Charlotte-Douglas Airport (CLT) Expansion

[atlrvr]

How ofter does Insel Air fly?  Sort of a shame to lose an international carrier, but good to see AA explanding.

[cltcane]

Insel Air's flights are Saturdays only as well and operate year-round.  They had an interline agreement with US Airways, but I'm not sure if that remained in place after the merger.  Flights are still bookable on Insel Air past the start date for the new AA flight, so we may have two carriers flying CLT-CUR.

[cltbwimob]

According to Accela, it looks like the inspection process is beginning for the new control tower.  The project appeared on the site on July 8.

I don't know if this means construction is imminent, but its good to see the project is at least moving forward in some sense.

Edited July 15, 2015 by cltbwimob

[cltcane]

ViaAir which currently flies to Beckley, WV and St. Augustine, FL from CLT is adding twice-weekly seasonal flights to Myrtle Beach.  As with their St. Augustine service, they appear to be testing the market for a very short time.  While not a new or exciting destination (and one that may not be around very long), it's always nice to see any carrier expanding at and adding destinations from CLT.

http://blog.flyviaair.com/viaair-is-going-to-myrtle-beach/

Edited July 20, 2015 by cltcane

[tozmervo]

I assume most people flying to Myrtle would be connectors - it seems like a crazy amount of trouble for a local to fly through CLT instead of just driving?

[cltcane]

I agree that very few, if any, locals fly to Myrtle Beach instead of driving.  The press release stated that continuing service is offered to Beckley, WV, so I assume ViaAir is just utilizing an aircraft that would otherwise be sitting on the ground in CLT waiting to return to BKW to shuttle some of the BKW-originating passengers to and from MYR.  So it's essentially a BKW-MYR flight with a stop in CLT.

[HopHead]

I used to fly the same BOS-CLT route almost weekly... Half the people from Boston were connecting in CLT and going to Myrtle Beach or Hilton Head for golf weekends or family trips. That's what that route is geared towards, not local Charlotte peeps. 

[uptownliving]

Another sign of American Airline's commitment to CLT: they have asked the airport to go ahead with a 10 gate expansion of Concourse E. On the agenda for the City Council for Monday is to approve the architectural contract with LS3P to complete the design. Construction would start sometime around 1Q2016.

-The Phase 2 East Terminal expansion that includes the new D Concourse Food Court and the additional escalators to Concourse E is being amended to meet LEED Certification. Construction on that is expected to start by the end of this year. As an aside, that Phase 2 was delayed at the airline's request, but they have now given the green light to proceed.

-The airport is continuing on the West side and the removal of the old Rental Car facilities. There is a good amount of environmental work that will have to be done on that site due to the in ground fuel tanks that were there. City Council has a contract to approve on Monday.with a firm that will oversee all the environmental remediation to make sure it meets all State and Federal guidelines.

-The airport is replacing 1 jet bridge in Concourse A ( I believe this is one of the old American gates.) They will also be upgrading the air handling and electrical on 2 other jet bridges on Concourse A.

 

[kermit]

^ thanks for the update. If I could add to the airport to do list I would overhaul the Concourse C air conditioning. It was steamy in there on Tuesday afternoon.

There is an interesting article (with data) in the WSJ on changes in the number of flights at each US airport. Apparently there were 11,000 fewer flights this year than in 2011 due to some capacity reduction and a shift to larger aircraft. This decline in flights is unevenly distributed across US airports. Love Field, Seattle and Austin increased their number of landings by 20-40% since 2011. DFW gained by 5%, ATL lost 5%, ORD lost 3%, GSO lost 16% RDU lost 7%. CLT was basically static with a 0.4% reduction in flights -- the implication of the article is that we did pretty well considering the structural declines industry wide. 

Interesting read about US airports (although they don't discuss CLT specifically): http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-cities-that-have-lost-the-most-flights-1437585049

 

[Miesian Corners]

^subscriber only.  

[kermit]

^subscriber only.  

type this into Google News for free access:

The Cities That Have Lost the Most Flights

[LKN704]

Nice to see that they are going ahead with the expansion. It would be nice to see AA release a PR outlining the upgrades and expansions to CLT, which would surely show all of the CLT naysayers.

That said, I wonder what is next for CLT, international flight wise. US formally flew to Kingston, Guatemala City, La Romana, and George Town from CLT. I would like to see Guatemala City resume sometime in the future.

I believe Incheon (Seoul) is the largest market in Asia from CLT. It would be cool to see them launch service to CLT with one of their 787-9's they have on order. While the local market is small, Incheon is a beautiful, fabulous (and one of my favorite) airport to fly through, especially when connecting to Southeast Asia. I believe the Vietnamese are the largest Asian ethnic group in Charlotte.

[xapostrophe]

I think it would be more likely to see Haneda or something on JAL or AA on a A330-200 or 777-200ER just my 2 cents.   Moving a 787 from a non 787 domicile in order to do a single flight isn't common.  Not that its not going to happen. 

[LKN704]

A A330 cannot make it from Charlotte, let alone the East Coast, to Asia without significant weight restrictions.

[xapostrophe]

Great circle distance is 5988nm    range on a 200 is about 7000nm.  so you might be right, little to no cargo but its still a feasible route, heck they were doing sao paolo with almost no cargo for a while only because the cargo contract fell through in Brazil.  I would bet that it won't be American doing the route but JAL their one world partner.   If it happens at all.

[Miesian Corners]

That said, I wonder what is next for CLT, international flight wise. US formally flew to Kingston, Guatemala City, La Romana, and George Town from CLT. I would like to see Guatemala City resume sometime in the future.

US dropped Guatemala City because United, who at the time serviced US flights there, cut service leaving no one to work the US flight.  United has resumed service there, and AA has several departures per day. I fully expect to see CLT-GUA service resume in the near future.

[uptownliving]

Scott Kirby the President of American did mention on today's Quarterly Results call that Charlotte was the 2nd best performing hub year over year in the American system. 2nd only to New York. 

[15895]

Scott Kirby the President of American did mention on today's Quarterly Results call that Charlotte was the 2nd best performing hub year over year in the American system. 2nd only to New York. 

imagine how much more profitable the company will be when they shift all of that to Miami! 

 

 

On a serious note, this is not surprising but feels good to have validation on top of expansion. But there are still doubters who come up with these perfect rounded percentage points of How many flights will be shifted from CLT

 

 

[cltbwimob]

 

imagine how much more profitable the company will be when they shift all of that to Miami! 

 

 

On a serious note, this is not surprising but feels good to have validation on top of expansion. But there are still doubters who come up with these perfect rounded percentage points of How many flights will be shifted from CLT

 

 

Shortly before the declaration that CLT was the 2nd best performing hub, he [Scott Kirby?] stated that MIA was the worst performing hub year-over-year.  I am sure the Miami apologists who shall remain nameless over on Airliners.net would lose their minds if they knew this.

[tozmervo]

I think both myself and someone else complained about this somewhere in the thread, but it appears an agreement is about to be struck to change out the I-85 interstate signage to direct CLT-goers to the Little Rock Rd exit instead of Billy Graham Parkway. Little Rock is definitely the best route now that the construction is complete.

[xapostrophe]

I would agree with that.  It's the way I go.

[Deleted.]

I had it up to here trying to flying international from Charlotte. When I work Europe flights, all of the flights should depart from D but there isn't enough room. And when we arrive customs is always full, I worked MAD-CLT a few days ago and we had to wait for 40 minutes before there was enough room. Customs blames AA, saying they shouldn't have so many international flights arriving at once. Newsflash, that's what happens when you have a banked-hub operation!

There needs to be a new international concourse, with around 20 gates with at least 10 being widebody gates and with a lot more immigration counters. I hope that eventually part of the new A-North concourse becomes international. 

[xapostrophe]

I had it up to here trying to flying international from Charlotte. When I work Europe flights, all of the flights should depart from D but there isn't enough room. And when we arrive customs is always full, I worked MAD-CLT a few days ago and we had to wait for 40 minutes before there was enough room. Customs blames AA, saying they shouldn't have so many international flights arriving at once. Newsflash, that's what happens when you have a banked-hub operation!

There needs to be a new international concourse, with around 20 gates with at least 10 being widebody gates and with a lot more immigration counters. I hope that eventually part of the new A-North concourse becomes international. 

I'd agree with this, us RJ guys get smoked when you guys push from D because it blocks flow to E-con.   We routinely arrive early but have arrive at the gate late due heavy's pushing. (45 mins taxi from 36L/18R)

[LKN704]

I wish the airport would reconsider its use of the new concourse extension. It doesn't all need to be international, but maybe reserve 12 or so gates for international use while keeping the size of the CBP area in mind. Also, an airport of our size should have dual jetbridges for widebody aircraft. I am shocked CLT doesn't have them, seeing as most hubs in the USA have them and they decrease boarding/deplaning time, it is a worthwhile investment. Even PIT has one...

[xapostrophe]

I wish the airport would reconsider its use of the new concourse extension. It doesn't all need to be international, but maybe reserve 12 or so gates for international use while keeping the size of the CBP area in mind. Also, an airport of our size should have dual jetbridges for widebody aircraft. I am shocked CLT doesn't have them, seeing as most hubs in the USA have them and they decrease boarding/deplaning time, it is a worthwhile investment. Even PIT has one...

PIT was the probably the best modern american airport.    sad to see that place die.