318 replies to this topic

[arkansas_buff]

Andres Chao (the Mexican consul general) gave a speech to the Arkansas Committee on Foreign Relations on August 27th.

During his speech Monday, Chao said negotiations are under way to establish a non-stop flight from Little Rock to Cancun, Mexico, sometime next year. Another flight from Little Rock to Guadalajara, Mexico, is being considered, he said.

[johnnydr87]

Awsome!

Little Rock "international" Airport.

Edited by johnnydr87, 10 September 2007 - 11:27 AM.

[Architect]

arkansas_buff, on Sep 10 2007, 11:54 AM, said:

Andres Chao (the Mexican consul general) gave a speech to the Arkansas Committee on Foreign Relations on August 27th.

During his speech Monday, Chao said negotiations are under way to establish a non-stop flight from Little Rock to Cancun, Mexico, sometime next year. Another flight from Little Rock to Guadalajara, Mexico, is being considered, he said.

Cool.  No doubt, there is weight behind this giving it credibility.

[RLucas83]

Frontier to cancun 1-3 times per week on an E-170 is certainly possible. Service to GDL would probably only work on regional jets, but thats possible too...

[Lexy]

RLucas83, on Sep 10 2007, 02:29 PM, said:

Frontier to cancun 1-3 times per week on an E-170 is certainly possible. Service to GDL would probably only work on regional jets, but thats possible too...

No it's not.  The E170's don't fly to CUN only the A319's.

[RLucas83]

Lexy, on Sep 10 2007, 03:09 PM, said:

No it's not.  The E170's don't fly to CUN only the A319's.

Im aware that right now  their CUN portfolio is all A319s, im a little concerned that it may be too much airplane for LIT-CUN. CUN is more vacation oriented than demographicly oriented. LIT doesnt seem to have an abundant vacation/resort passenger base as evidenced by only one 50-seat RJ to the entire state of Florida.

If i was Fronteir and had the choice, id start with the E170 then upgrade, rather than start with the A319 and risk loosing the service 3-6 months later.

[Lexy]

RLucas83, on Sep 10 2007, 03:21 PM, said:

Im aware that right now  their CUN portfolio is all A319s, im a little concerned that it may be too much airplane for LIT-CUN. CUN is more vacation oriented than demographicly oriented. LIT doesnt seem to have an abundant vacation/resort passenger base as evidenced by only one 50-seat RJ to the entire state of Florida.

If i was Fronteir and had the choice, id start with the E170 then upgrade, rather than start with the A319 and risk loosing the service 3-6 months later.

While it is a good idea to start with smaller aircraft, the E170 couldn't do it because it's not certified to fly over the ocean like that.  It doesn't have the range and it doesn't have the proper safety devices to accomplish flights like this.  Plus, that's just too lucrative of a market for a small jet like that.  If, and it's a big "IF", they start it it would be on a A319 and as it stands now Frontier doesn't even fly mainline's into LIT.

[RLucas83]

Continental just announced 2 daily flights to Cleveland starting in the spring...

In early 2008, Continental will add 27 new flights to 12 new nonstop destinations including:


        New Destination            Frequency            Effective Date
        Greensboro, N.C. (GSO)     Three times daily    March 3, 2008
        Omaha, Neb. (OMA)          Three times daily    March 3, 2008
        Savannah, Ga. (SAV)        Twice daily          March 3, 2008
        Birmingham, Ala. (BHM)     Twice daily          April 6, 2008
        Charleston, S.C. (CHS)     Once daily           April 6, 2008
        Green Bay, Wis. (GRB)      Twice daily          April 6, 2008
        Tulsa, Okla. (TUL)         Twice daily          April 6, 2008
        Little Rock, Ark. (LIT)    Twice daily          May 4, 2008
        Memphis, Tenn. (MEM)       Twice daily          May 4, 2008
        Lansing, Mich. (LAN)       Three times daily    May 4, 2008
        Des Moines, Iowa (DSM)     Twice daily          June 12, 2008
        Kalamazoo, Mich. (AZO)     Three times daily    June 12, 2008

[Architect]

RLucas83, on Sep 14 2007, 01:52 PM, said:

Continental just announced 2 daily flights to Cleveland starting in the spring...

In early 2008, Continental will add 27 new flights to 12 new nonstop destinations including:
        New Destination            Frequency            Effective Date
        Greensboro, N.C. (GSO)     Three times daily    March 3, 2008
        Omaha, Neb. (OMA)          Three times daily    March 3, 2008
        Savannah, Ga. (SAV)        Twice daily          March 3, 2008
        Birmingham, Ala. (BHM)     Twice daily          April 6, 2008
        Charleston, S.C. (CHS)     Once daily           April 6, 2008
        Green Bay, Wis. (GRB)      Twice daily          April 6, 2008
        Tulsa, Okla. (TUL)         Twice daily          April 6, 2008
        Little Rock, Ark. (LIT)    Twice daily          May 4, 2008
        Memphis, Tenn. (MEM)       Twice daily          May 4, 2008
        Lansing, Mich. (LAN)       Three times daily    May 4, 2008
        Des Moines, Iowa (DSM)     Twice daily          June 12, 2008
        Kalamazoo, Mich. (AZO)     Three times daily    June 12, 2008

Very nice!  This adds a new destination for LIT.

Do you know if any of the new destinations from Cleveland are mainline?

[Lexy]

Architect, on Sep 14 2007, 04:17 PM, said:

Do you know if any of the new destinations from Cleveland are mainline?

Should all be service on Express Jet E-145's.

[Architect]

Lexy, on Sep 14 2007, 09:33 PM, said:

Should all be service on Express Jet E-145's.

Interesting.  You'd think that Memphis, and MAYbe Omaha could be mainline markets, but I guess the reality anymore is that mainline is tough to snag just about anywhere.

[Lexy]

Architect, on Sep 14 2007, 09:53 PM, said:

Interesting.  You'd think that Memphis, and MAYbe Omaha could be mainline markets, but I guess the reality anymore is that mainline is tough to snag just about anywhere.

Well I agree that markets such as MEM and OMA, and heck even BNA, should be mainline.  The problem is that the amount of mainline aircraft that Continental has is much less than the demand for them.  Basically, only the markets that comand a high yield on aircraft, such as the Boeing 737-500, get the mainline flights.  Places like New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Orlando, etc.  The rest of the country is left to fend for themselves with Express Jet.  I hate that, but you are right about getting mainline metal in your town.  It's as hard to do right now with both American and Continental as it is with Air Canada to get a non-Air Canada-Jazz flight.  LOL!

Continental is expected to start taking delivery here in the next year or so on some more planes for domestic flying.  Perhaps after then things will open up a bit and some markets that were once almost all mainline, like here in Nashville and other places, will once again get some mainline flights back.

[LRguy21]

While i think a non-stop international flight to XYZ isn't in the near future, LIT could support more than 1 daily ERJ to Orlando. The only reason why we don't have anymore LIT-Florida is because its easer to connect via DFW, CLT, ATL then to run a Florida flight. Not to say that i enjoy connecting. I just believe that for the airlines, its easer for them. I think 2x or 3x to Orlando and a flight to MIA or FLL would do really good. Any Possibilities?

congrats to LIT for the extra Continental Flights to CLE. This makes up for the lost STL flights via AA.

[Architect]

LRguy21, on Sep 16 2007, 09:41 PM, said:

While i think a non-stop international flight to XYZ isn't in the near future, LIT could support more than 1 daily ERJ to Orlando. The only reason why we don't have anymore LIT-Florida is because its easer to connect via DFW, CLT, ATL then to run a Florida flight. Not to say that i enjoy connecting. I just believe that for the airlines, its easer for them. I think 2x or 3x to Orlando and a flight to MIA or FLL would do really good. Any Possibilities?

congrats to LIT for the extra Continental Flights to CLE. This makes up for the lost STL flights via AA.

Do we know, officially, if AA has dropped STL from LIT?  I haven't seen anything other than an assumed posting on airliners.net.

[ARtoAK]

Architect, on Sep 17 2007, 02:43 PM, said:

Do we know, officially, if AA has dropped STL from LIT? I haven't seen anything other than an assumed posting on airliners.net.

Can't seem to book a nonstop flight LIT-STL on AA towards the end of the year....

[theman]

An article in today's Democrat Gazette stated that LR National is going to increase its incentives budget from $100,000 per year to $250,000.  They are specifically targeting flights to Mexico.  One problem is there is not a customs area at LR National and they don't want to build a facility since there are plans to either expand the existing terminal or build a new one.  Some solutions include having the flight stop at a US airport that has a customs facility then fly to Little Rock or for the federal government to allow the customs office to be in Mexico.  Canada has "preclearance" and Mexico is pushing for the same.

Another interesting fact from the article was that LR National's average fares are $26 lower than Memphis.  The Southwest Effect in full effect.

[theman]

Arkansas Business is reporting that LR National Executive Director Deborah Schwartz is resigning effective Nov. 30

[LRguy21]

Yea, but what would Frontier Fly there? they dont fly mainline into LIT, and they dont fly the E-170 to cancun. Maybe a sat. only flight. or 3 days a week. I hope the new Director is good. We saw some really good things with the last one, yet some bad things too. Does anyone know anything about the new one? has anyone been announced as the replacement?

[ARtoAK]

LRguy21, on Sep 23 2007, 08:52 PM, said:

Yea, but what would Frontier Fly there? they dont fly mainline into LIT, and they dont fly the E-170 to cancun. Maybe a sat. only flight. or 3 days a week. I hope the new Director is good. We saw some really good things with the last one, yet some bad things too. Does anyone know anything about the new one? has anyone been announced as the replacement?

I believe F9 is flying the E170 between Albuquerque and Puerto Vallarta later this year...

[arkansas_buff]

The increase in incentives from 100,000 to 250,000 was a step in the right direction. All major airports have incentive funds in their budgets, which include items such as waiving overnight fees etc. Check out this excerpt from the ADG regarding DFW:

Quote

Airports of all sizes have incentive programs. Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, for example, caps its program at $ 7 million per year and includes landing fee rebates and marketing support for service launch and new carriers. For example, a new international route with a Boeing 747 could receive $ 1. 4 million versus $ 200, 000 for a regional jet flying to Mexico.

That's $200,000 in incentives for a RJ to Mexico! That's what LIT is up against! As far as WHERE this Mexico flight would be taking us...

Quote

Philip Launius, spokesman for the airport, said AeroMexico, Mexicana and Frontier airlines will be contacted about adding service to a Mexican destination in the near future. Although there’s no firm city, Launius said Frontier would probably fly to a resort destination such as Cancun or Cozumel, whereas Mexico-based Mexicana had mentioned Guadalajara, the nation’s secondlargest city. “It’s going to depend on the airline’s network and what they want to do,” he added.