2330 replies to this topic

[uptownliving]

They are expanding Concourse E...which is the Commuter Concourse...where you see a lot of the RJ jets and Turbo Props. It is currently 3 years old and has 25 gates...it is already too small. US Airways has made a large RJ Jet pruchase and so a lot of their new flights will be RJ....so Charlotte is expanding Concourse E to 50 gates.

The expansion will be financed by a PFC...so no increase in fees to the airlines, and the CLT Airport is self supporting and does not depend on any City taxes....All the financial banks are happy with this deal...in fact they have upgraded Charlotte/Douglas' credit rating. I think that speaks voulmes for the excellant people running our airport, especially when you consider that our main airline is financially junk status.

[Nostyle]

Makes you wonder what our airport would be like if we were hub for a better airline...

[BrandonTO416]

You can convert other existing concourses into more commuter friendly points.

CLT doesn't need to extend concourse E if US Air is going to cut service, which is likely.

[monsoon]

[Nostyle]

Well, even if US Airways folds, I really only see it as a temporary roadbump for the airport.  It's a great state-of-the-art facility that will probably fill in quickly with non-hub flights, and then perhaps another big airline will step in and look to build a hub here.  But I don't think it will be very long-term doom and gloom.  Maybe I'm just optimistic though.

[uptownliving]

heckles, on Apr 29 2004, 12:05 AM, said:

You can convert other existing concourses into more commuter friendly points.

CLT doesn't need to extend concourse E if US Air is going to cut service, which is likely.

Actually they can't....All the other gates in the other concourses are being used for mainline service....the need for more RJ/Commuter gates is NOW.

Granted in the future USAir may cut back on mainline service to Charlotte...however USAir has long term leases on most of it's gates...so they dictate what happens at their gates in the other concourses.

Councourse E is completely controlled by the city....so if USAir pulls out tomorrow, then Concourse E can be used by another airline.

[thumper]

Honestly I can't say that I will miss them.  My experience with US Air in Charlotte has almost always been bad, and there are no low prices to be found.   I have noticed that US Air is offering $29 flights out of Raleigh because they have competition there.

[uptownliving]

Southwest...that is why...that are having to directly compete with them on Phill->RDU.

[uptownliving]

USAirways...announced today they want to EXPAND their Charlotte hub...adding onto its current 116 Non-Stop destinations. They particularly want to focus on Carribean flights. Where will the extra planes come from? Pittsburgh. They plan to dismantle that hub.

[monsoon]

[Flash]

US Airways is really starting to piss people off.  They can't get it together and are hurting areas by it.

[monsoon]

[tocoto]

US Airlines is at their last gasp.  They will almost certainly go out of business, or have a bankruptcy reshuffling.  The airports at Pitt, Charlote and Philly will adapt according to demand at each airport.

[thumper]

The news does look worse and worse for USAir everyday.   The paper said this morning they need 800 million dollars more in concessions in order to stay competitive.  That is an amazing amount of money.

[Nostyle]

Well, the airport is building that third runway, adding gates, and building a new parking deck.  The message seems loud and clear.  Charlotte/Douglas is going bigtime, with or without US Airways.  the Airport management seem to know what they're doing, so I'm sure they have everything worked out should US Airways fold.

[monsoon]

[uptownliving]

I think that the 3rd Runway and expansion of Concourse E is definately needed and the financials surrounding it are very sound. This is not going to be a CityFair or Harris Blvd even if USAirways folds tomorrow. All the airlines serving the airport have signed off on these new projects as it will cut their cost of operating at CLT by $30M per year. These new projects are being funded by the PCF, and becasue of this, the airport will actually be able to decrease its rent rates to the airlines, thereby making themselves even more attractive to low cost carriers in the event USAir goes under.

And anyone who has recently parked at Charlotte Douglas knows that it needs more parking. On a regular basis all the parking lots fill up at the airport, and parking demand is only going to increase as our population increases and if/when low fare carriers come here then local passenger traffic will increase and thereby requireing even more parking.

I think the people running CLT know what they are doing, and I think these projects are warranted no matter what happens to USAirways.

[TravisNC]

This is a quote from the US Airways Update, an employee newsletter, that was posted at airliners.net.  I seems the plan is to keep CLT a hub and possibly increase domestic and international flights.

Charlotte:

Quote

Under the plan, Charlotte’s strategic position as an effective
hub will permit more Caribbean service and will allow for
more growth of both domestic and international service. It will
operate closer to a traditional hub with more banks, but with
some flattening, or de-peaking of flights, to add efficiency.
Conversion to a point-to-point operation in Charlotte would
have required a significant reduction in the number of flights
and destinations as the local market is not large enough.
Instead, US Airways will grow Charlotte and make it our
primary connecting operation.

I thought I'd also include the paragraphs about PIT and PHL too.

Pittsburgh:

Quote

The strategy also envisions that Pittsburgh will not operate as a
traditional hub, but instead become a focus city, with
US Airways remaining the leading carrier there, but with fewer
flights and nonstop destinations. As the leading airline in
Pittsburgh US Airways will continue to serve cities where
people in Pittsburgh travel frequently and offer them lower
fares in the process. Smaller markets that have little demand to
and from Pittsburgh likely will lose service. In some situations,
service to these smaller cities will be maintained to
Philadelphia or Charlotte. The final mix of regional jet
departures versus mainline jets will be determined upon how
much local demand there is to and from Pittsburgh.

Philadelphia:

Quote

Operations at Philadelphia under the new plan will be “depeaked,”
meaning domestic flights will not be bunched up in
waves to accommodate connections, but scheduled more on a
“rolling” basis targeted at local customers. Feed for
transatlantic and Caribbean flights, however, will continue. Depeaking
the schedule will allow US Airway to expand the
number of flights it offers in Philadelphia while maintaining or
improving reliability.

[monsoon]

[wolfdawg54]

If US Air cuts flight s to Charlotte then it will not be a pretty sight there. I always love the Charlotte airport and I hope US Air rebounds.