AUSTIN | ABIA Updates

[IluvATX]

Originally Posted by ATX2030

The airport is working as fast as humanly possible to add gates! It's only going to take 3 years to add 3 more gates to the west end. Those 3 gates are currently scheduled to come on-line Q1 of 2026.

I did some more math as much as I hate it and 3 more gates will still be 750,000 pax and well above most US airports per gate. I don’t think this is a good statistic to have.

[GoldenBoot]

Originally Posted by IluvATX

I did some more math as much as I hate it and 3 more gates will still be 750,000 pax and well above most US airports per gate. I don’t think this is a good statistic to have.

Curious...how did you come up with 750,000 pax?

ABIA is averaging roughly ~570,270 pax per gate (~21.1 million/37 gates). If ABIA averaged 750k per gate with the 3 new gates (and before they close 3 for tunnel construction), ABIA would be processing 30 million a year (with 40 gates). And, that is not currently the case.

[IluvATX]

Originally Posted by GoldenBoot

Curious...how did you come up with 750,000 pax?

ABIA is averaging roughly ~570,270 pax per gate (~21.1 million/37 gates). If ABIA averaged 750k per gate with the 3 new gates (and before they close 3 for tunnel construction), ABIA would be processing 30 million a year (with 40 gates). And, that is not currently the case.

ATL I used 90,000,000 as a base and divided it by number of gates. I did the same for AUS.

[ILUVSAT]

Originally Posted by IluvATX

ATL I used 90,000,000 as a base and divided it by number of gates. I did the same for AUS.

Weird...

If you do that, neither airport comes close to 750k per gate. Might want to check your calculator's settings.

~90 million pax/192 gates does not = 750k pax/gate. It's ~468,750 per gate.

ATL was just shy of 94 million pax in 2022. It's record occurred in 2019 at roughly 104 million pax. ATX was approximately 17.5 million in '19 and 21.1 million in '22.

[IluvATX]

Originally Posted by ILUVSAT

Weird...

If you do that, neither airport comes close to 750k per gate. Might want to check your calculator's settings.

~90 million pax/192 gates does not = 750k pax/gate. It's ~468,750 per gate.

ATL was just shy of 94 million pax in 2022. It's record occurred in 2019 at roughly 104 million pax. ATX was approximately 17.5 million in '19 and 21.1 million in '22.

21,000,000 divided by the number of gates. It’s pretty simple.

[Lobotomizer]

I know passenger traffic has grown quickly, and Covid happened.

But it seems those aren't excuses when the expansions being planned now should've been completed 5 years ago.

And then the south terminal fiasco. Why wasn't something written into the contract that the city could give them 180 days to vacate the premises when that land was needed, and paid an agreed upon early termination penalty, or something along those lines. Oh, they won't agree? Then don't build the stupid south terminal, and accelerate the non-ridiculously short sighted expansion plans.

Absolute failure of leadership imo. Is anyone going to be held accountable?

[LoneStarMike]

Nope. Your math is off.

21,089,289 divided by 37 gates is 569,981 passengers per gate.

If you want to break it out by terminal:

South Terminal

442,956 divided by 3 gates is 147,652 passengers per gate.


Barbara Jordan Terminal

20,543,887 divided by 34 gates is 604,232 passengers per gate.

You can check the math here:

Online calculator

[ILUVSAT]

Originally Posted by IluvATX

21,000,000 divided by the number of gates. It’s pretty simple.

Yes, it would be simple if one were to use the correct number of gates. See LoneStarMike's post above. Austin has had 37 gates since 2019.

[GoldenBoot]

Moving on...

Allegiant is adding a AUS-OMA (Omaha) route in June. It looks as if it will run 2x weekly.

https://www.routesonline.com/news/29/bre...air-reports-high-demand-adds-new-routes/

[ATX2030]

Details Of New Chase “Sapphire Experience” At Austin Airport, Opening Next Month

https://viewfromthewing.com/details-of-n...ce-at-austin-airport-opening-next-month/

[IluvATX]

Originally Posted by ATX2030

Details Of New Chase “Sapphire Experience” At Austin Airport, Opening Next Month

https://viewfromthewing.com/details-of-n...ce-at-austin-airport-opening-next-month/

I’m moving on from the previous discussion. If you have a sapphire card can you access?

[eskimo33]

12 airlines have 23 international routes this summer.
By James Pearson, Simply Flying.com

"Austin is expecting its best summer ever for international operations. It has 424,000 departing international seats between March 26th and October 28th (double for both ways), according to the latest OAG data. That is 4% higher than the previous best and over twice as much as in the pre-pandemic summer 2019. The return of WestJet from Calgary has helped, along with the coming launch of Copa Airlines from Panama City.
Austin's international network

This summer, Austin has 12 airlines operating internationally. They have 23 routes, of which 10 started in 2022 or will begin or resume this year. If the airlines are stripped out, there are 17 airport pairs, as detailed below in order of departing seats. Note that flights can vary widely; where this happens, I've put the minimum and maximum planned."

The article has a lot of good info, worth the click through and additional reading.

https://simpleflying.com/austin-airport-record-international-ops-summer-2023/

[Tyrone Shoes]

1962 Photograph of members of the Austin Ballet Society posing on stairs in front of the Mueller Austin Municipal Airport, with the control tower in the background.

[ATX2030]

Originally Posted by ATX2030

The airport is working as fast as humanly possible to add gates! It's only going to take 3 years to add 3 more gates to the west end. Those 3 gates are currently scheduled to come on-line Q1 of 2026.

Posting this article from 7/21 so all can compare the timelines for anticipated completion dates back then to what they are now for a few projects.

https://simpleflying.com/austin-airport-expansion/

[Speculator]

Originally Posted by ATX2030

Posting this article from 7/21 so all can compare the timelines for anticipated completion dates back then to what they are now for a few projects.

https://simpleflying.com/austin-airport-expansion/

I'm still not clear on if the current projects roll into the new terminal that was announced in 2019? Any idea why the city doesn't resume that project?

[Lobotomizer]

Originally Posted by Speculator

I'm still not clear on if the current projects roll into the new terminal that was announced in 2019? Any idea why the city doesn't resume that project?

Are you referring to the new arrivals/departures building? I've wondered about that as well. It seems to just have dropped from the plans which is a huge mistake.

Amongst other reasons, the reconfigured roadway needs to happen asap. The drop off/pickup areas are anarchy these days.

I'm not surprised, though. It's more short-sighted planning. Rarely do those in charge in this town think big. Too many still have the "Lil ole Austin" mindset like this is 1980 or something.

[gabetx]

Originally Posted by Lobotomizer

I'm not surprised, though. It's more short-sighted planning. Rarely do those in charge in this town think big. Too many still have the "Lil ole Austin" mindset like this is 1980 or something.

What is insane to me is they didn't predict to have 21 million passenger until 2026, and that is on the HIGH GROWTH projection. On the low growth front it wasn't projected to happen until 2030!

It also wasn't projected to get back to pre-pandemic levels until the years 2023 through half way through 2026.

It predicts that we wont hit 25 million on the high end, until 2030! With the growth the airport has seen, it will hit 25 million by 2025.

These projections are bad. Did they base the expansion timeline on these growth projections? If so, the airport is going to experience some severe overcrowding and growing pains until the satellite concourse is completed.

[Mikey711MN]

Originally Posted by Lobotomizer

Are you referring to the new arrivals/departures building? I've wondered about that as well. It seems to just have dropped from the plans which is a huge mistake.

Amongst other reasons, the reconfigured roadway needs to happen asap. The drop off/pickup areas are anarchy these days.

I'm not surprised, though. It's more short-sighted planning. Rarely do those in charge in this town think big. Too many still have the "Lil ole Austin" mindset like this is 1980 or something.

The plan is financially constrained and the Airport needs to be very careful not to explode their PFC by adding a lot of facilities at once that don't generate any revenue.

The new headhouse in the initial renderings was gigantic and did two things to the Airport operations: (1) destroyed two buildings that generate significant revenues (short-term lots) and (2) created big long-term liabilities by financing construction.

The airport bonding market is a very risk-averse one. There may be more projects in development nationally that are either downsizing or reconfiguring without any net change to revenues - AUS is truly an exception in terms of how much supply (e.g. gates, concessions, parking, etc.) it can bring online without compromising its ability to pay them back.

[ATX2030]

That 5 pound bag that AUS has been stuffing 10 pounds worth of 🞵🞵🞵🞵 in burst long ago. What they're doing now is using bubblegum and shoe strings to patch said bag. Like I mentioned upthread don't look for the new departures/arrival hall to break ground before the mid to late 30's and for the new concourse to be operational before 2030.

[ATX2030]

From Nathan Bernier KUT

NEW in South Terminal vs. City of Austin: U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman has set a trial date of MAY 13, 2024 for Lonestar Airport Holdings' federal lawsuit against the city over ABIA's efforts to oust the South Terminal through eminent domain.

https://twitter.com/KUTnathan/status/1630346835050000386