Quote:
Originally Posted by SLCrising
But, I think it may have too few gates. I think SLCIA is approaching 90 gates or so, that includes the sky west E concourse. Also, the mingling of the heavies and the commuter jets on the outer concourse I do not favor. Most of the commuter jet gates are on ground level as the planes are lower to the ground themselves, how would that work in a regular concourse. Even the commuter jets on B Concourse are at the ground level. Also, how does it work to have the smaller vs bigger jets mingling there on the same concourse, from a safety perspective of course?
I do like the indoor train station, I assume that would be for TRAX, or is it for a terminal to concourse train system? I can't tell.
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You have brought up some key issues I too have wondered about which are not clearly answered in the latest update to the airport master plan.
I am not sure I understand you when you say: "how does it work to have the smaller vs bigger jets mingling there on the same concourse, from a safety perspective of course?", but I will try.
There should be no saftey issues at all to intermingle small planes and big planes at the same concourse. It is done at plenty of airports already. Again, not knowing what the airport is currently planning, I can't for sure say how they would arrange it. But you could look at a few other airports for ideas.
1. Detroit - Northwest's new terminal has a two parallel concourse design (same idea as what the renderings show) with the remote concourse containing gates for both mainline and commuter aircraft. All commuter aircraft (including props) are able to taxi up to a jetway and allow passengers to disembark rather than having passengers walk outside in the elements and on the tarmac (now that is a safety issue).
2. Denver - Recently added onto their Concourse B with new gates for commuter aircraft to use and allows small regional jets to park at gates with jetways.
How best to lay this out in a new SLC terminal is something that can be difficult. The renderings you see are from 1997. This was back when regional airlines were very small and not heavily used. Today that is much different. 7 or 8 years ago, flights on regional jet aircraft increased dramatically to a peak about 1-2 years ago. Right now, airlines are starting to put a halt on regional airline growth as it isn't as economical as it used to be. So the demand for regional airline flights is reducing, thus the need commuter gates is less. But as anyone in the airline industry will tell you, things change rapidly. In a few years, airlines might want to bring on more regional aircraft for one reason or another and you'll be stuck with too many mainline gates and not enough commuter gates.
With this problem in hand, I would say the airport should take a really good look at how they are going to plan this out.
In my opinion, the best thing they can do is build a concourse which is easily adaptable to changes in the industry. Perhaps create gates which are all capable of holding a larger Boeing 757 or similar aircraft but be capable of converting that gate into a regional aircraft gate by allowing two regional aircraft to park in the one spot the larger 757 was able to fit in. You would also want to make it possible to allow all commuter aircraft to use jetways as this eliminates countless problems, is more efficient, and is much safer for passengers.
In SLC's case, having Delta Air Lines and Delta Connection (regional/commuter flights) occupy one large concourse rather than four smaller concourses (like it is now) would make it much easier for passengers to connect flights and would eliminate a lot of walking and confusion.
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