AUSTIN | ABIA Updates

[ATX2030]

ABIA's South Terminal floats plan to add up to 10 gates within two years

https://www.kut.org/transportation/2022-...giant-frontier-lonestar-airport-holdings

By Nathan Bernier
Published April 21, 2022 at 5:27 PM CDT

....."Now the South Terminal's operator, Lonestar Airport Holdings, is trying to wriggle out of an expected eminent domain war with the city by floating a short-term solution to the airport's infrastructure crunch: Move the South Terminal farther south and vacate the property the airport wants razed.

"It would be a significant enhancement for the airport," said Jeff Pearse, CEO of Lonestar Airport Holdings.

Within two years, he claimed, the so-called "South Terminal 2.0" would add:

up to 10 gates
up to five security lanes
22 check-in counters
more than 154,000 square feet of terminal space

[ATCZERO]

Two things stand out to me:

1) I really like Yaft's move to boot them out and do a more centralized plan.

2) The contract that was signed previously to allow Lonestar first dibs on building an expanded south terminal was super dumb.

From an air traffic prospective, their design of the expanded south terminal —. There's only one taxilane on the apron which will create roadblocks too often if it's busy. Waiting aircraft might get stuck on a taxiway which we absolutely hate because of the missed flow times or log jam it creates. It would be far more beneficial having all the gates worked by a single ramp tower.

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by ATCZERO

From an air traffic prospective, their design of the expanded south terminal —. There's only one taxilane on the apron which will create roadblocks too often if it's busy. Waiting aircraft might get stuck on a taxiway which we absolutely hate because of the missed flow times or log jam it creates. It would be far more beneficial having all the gates worked by a single ramp tower.

Could that be addressed by shifting their proposed terminal/gates further to the right (of the diagram, I can't quite orient what cardinal direction that is)? At the cost of parking/pond area that possibly could be made up somewhere else.



Non ideal, but the idea of getting more capacity soon for "free" has some attraction.

[ILUVSAT]

^^^I thought this was going to "add up to 10 gates." It has three now. Did they mean 10 total or 10+3 (which they operate now)=13 total with South Terminal 2.0?

In either case, the proposed diagram only shows 7 narrow body and one potential wide body gates.

Interesting proposition, nonetheless.

[ATCZERO]

Originally Posted by Novacek

Could that be addressed by shifting their proposed terminal/gates further to the right (of the diagram, I can't quite orient what cardinal direction that is)? At the cost of parking/pond area that possibly could be made up somewhere else.



Non ideal, but the idea of getting more capacity soon for "free" has some attraction.

Yes, this could be addressed if they moved the terminal building further to the right to allow for another taxilane. But really, we don't want a main ramp that actually has a ramp tower and functions smoothly and a south ramp that's a free for all.

[StoOgE]

This isnt real its posturing by the South Terminal operator to "prove" that you dont need to boot them to expand the airport.

[paul78701]

Originally Posted by StoOgE

This isnt real its posturing by the South Terminal operator to "prove" that you dont need to boot them to expand the airport.

Probably, but I'd almost be inclined to call their bluff on being able to deliver these gates in two years. That's a lot sooner than the currently planned new terminal could be built. It would definitely be better to have all airport gates within properly interconnected terminals, but ABIA needs mode gates ASAP.

[ATCZERO]

Originally Posted by paul78701

Probably, but I'd almost be inclined to call their bluff on being able to deliver these gates in two years. That's a lot sooner than the currently planned new terminal could be built. It would definitely be better to have all airport gates within properly interconnected terminals, but ABIA needs mode gates ASAP.

They desperately need gates but I'm all for more short term pain to boot out this third party.

[freerover]

Originally Posted by ATCZERO

They desperately need gates but I'm all for more short term pain to boot out this third party.

Agreed. They just want to turn a public utility into a private cash cow. Get them off city property.

Originally Posted by freerover

Agreed. They just want to turn a public utility into a private cash cow. Get them off city property.

$100 million should do the trick, I guesstimate, to break the contract. The City wanted to turn a public utility into a private cash cow and apparently signed a public/private partnership contract to that effect.

[danny1010]

March numbers are in…. and they’ve blown away the previous months - pre- or post-pandemic. I hope this is enough evidence to build out as much expansion in this next round as we can.

https://www.austintexas.gov/news/march-2...gWFFEn4s8YCsFhF5z_jw1ssDb-v1OgUJDke0E1NM

[Tyrone Shoes]

Originally Posted by danny1010

March numbers are in…. and they’ve blown away the previous months - pre- or post-pandemic. I hope this is enough evidence to build out as much expansion in this next round as we can.

https://www.austintexas.gov/news/march-2...gWFFEn4s8YCsFhF5z_jw1ssDb-v1OgUJDke0E1NM

First two million month is on the way, this year - soon What's funny is these numbers now will soon become the new normal.

[Sigaven]

Wowzers, and they said we wouldn't recover from pre-pandemic levels until 2023-2024.

[GoldenBoot]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Shoes

First two million month is on the way, this year - soon What's funny is these numbers now will soon become the new normal.

Yep. May, June, July, August and October are all, traditionally, busier months than March. The airport did mention that they expect to hit 20 million PAX this year (or be really, really, near it). The current terminal design/infrastructure has a capacity of 15 million PAX. As we all know, the terminal was already obsolete when the nine-gate expansion opened.

[drummer]

That's insane to see the numbers jump back up so quickly.

[freerover]

The economy is also red hot right now and the expectation is that is going to slow as the fed raises interest rates to deal with inflation. Goldman didn't go as far as saying "recession" but another analyst did. However, even with an economic slowdown that has less money for people to spend I still think Austin will remain a hot enough tourist town. I mean it's really hard to predict.

Best case scenario, the northern terminal expansion can be added to the current scope of work but they have not identified where that funding will come from yet. Hopefully the infrastructure bill opens up that option. The thing to realize is that a big reason why we are getting all this new service is that AUS gate prices are really competitive and there are a lot of subsidies especially for desired routes. If we raise prices to get more bonds for expansion, we are also impacting not only costs passed onto the consumer but also the financial viability of some routes.

Once again, I think this entire board seems to gloss over the funding components of projects and a lot of people seem to assume the reason why we don't do x or y is incompetence. It's not. Money just doesn't grow on trees. Even the available federal money comes with a tremendous amount of red tape and bureaucracy that can't be bypassed unless congress brings back earmarks which they should do.

[ATXboom]

I’m gunna guess by the time the new terminal starts the airport will have committed to 20 gates rather than 10.

[We vs us]

Originally Posted by ATXboom

I’m gunna guess by the time the new terminal starts the airport will have committed to 20 gates rather than 10.

To me, this is going to be the ultimate effect of these (very public) growing pains. The port undoubtedly knows it's further behind then it wanted to be -- and they can only effect the speed of construction by so much. So they'll revise upwards where they want to end up.

[ATX2030]

Originally Posted by ATXboom

I’m gunna guess by the time the new terminal starts the airport will have committed to 20 gates rather than 10.

As they did with the original terminal, adding an extra 5 gates to the east end during construction.

[StoOgE]

Originally Posted by ATXboom

I’m gunna guess by the time the new terminal starts the airport will have committed to 20 gates rather than 10.

I think we will absolutely wind up with 20 new gates and I think the full expansion of the 2nd terminal will ramp up quicker after that.