AUSTIN | ABIA Updates

[Austin1971]

B

[the Genral]

Originally Posted by Austin1971

BA flight goes daily in May. Also heard a rumor that BA is floating the idea of adding a second daily. Loads, both passenger and cargo, are exceeding expectations.

Maybe I'm being a bit superlative about this now, mostly because I didn't expect this degree of success when it was announced, unlike some of you who correctly predicted BA's success here, but this does speak huge for Austin. Its actually remarkable.

[migol24]

Is BA for British Airways?

[sammyk]

Originally Posted by migol24

Is BA for British Airways?

Correct.

[DoubleC]

Actually, wasn't the load for each plane an average of 75% I heard? I don't see much reason for doubling flights if the plane's are not already full.

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

Hmm sounds like the Mexico City route may not last much longer. Im betting that a city like Monterrey would be a busier route.

Or there isn't much you can do with that airline.

The way I see it is that if a nonstop destination offers a handful of connections from that airport, it'll give customers another option/reason to fly into the airport. You can fly aeromar into Mexico City and connect to some other city in Mexico, but that's just about it (is aeromar a cheap airline? I thought they were aimed at business travelers).

Fly on Aeromexico into Mexico City and you can pretty much fly anywhere around the world that Mexico City flies to with AMX. It opens up another door for worldwide travel. I can't recall why the first (or second) time Aeromexico cancelled their route to Monterrey. I think it was before the swine flu (foolish vivaerobus to cancel their route for good for something that was only temporary). Maybe an aeromexico connect to MEX would work better.

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by DoubleC

Actually, wasn't the load for each plane an average of 75% I heard? I don't see much reason for doubling flights if the plane's are not already full.



Or there isn't much you can do with that airline.

The way I see it is that if a nonstop destination offers a handful of connections from that airport, it'll give customers another option/reason to fly into the airport. You can fly aeromar into Mexico City and connect to some other city in Mexico, but that's just about it (is aeromar a cheap airline? I thought they were aimed at business travelers).

Fly on Aeromexico into Mexico City and you can pretty much fly anywhere around the world that Mexico City flies to with AMX. It opens up another door for worldwide travel. I can't recall why the first (or second) time Aeromexico cancelled their route to Monterrey. I think it was before the swine flu (foolish vivaerobus to cancel their route for good for something that was only temporary). Maybe an aeromexico connect to MEX would work better.

Maybe there is not enough business travel between Austin and Mexico City or Monterrey to justify the route. There is plenty of cheap and fairly comfortable bus service between Austin and Monterrey (and Mexico City too) to accommodate most of the budget minded travelers.

[GoldenBoot]

Originally Posted by Austin1971

BA flight goes daily in May. Also heard a rumor that BA is floating the idea of adding a second daily. Loads, both passenger and cargo, are exceeding expectations.

After less than two months? March is traditionally the fifth busiest month of ABIA's year and April is the third lowest. I would guess that there is not enough data to jump right into a second flight this early.

Even if loads were near 75% in March, it will be interesting to see what they are in April.



I'd love to see a second flight...maybe using larger equipment for one of them!

Are there any other (rumored) foreign, trans-oceanic airlines looking at ABIA for possible service links?

[GoldenBoot]

I know it exists and am having a hard time finding it again...does anyone have (or know where to find) the list of most popular international destinations of passengers who enplaned at ABIA? I believe the data was from 2011 or 2012.

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by GoldenBoot

March is traditionally the fifth busiest month of ABIA's year and April is the third lowest.

Actually, April is the 4th lowest month. Jan., Feb., and Sep. are the three lowest months. I think if we were to ever get a second daily flight to London, it would be during the summer only - at least for now.

Originally Posted by GoldenBoot

I know it exists and am having a hard time finding it again...does anyone have (or know where to find) the list of most popular international destinations of passengers who enplaned at ABIA? I believe the data was from 2011 or 2012.

It was from the Brookings Institute and it compared 2011 with 2003.

http://www.brookings.edu/research/interactives/aviation

The default is New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA.

Just to the left of that, click on "Click here to choose a different metro area" and choose "Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX" from the drop-down list.

When that page comes up, click on "Where is everyone going? Click here for a table of the 200 most popular origins and destinations."

I think, based on passenger counts and percentage increases from 2003 to 2011, our next ultra-long-haul destination will be Seoul. It's already the 4th most popular international destination from Austin (22,447 annual passengers) and from 2003 to 2011 the percentage increase of travelers to/from Austin-Seoul was 140.5% from 2003.

London had 35,991 yearly passengers in 2011 and was up 13.8% from 2003.
Toronto, Canada had 28,143 yearly passengers in 2011 up 27.9% from 2003.
Cancun had 27,906 yearly passengers in 2011 down 1.2%% from 2003
Seoul had 22,447 yearly passengers in 2011 up 140.5% from 2003.

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

Hmm sounds like the Mexico City route may not last much longer. Im betting that a city like Monterrey would be a busier route.

Jdawgboy, Mexico City was the 6th most popular international destination from Austin in 2011 with 12,212 yearly passengers in 2011 down -43.6% from 2003.

Monterrey was the 53rd most popular international destination in 2011 and had 2,466 yearly passengers in 2011 up 20.2% from 2003.

If we can't even support Mexico City, there's no way we can support Monterrey, MX.

[Austin1971]

[

[Jdawgboy]

Thanks for posting that. I'm surprised that Air Canada never kept their Austin-Toronto flight if it was the second most traveled international destination.

I don't think we could have landed a better route with BA at a better time than now. Perfect timing and being that it is BA, it opens up the world to us as it's now simply a one stop transfer at Heathrow to anywhere else.

I will be so excited when word of an Austin-Seoul direct flight happens. I say when and not if because there is no doubt it will happen.

[DoubleC]

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

Thanks for posting that. I'm surprised that Air Canada never kept their Austin-Toronto flight if it was the second most traveled international destination. .

Same here. It probably means most people who traveled from Austin to Toronto chose to fly another airline like American or United rather than fly with Air Canada. Probably for economic reasons or flexibility of flight times (there are many flights into Dallas and Houston daily, but only a daily was offered to Toronto, I think).

[LoneStarMike]

From the Austin American Statesman:

ABIA: March travel breaks record, 'busiest month ever'

Passenger traffic at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport during the month of March broke a record for travel in a single month, making it the “busiest month ever,” officials said Thursday.

Aided by heavy travel during the South by Southwest festival and a busy overall month for local travelers, the airport reported total passenger traffic hit 942,825. That’s up 7.5 percent compared to the same month a year earlier.

That tops the previous single month record of 922,615 set in July 2013, airport officials said.

From ABIA:

Monthly passenger record broken in March at Austin’s airport

British Airways wound up having 7,170 passengers for the month.

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport
Aviation Activity Report Calendar Year 2014 vs 2013 (pdf file)

[GoldenBoot]

Originally Posted by LoneStarMike

From the Austin American Statesman:

ABIA: March travel breaks record, 'busiest month ever'



From ABIA:

Monthly passenger record broken in March at Austin’s airport

British Airways wound up having 7,170 passengers for the month.

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport
Aviation Activity Report Calendar Year 2014 vs 2013 (pdf file)

If that is correct...BA had an average load factor of 83.76% in March (almost 180 people per flight).

ABIA had 11,478 total revenue international passengers (enplaned and deplaned) in March 2014. That is a 204% increase from March 2013. The difference...BA's flights which constituted ~62.5% of the total revenue international traffic at ABIA in March 2014.

I'm eager to see April's numbers. If they are consistent...then we may have something very good in the making.

[Austin1971]

T

[GoldenBoot]

After 1Q2014, ABIA saw roughly a 6% increase in passengers over 1Q2013. Thus, if this trend continues, ABIA will service approximately an additional 600,000 passengers in 2014 than it did in 2013 (~12% of which would be directly attributed to BA's new service to Austin).

Great news...since we have yet to hit the busiest months of the year.

[GoldenBoot]

Originally Posted by Austin1971

Tells you what routes ABIA is targeting.....

https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/images/Airport/business/Notice_Rule_Adoption.pdf

This says nothing about what markets other than London (which we have) and Tokyo with regard to "new" trans-oceanic, international routes.

It's a document focused more on domestic and North American route expansions (which is absolutely not bad at all). However, I'd like to see who the airport is targeting trans-ocenanically beyond London and Tokyo.

Sorry...I like to think big!

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by GoldenBoot

If that is correct...BA had an average load factor of 83.76% in March (almost 180 people per flight).

I think your numbers are a little bit off (but not by much.) BA operated a total of 42 flights in March - 21 outbound & 21 inbound. Each plane holds 214 passengers. 214 seats times 42 total flights equals 8,988 total available seats. If BA carried 7170 passengers, that works out to an average load factor of 79.8% or about 170 passengers per flight.

[Jdawgboy]

Austin to Tokyo direct route! that's even better than a direct route to Seoul IMO. Man that would be sweet!.

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

Austin to Tokyo direct route! that's even better than a direct route to Seoul IMO.

Go back and look at that link to the Brookings Institute report.

In 2003, Austin-Tokyo had 15,483 annual passengers. By 2011, it had dropped down to 8,797 annual passengers - a decrease of 43.2%

In 2003, Austin-Seoul had 9,335 annual passengers. By 2011 it had risen to 22,447 annual passengers - an increase of 140.5%

Based on that, why do you think Tokyo would be a better choice than Seoul?