two to three days a week, and new flights out of ABIA have been announced to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic on Vacation Express and to London Gatwick Airport on Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA.
International routes are also among the fastest-growing at ABIA: Traffic on Condor’s Frankfurt flights is up 99 percent so far this year compared with last. Volaris, which flies to Guadalajara, Mexico, has seen its traffic climb 443 percent year-over-year.
Smith attributes the surge in global traffic to airlines measuring the success of the international flights out of ABIA for the last three years, plus new infrastructure, such as the Terminal East Infill project with an expanded customs and border protection facility.
The Terminal East project added about 55,000 square feet and renovated 17,000 square feet more; ABIA now can handle 400 international passengers an hour instead of 200 per hour previously.
What’s more, the Austin airport’s biggest transformation yet is nearing completion: a $350 million terminal expansion that will add nine gates that will be used for both domestic and international flights. Having an airport of a certain size is something that companies looking to expand into Texas have on their checklist.
What’s next
To grow their international connections, airports sell themselves to carriers — and Austin is no exception.
“Airports approach the airlines and basically build a business case why that airline can make money flying that route,” Smith said. “We were visiting with British Airways for five years before they were comfortable that flight would make money.”
British Airways launched nonstop flights from ABIA to London’s Heathrow Airport in 2014. A total of 85,346 passengers used the route through August, down 2 percent year-over-year after a record 129,941 people flew on British Airways out of Austin in 2016.
Despite the slight dip, British Airways said in September it will begin flying next year into and out of Austin on Boeing Co. 747s — the airport’s first regular commercial passenger service on the large, easily recognizable jetliners. Replacing Boeing’s smaller 787 Dreamliner, the 747s will be able to fit more passengers: six more in first class, 10 more in business class and 116 more in economy.
British Airways started flying direct from Austin to London in 2014 on Boeing Co. 787s. It will switch to larger 747s starting in April 2018.
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Next up: ABIA executives are targeting Asian cities for direct flights.
“We don’t have the numbers quite yet but we’re still going and talking to Asian carriers so when the numbers are good enough, they’ll be ready to go,” Smith said.
He said negotiations with carriers are confidential and declined to identify any companies in discussions with ABIA.
Technological advances in aircraft manufacturing and operations have made it cheaper for international carriers to reach smaller airports such as Austin: “You need to fill fewer seats to make an international market cost feasible,” said Young with Ohio State University.
The FAA classifies ABIA as a medium hub, meaning it handles between 0.25 percent and 1 percent of the country’s annual passenger boardings. A proliferation of low-cost carriers worldwide — including Allegiant Air, Frontier Airlines and Sun Country Airlines in Austin, many running flights out of the South Terminal — has also helped make foreign expansion more feasible for medium hubs around the country.
“Once the domestic market is really firing on all cylinders... that’s when it makes sense to make the investment to attract international flights,” Young said.
Because Asia is farther from Central Texas than Europe, ABIA would need to surmount additional challenges. Larger aircraft than the Boeing 787 are necessary and “you probably need on the order of 200 to 250 passengers a day” on a route to make it worthwhile, Young said, instead of 120 to 150 on a route to Europe.
Airspace is also more tightly regulated in the busy Asian market, so Young said a more likely destination out of Austin than mega-hubs such as Shanghai or Tokyo might be a place such as Guangzhou, China — which has a metro population of 44 million.
Airspace is also more tightly regulated in the busy Asian market, so Young said a more likely destination out of Austin than mega-hubs such as Shanghai or Tokyo might be a place such as Guangzhou, China — which has a metro population of 44 million.
MOVING BODIES
ABIA now flies direct to seven international destinations. Here’s how many people took those flights in 2016:
London, England on British Airways: 127,695 passengers
Cancun, Mexico on Southwest and United: 75,022
Toronto on Air Canada: 42,953
Guadalajara, Mexico on Volaris: 10,874
Frankfurt, Germany on Condor: 8,053
Mexico City on Aeromexico: 5,826
San Jose Del Cabo, Mexico on Southwest: 2,735
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