AUSTIN | ABIA Updates

[Jdawgboy]

Originally Posted by DoubleC

Honestly, I was afraid another flight to Europe would bring down passenger numbers for the BA flight, until I realized it was seasonal twice-weekly. I think such a route can survive, as much as a seasonal Hawaiian route would fare well here as well.

I agree that this is a good move on their part to start with seasonal 2x a week. See how well the service does then they can consider expanding on that.

I think BA will not have much of an issue, rather it will open up more opportunities for Austin business as well another option for all of central Texas from SA to Waco.

I said this before but the era of centralized giant spoke hubs is on its slow but steady decline. As mentioned in the article people want O&D routes. Demand will continue to grow and in turn airlines will cater to that demand. Hubs won't go away but I think in time they will take a less prominent role.

[electricron]

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

I said this before but the era of centralized giant spoke hubs is on its slow but steady decline. As mentioned in the article people want O&D routes. Demand will continue to grow and in turn airlines will cater to that demand. Hubs won't go away but I think in time they will take a less prominent role.

Frankfurt is the hub for Condor Airlines. Their Austin flight just adds another destination city to their hub. I don't think this new flight is an excellent example of the decline of hubs in the airline industry.
It is an example of more direct flights to more destination cities from a hub, vs more flights between the fewer "hub" cities.
Since Condor is a foreign based airline, it can't operate a hub in the USA with domestic flights. So this flight isn't an excellent example of not adding more flights between two hubs. This flight is an excellent example of Condor expanding its reach into the USA without sharing its customers with domestic American based airlines.
Hubs will always be around in the airline business. It's cheaper to operate one maintenance and training base than two, cheaper to have two than three, three than four, etc.

[Jdawgboy]

Originally Posted by electricron

Frankfurt is the hub for Condor Airlines. Their Austin flight just adds another destination city to their hub. I don't think this new flight is an excellent example of the decline of hubs in the airline industry.
It is an example of more direct flights to more destination cities from a hub, vs more flights between the fewer "hub" cities.
Since Condor is a foreign based airline, it can't operate a hub in the USA with domestic flights. So this flight isn't an excellent example of not adding more flights between two hubs. This flight is an excellent example of Condor expanding its reach into the USA without sharing its customers with domestic American based airlines.
Hubs will always be around in the airline business. It's cheaper to operate one maintenance and training base than two, cheaper to have two than three, three than four, etc.

Again I said hubs won't go away but O&D routes are what travelers want and with cost effective airplanes it becomes more viable to do that. Sure Frankfurt is a hub and that's fine. It still beats having to go through a domestic hub first LIke Houston or Dallas and Frankfurt is also a major destination in its own right. What you've stated is obvious.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/condor...160000799.html

"The demand for passengers to travel to Germany or beyond from North America is as high as never before and we want to cater to those who want to avoid crowded and congested hubs and rather travel nonstop to Frankfurt from their home airport such as Austin, Texas," said Ralf Teckentrup, Managing Director at Condor Airlines. "And once in Frankfurt, passengers can connect to basically any major destination in Europe."


I would think that Condor would want to have flights during Formula One though, still it's possible in a couple of years they could expand service if the demand is there.

[GoldenBoot]

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

I would think that Condor would want to have flights during Formula One though, still it's possible in a couple of years they could expand service if the demand is there.

I doubt Condor will have year-round service to Austin. I believe Las Vegas is the only one of Condor's North American destinations which has year-round service. All others, including Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto, New York City, Miami, Orlando, etc, have "seasonal" service.

However, Condor could consider expanding their "seasonal" service (i.e., June thru September or October) or add another "season" to the calendar year to hit major events. Who knows...

[ILUVSAT]

AUS is going to become the international (long-haul) gateway to Central Texas and the Hill Country!

Now, go and get that allusive asian connection!!! JAL, ANA, Korean...come on now. One of you give AUS a try!

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by GoldenBoot

I doubt Condor will have year-round service to Austin. I believe Las Vegas is the only one of Condor's North American destinations which has year-round service. All others, including Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto, New York City, Miami, Orlando, etc, have "seasonal" service.

However, Condor could consider expanding their "seasonal" service (i.e., June thru September or October) or add another "season" to the calendar year to hit major events. Who knows...

Tried to find information about Condor. It is owned by Thos. Cook and Company, a travel services company. It sounds like Condor specializes in hauling vacation travelers (including many on prepaid travel packages arranged or sold by Thomas Cook) to vacation destinations. I wonder whether they plan to fill these Austin-Frankfurt flights with similar passengers. I guess they could attract some business travelers, but the twice weekly "seasonal" service does not make that likely. It is almost like a charter flight service that will operate twice weekly during vacation season. The only difference is that they will also sell seats to the general public.

[bearinaustin]

Originally Posted by ILUVSAT

AUS is going to become the international (long-haul) gateway to Central Texas and the Hill Country!

Now, go and get that allusive asian connection!!! JAL, ANA, Korean...come on now. One of you give AUS a try!

I just hope the prices come down for international travel. It is significantly less expensive for me to drive down to San Antonio and fly out from there for international travel right now.. Especially to Mexico.

Would love more options at ABIA.

[ATXboom]

Originally Posted by bearinaustin

I just hope the prices come down for international travel. It is significantly less expensive for me to drive down to San Antonio and fly out from there for international travel right now.. Especially to Mexico.

Would love more options at ABIA.

Really? Been opposite for me. A good $100 cheaper across the board out of Austin...

[Jdawgboy]

I've heard the opposite as well not just with international routes but domestic as well. My aunt in law that lives in NY came down for a family reunion which was in SA since that's where her family origionated but she flew into Austin because it was cheaper.

[Austin1971]

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[DoubleC]

Originally Posted by Austin1971

Updated incentives program. Some interesting cities have been added.

http://www.austintexas.gov/sites/def...ir_service.pdf

Pretty much big hubs and touristy places from across both oceans (plus Hawaii). I wouldn't be surprised if Hawaiian rolled in, although the earliest would be next summer.

Surprised Seoul isn't on there, despite seeing high traffic between Austin and Seoul, according to that Global Gateways site... although it's now 4 years old, so who knows what the numbers are now. We know KE isn't planning on expanding anytime soon anyways. If any trans-pacific flight happens sooner, it'll be less frequent than if started later.

[Digatisdi]

Originally Posted by Austin1971

Updated incentives program. Some interesting cities have been added.

http://www.austintexas.gov/sites/def...ir_service.pdf

I could definitely get behind a PTY flight.

It also looks like the airport authority is pushing for Allegiant to expand further based on some of these airports.

P.S. in case anybody was wondering, the Czech Wikipedia page for AUS I was working on is live. It's not perfect—my Czech is rusty at best. I wrote a few more of the translations and I've been keeping them as current as possible.

[DoubleC]

Originally Posted by Digatisdi

I could definitely get behind a PTY flight.

It also looks like the airport authority is pushing for Allegiant to expand further based on some of these airports.

P.S. in case anybody was wondering, the Czech Wikipedia page for AUS I was working on is live. It's not perfect—my Czech is rusty at best. I wrote a few more of the translations and I've been keeping them as current as possible.

I see most of these routes to be filled by any airline except AA, DL, and UA (Miami is already served by AA though). Honolulu is the only major hub on the domestic list not already served by an airline in AUS. MCI has come and gone. Ashame Midwest was purchased; I would've loved seeing their blue 717s here.

Nicely done. A bit empty compared to the English version, but nicely done. I wonder how many people in Prague wonder about KAUS .

[Austin1971]

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[Jdawgboy]

Realistically how many more routes can be added with our current gate situation? (not counting the airlines that will be using the south terminal)

Even with the gates currently in use by Allegiant and Frontier, that doesn't leave a whole lot of room especially if Southwest Airlines is trying to hog them all for themselves.

It's going to take 2 years for the east terminal expansion to be completed and it hasn't even begun yet so that brings up the question of what other carriers that don't currently serve Austin could be added before the terminal expansion is complete? Hawaiian has been mentioned as a possibility but if anyone could name a few others as I'm not as familiar with the different carriers other than the main ones I hear about the most.

As far as any other future international routes are concerned I'm assuming there is enough room with our current international gate set up to add a few more routes especially since the new customs and check point area is in operation.

[DoubleC]

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

Realistically how many more routes can be added with our current gate situation? (not counting the airlines that will be using the south terminal)

Even with the gates currently in use by Allegiant and Frontier, that doesn't leave a whole lot of room especially if Southwest Airlines is trying to hog them all for themselves.

It's going to take 2 years for the east terminal expansion to be completed and it hasn't even begun yet so that brings up the question of what other carriers that don't currently serve Austin could be added before the terminal expansion is complete? Hawaiian has been mentioned as a possibility but if anyone could name a few others as I'm not as familiar with the different carriers other than the main ones I hear about the most.

As far as any other future international routes are concerned I'm assuming there is enough room with our current international gate set up to add a few more routes especially since the new customs and check point area is in operation.

If airlines don't mind sharing gates or can maximize gate usage to lose a gate (unlikely), it can happen. Southwest has 6 gates and usually has a few gates available for use during the day until an arrival takes it (but occasionally a 737 will have to wait for a plane to push-back). I doubt Southwest would want to share, considering their behavior over at Love Field.

If desperate enough for extra service, passengers can de-plane on the tarmac and get bused into the terminal (if that's possible). It's not a radical idea at all, and the weather here is usually mild (but hot), unlike O'Hare, so it wouldn't be much of a problem for the passengers. Bergstrom has plenty of space available.

No Mexican route has ever lasted very long, so probably not a Mexican airline. Viva shouldn't have pulled away permanently for a temporary... pandemic, although I'm not sure about their passenger numbers prior to ending service. If Viva Aerobus did a seasonal to Monterrey (specifically December), the flights will be rather full.

[Digatisdi]

Originally Posted by DoubleC

Nicely done. A bit empty compared to the English version, but nicely done. I wonder how many people in Prague wonder about KAUS .

Thanks, along with Catalan, Arabic, and Turkish pages, I tried to keep it at about the average length as the other translations to get it started—more than the Tajik, but less than the Russian, you know, get a bare-bones page up to give people something to build on.

[GoldenBoot]

Originally Posted by Austin1971

Interesting how specific they were with a few destinations, GDL and MTY 2x weekly and PTY 3x weekly. Makes me wonder if they have something in the works. I can see those plus MEX being added sooner rather than later. Copa for PTY and probably AeroMexico Connect for the others.

Star Alliance (United) and SkyTeam (Delta) member airlines are the fastest growing at ABIA. I do not think it is a coincidence that international targets are locations in which a Star or SkyTeam member airline has a major connecting hub.

Amsterdam = KLM (SkyTeam)
Paris-CDG = Air France (Sky Team)
Frankfurt = Lufthansa (Star)*
Tokyo-NRT = ANA (Star) & JAL (OneWorld)
Panama City, Panama = Copa (Star)
Mexico City-MEX = AeroMexico (SkyTeam)


*Yes, yes, I know Condor is coming. However, it's seasonal (13 weeks) and 52 total flights, annually.


In any case, pretty interesting.

[Jdawgboy]

I noticed on the PDF that Frankfurt is listed still with the others for direct service. Does this mean the port will pursue a year round direct to Frankfurt? It came out July 10th and no doubt the seasonal direct to Frankfurt was a done deal before then.

[Digatisdi]

Allegiant announces Austin–Memphis nonstop