AUSTIN | ABIA Updates

[Dan Denson]

Originally Posted by M1EK

Hard to agree with this award. Luggage service at ABIA is the consistently slowest of any airport I've flown into more than once; lots of walking (for those of us with trouble walking, this is a downside); awful shuttle-buses from parking lots...

That's strange...I've logged probably at least 100 flights into ABIA, and my luggage is always coming around the carousel by the time I get to it, and the shuttles have always worked fine. That's not to say you haven't experienced some problems. If walking out to the parking lot, though, it can be a really long walk.

[wwmiv]

I wasn't commenting on ABIA... I was responding to The Genral's comment about Midway and that I believe O'Hare to be the worse of the Chicago airports.

[M1EK]

Even when I take my sweet time getting to the carousel, I always end up waiting for bags - if I'm at the back of the plane, hit the restroom on the way out, it's usually a 15 minute wait for the first bag; regardless of airline (this has happened on Continental, American, Southwest, and JetBlue; even United and Delta back in the day). It's interminable - and much slower than at other airports I've picked up luggage at - and, no, it's not that the walk is that much shorter (it's not; many other airports have much shorter walks to baggage claim - DFW, for instance).

[M1EK]

As for the parking shuttles, again, interminable wait at some times; a long and tortuous path to get back to the terminal even if the wait isn't that bad. Very poor design; I am thankful my company sprung for frequent parker discounts for all of us at one of the off-site parking locations so I no longer have to deal with those awful shuttles.

(Also, if you're talking about a gold-plated home-run win for rail transit, parking shuttles are the obvious case - the shuttlebuses go the same route every single trip; they run ALL THE TIME; the buses are uncomfortable (swaying, bouncing); etc. - thankfully some airports have finally figured this out, like JFK).

[texastarkus]

Tuesday, February 23, 2010, 9:00am CST |
Modified: Tuesday, February 23, 2010, 10:32am
Austin-Bergstrom adds nonstop service to Branson, Mo.
Austin Business Journal
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is adding a new nonstop flight to its daily schedule, officials said today.

The local airport hosted a press conference to announce the service this morning at 10 a.m. The new flight to Branson Airport will be the airport's 37th non-stop destination and second in that state after St. Louis.

The Branson AirExpress will be operated by ExpressJet Airlines and take off May 17. The flights will run five days a week and start at $49.

Austin-Bergstrom served 8.2 million passengers last year.

[Dan Denson]

Originally Posted by texastarkus

Tuesday, February 23, 2010, 9:00am CST |
Modified: Tuesday, February 23, 2010, 10:32am
Austin-Bergstrom adds nonstop service to Branson, Mo.
Austin Business Journal
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is adding a new nonstop flight to its daily schedule, officials said today.

The local airport hosted a press conference to announce the service this morning at 10 a.m. The new flight to Branson Airport will be the airport's 37th non-stop destination and second in that state after St. Louis.

The Branson AirExpress will be operated by ExpressJet Airlines and take off May 17. The flights will run five days a week and start at $49.

Austin-Bergstrom served 8.2 million passengers last year.

That's one route I wouldn't want to fly on (the Anita Bryant crowd).

[texboy]

Originally Posted by Dan Denson

That's one route I wouldn't want to fly on (the Anita Bryant crowd).

LOLOL Thats hilarious.

[Scottolini]

Delta adds Austin-Cincinnati nonstop
By American-Statesman staff | Monday, March 1, 2010, 09:17 AM

Delta Airlines is adding a nonstop flight from Austin to Cincinnati, with a schedule that allows one-day trips to the Ohio city.

...

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/conte..._business_blog

[texastarkus]

Now we'll have two air carriers on this route: Sun Country and Delta

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Delta Airlines to provide weekly service to Cancun in February
Friday, August 20th, 2010 at 5:03 pm | BNO News | Leave a Comment
By BNO News
ATLANTA, GEORGIA (BNO NEWS) – Delta Airlines announced on Friday a new seasonal weekly service to Cancun, Mexico beginning next February.

The service expansion will be available in four U.S. cities, San Antonio and Austin, Texas; Columbus, Ohio; and Tampa, Florida.

The new flights will depart on Saturdays, using 142-seat MD-88 aircraft, equipped with 14 seats in First Class and 128 in Economy Class.

The announcement is part of Delta's expansion in Latin America. The airline operator plans to add new flights between its hub at Minneapolis-St. Paul and Mexico City as well as between Detroit and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Delta Airlines serves more than 160 million customers each year. Delta offers service to 367 destinations in 65 countries on six continents.

(Copyright 2010 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: [email protected]

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by texastarkus

Now we'll have two air carriers on this route: Sun Country and Delta

Actually it will be just one air carrier. The Sun Country flights were temporary and ended August 7th

[texastarkus]

CAL is gonna get in on the act - compete with Delta

Seasonal Continental Service from Three New Cities to Cancun

In addition,Continental Airlines today filed an application with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) for authority to begin once-weekly nonstop service to Cancun, Mexico, from three new cities: Austin and San Antonio, Texas, and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. These Saturday services, which are subject to government approval, would begin Feb. 19, 2011. In addition, United Airlines applied for authority to place its UA* code on Continental-operated flights between these cities, further enhancing service options for customers traveling to Cancun.

Continental plans to operate the service with Boeing 737-700 aircraft, with seating for 124 customers (12 in first class and 112 in economy). Continental serves 30 destinations in Mexico, more than any other airline from the U.S.Continental currently serves Cancun 76 times weekly from its hubs in Houston, Newark and Cleveland. United currently serves Cancun 31 times weekly from Denver, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington-Dulles.


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Delta Airlines to provide weekly service to Cancun in February
Friday, August 20th, 2010 at 5:03 pm | BNO News | Leave a Comment
By BNO News
ATLANTA, GEORGIA (BNO NEWS) – Delta Airlines announced on Friday a new seasonal weekly service to Cancun, Mexico beginning next February.

The service expansion will be available in four U.S. cities, San Antonio and Austin, Texas; Columbus, Ohio; and Tampa, Florida.

The new flights will depart on Saturdays, using 142-seat MD-88 aircraft, equipped with 14 seats in First Class and 128 in Economy Class.

The announcement is part of Delta's expansion in Latin America. The airline operator plans to add new flights between its hub at Minneapolis-St. Paul and Mexico City as well as between Detroit and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Delta Airlines serves more than 160 million customers each year. Delta offers service to 367 destinations in 65 countries on six continents.

(Copyright 2010 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: [email protected][/QUOTE]

[AustinExPat]

A Delta flight between Austin and Cincinnati will almost certainly be operated by Comair, which has a long history of terrible on-time performance. For example, see paragraph 2 of this story:

http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/02...9-on-time.html

[KevinFromTexas]

New parking garage at airport?
Rental car companies, cramped on one floor of existing garage, eager to double their space.

By Ben Wear[/b]
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Updated: 8:57 a.m. Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Published: 8:29 p.m. Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Austin airport officials, at the urging of rental car companies cramped for space, are considering building a second parking garage at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

The Austin City Council next week is expected to consider authorizing $454,000 to study the feasibility of constructing what officials envision as a four-story, 4,800-space garage just north of the existing garage on what is now surface parking Lot A.

The upside of a new garage, Smith said, would be an extra 1,800 public spaces financed entirely by increased rental car charges, as well as potentially another 2,400 spaces in about 20 years when the garage bonds are paid off and the entire garage reverts to public parking. The airport now has 11,775 public parking spaces, including 2,397 in the garage.

...

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/...rt-311108.html

[texastarkus]

Going from the E-195 to A-320
--=-=-=-=-=-

Tuesday, March 9, 2010, 2:39pm CST
ABIA adding flights, JetBlue flies in bigger planes
Austin Business Journal

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport will begin bulking up flight schedules to accommodate expected spring and summer travel increases, officials said today.

Also for spring break and South by Southwest, JetBlue is flying larger jets to Austin, increasing capacity fro 100 to 150. Later this month, Southwest Airlines is adding additional nonstop flights to Los Angeles and Orlando and Alaska Airlines begins a second “Nerd Bird” flight to San Jose.

The airport predicts an influx in travel beginning this Friday and continuing through the summer. It currently flies nonstop to 38 destinations and served 8.2 million passengers last year.


http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/st...8/daily24.html

[Jdawgboy]

Great news for ABIA I have a feeling we will be hearing more interesting news later this year....

[alexjon]

Sea-Tac to ABIA is the only way to get to San Antonio from Seattle.

Keeps you from having to fly to DFW (or worse, Denver) to make a transfer. Just get a friend to drive you up to Austin!

[Scottolini]

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport welcomes American nonstop flights to JFK

AUSTIN, TEXAS – Austin-Bergstrom International Airport today gave kudos to American Airlines’ for its decision to add nonstop service between New York’s JFK Airport and Austin starting July 2, 2010.

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/austinairport/nr_jfk_10.htm

[hookem]

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport welcomes American nonstop flights to JFK

AUSTIN, TEXAS – Austin-Bergstrom International Airport today gave kudos to American Airlines’ for its decision to add nonstop service between New York’s JFK Airport and Austin starting July 2, 2010.

Competition for JetBlue's Austin-JFK direct flight.

AA will definitely get some use because it will be the only first-class cabin service on the route, plus there are probably tons of AA frequent fliers living in Austin... Good for Austin-to-European destinations, too. For economy passengers, JetBlue is so much better though... and the E190's (and 320's to a lesser extent) are wayyy more comfortable and nice inside than AA's crappy MD-80s. Let's hope there is enough traffic to support them both...

[Dan Denson]

Originally Posted by hookem

Competition for JetBlue's Austin-JFK direct flight.

AA will definitely get some use because it will be the only first-class cabin service on the route, plus there are probably tons of AA frequent fliers living in Austin... Good for Austin-to-European destinations, too. For economy passengers, JetBlue is so much better though... and the E190's (and 320's to a lesser extent) are wayyy more comfortable and nice inside than AA's crappy MD-80s. Let's hope there is enough traffic to support them both...

Those American MD-80s seem really old and dilapidated. I used to fly them routinely to Santa Barbara in the mid 80s and they were already that way. But I loved the way those suckers accelerated down the runway and took off at such a steep angle.

[hookem]

Originally Posted by Dan Denson

Those American MD-80s seem really old and dilapidated. I used to fly them routinely to Santa Barbara in the mid 80s and they were already that way. But I loved the way those suckers accelerated down the runway and took off at such a steep angle.

Heh, yeah -- the Mad Dogs are something special in their own way. If you are in the front of the plane, the MD-80's are super smooth and quiet. But you cannot deny that the interiors on these AA planes are positively crap... I respect AA for not going into bankruptcy, don't get me wrong... but the product they put out there is sometimes so bad you have to wonder what their priority is. Certainly, it's not the customer.