Southwests intl expansion at HOU says nothing about MSY. Different markets, different ball game, and was never a flight we lost to Houston to in contention. MSY has kinda respectable international flights already (both Canadian carriers returning recently) and a recent TP article talked about another Intl carrier about to announce a route. This wont be a transatlantic flight or even a widebody aircraft, probably just a Mexico/S. & Central America flight. Which is awesome!
I flew in and out of MSY this week and in the new Concourse D expansion. It is looking a lot better and the improvements are making it feel clean and fresh. The plans for pre Superbowl improvements will do wonders, or at least placate some of our embarrassment. BTW the airport has a great site with pics of all the projects and progress reports:
http://flymsy.com/capitalimprovements
Let's not forget we wont ever have an airport like IAH, Atlanta, or DFW. Let's shoot for more like Austin and Houston Hobby, but one that represents our unique culture.
Some ideas:
local food! I cant believe we have representation from some of our best restaurants at the Po Boy, Champions Square and Jazz Fest, but they cant make the leap for an airport location or outlet? There has to be something fishy with the leasing, contract terms, or food provider contract thats discouraging them. They need to fix that now.
Live music! As many loitering jazz bands as I see why cant we allow them to play in the airport. If they behave and graciously asks for tips and welcome people I dont see a problem. London has a program in the Underground that has designated spots where live music can play and they all say "Presented by the Mayor of London". I loved it and think we could recreate it at the airport, Royal, Canal, Decatur street, Moonwalk and around the Superbowl for big events. AUS airport has live music on a regular basis.
I am for a new airport, but I think it isn't fiscally prudent to start the project at this time. Let's fix what we have and work on being consistently good at managing it in a non-corrupt way for a bit before we start 300mm-1 billion dollar projects. The Labor Unions locally are getting antsy about the stream of large projects slowing down post Katrina and are scratching for some big work. Let us wait for a bit and not embark on a boondoggle.