Charlotte-Douglas Airport (CLT) Expansion

[Miesian Corners]

People do love those rockers! So much so that PHL purchased a boad-load of them for their connector between concourses.

I did have a conversation with the assistant airport director today and he tells me that they are aware of the restroom situation and are planning a complete rebuilding of B and C facilities (hopefully) beginning in September. It will be a year-long process as they can only do one at a time.

[northernbizzkit1]

The first time I flew through DFW a few years ago I almost stepped into a big pile of dog poop that had been left right in the middle of one of the concourses. I've never had that happen in Charlotte which maintains a remarkably clean airport.

A few months ago, I flew into CLT and just as I was about to step off the jetway and into the B terminal, I was greeted by German Shepherd poo...and the cleaning crew and the US AIR staff looked at it as though it was terminal art similar to the statue outside of the terminal building!

[dubone]

What!?! How on earth did it get there? How on earth did you identify the breed of poo? Why on earth would the person with the dog not have cleaned it up immediately? Are there bands of roving dogs in these airports at night?

[Seabreeze]

What!?! How on earth did it get there? How on earth did you identify the breed of poo? Why on earth would the person with the dog not have cleaned it up immediately? Are there bands of roving dogs in these airports at night?

It is unbelievable the amount of people that walk their dogs on leashes in the airport. I simply had no idea before I worked there.

now as to how they knew the breed of poo... that is a mystery

[fulcrumsf]

It is unbelievable the amount of people that walk their dogs on leashes in the airport. I simply had no idea before I worked there.

now as to how they knew the breed of poo... that is a mystery

Well the Police Dogs they use are German Shepards, so it may have made the mess.

Edited June 3, 2006 by fulcrumsf

[Miesian Corners]

Well the Police Dogs they use are German Shepards, so it may have made the mess.

So why did they not clean up after their dog?

[kickazzz2000]

Any news on new international service? All i've heard is a rumor about AirTran starting seasonal Grand Bahama service. FL seems to be doing quite well in CLT.

[monsoon]

None that I have heard of. It will be interesting to see if USAir tries to provide more direct overseas routes from Charlotte when the Boeing 787 (dreamliner) comes out. Though they have tended to buy Airbus, the Dreamliner might make it possible for Charlotte to offer a route from USAir direct to Tokyo, HongKong, etc. Given the size of the hub, it ought to be able to support it.

[Seabreeze]

They installed the new Jet Blue ticket machines next to Lufthansa last week. They also sent out a press release about how they are upgrading one of the restrooms (woohoo).

[jednc]

It's great to just read back over this thread for the past couple of years and see who has been right and who has been the voice of gloom and doom. USAir is here and is doing better than it has been in years. CLT continues to be a first rate airport thanks primarily to Mr. Orr. Jet Blue is part of the picture and fares are down in CLT...in many cases cheaper than GSO or RDU (when you factor in gas to get there). All in all...those self proclaimed "optimists" were pretty close to the mark. Way to go!

Also...you can tell the breed by the way it feels...its consistency.

[atlrvr]

Just saw this......I don't like the sound of it.

US Airways/Delta merger.

http://www.ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=203017

It doesn't seem like it would make much sense, with Charlotte/Atlanta hubs overlapping and SLC/Phoenix hubs overlapping. If it did happen, this would certainly reduce Charlotte's role.

My opinion is now that US Airways is profitable, don't tinker with the model.

Anyone have any better insight into why this would benefit US?

[mallguy]

That merger speculation was based largely on one phone call from Parker at US to Grinstein at DL, which was rebuffed. I don't see anything coming of that, at least in the near term.

[monsoon]

J

My opinion is now that US Airways is profitable, don't tinker with the model.

Anyone have any better insight into why this would benefit US?

Do we know this to be true? This is no longer the USAir that we were discussing throughout this thread, but rather American West that took over a very unprofitable airline and renamed itself after that airline. I don't see where American West has really addressed the real issues that were facing USAir when it was about to be liquidated by the bankrupcy judge, and I don't think they have the necessary experience in running such a large operation. If they merge with Delta, they can eliminate a lot of competition on the East Coast and gain the experience of people that know how to run a major airline. Analyists are still saying there are too many airlines in this country and one of the majors has to go before the industry becomes healthy again.

The question of the day is if this merger comes, which hub will they protect and which hub will be reduced, Atlanta or Charlotte?

[atlrvr]

The merged airline was profitable the 1st and 2nd Quarters of 2006 and are expecting to be profitable for the year.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburgh...s/s_463722.html

They are making money by reducing flights while experiencing greater demand and rising fares.

[BobbyRobert]

Just saw this......I don't like the sound of it.

US Airways/Delta merger.

http://www.ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=203017

It doesn't seem like it would make much sense, with Charlotte/Atlanta hubs overlapping and SLC/Phoenix hubs overlapping. If it did happen, this would certainly reduce Charlotte's role.

My opinion is now that US Airways is profitable, don't tinker with the model.

Anyone have any better insight into why this would benefit US?

the original Wall Street journal article on this generally dismissed the possibility of this happening.

http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1154...1170521304.html (subscription required)

The article suggested the timing of this was 'earlier this summer' and that the current usair (well America west) ceo (Doug Parker) wanted to leverage is currently high stock price to acquire delta assets on the cheap. The merger overtures were driven by the recognition of the need for dramatic consolidation in the domestic airline industry and Parker did not want to be left behind.

one quote from the WSJ article:

"Mr. Grinstein [the delta CEO] has expressed doubt that a Delta-US Airways merger would pass antitrust muster because Delta's Atlanta hub competes for passengers with US Airways' Charlotte hub, a person familiar with this thinking said.

I agree that this would be a bad move by USair due to heavy overlap between routes. A better candidate (IMHO) would be Northwest but they have some serious labor issues to deal with. However, if airlines do continue the wave of consolidation that was begun with America West and Usair then Charlotte sits is a VERY bad place given its low o-d traffic and situation in the shadow of the international gateways of ATL and Dulles.

[dubone]

Also, both AW and USAirways were losing money before the merger (USAirways more so than AW). The idea, as with every merger, is to expand, blend the corporations, and take the best from both. USAirways provided east coast operations, while AW provided the more profitable management and model.

[monsoon]

There is a new paradigm of air travel coming that threatens to take away the airlines bread and butter maket, the business traveler. The first of these companies DayJet plans to start offering point to point travel in the Southeast. As predicted earlier in this thread, new low cost highly efficient jets are making this possible. DayJet will be using the Eclipse 500 which just got FAA approval for this type of service and the company that makes them says 4500 of them are on order (which means more airlines like this are on the way) And Honda just announced this week that it is going to start making the HondaJet in Greensboro which will compete against the Eclipse 500.

DayJet has already said that when it comes to the Charlotte area it will fly out of the new Concord Airport rather than Douglass. I would much rather board a small jet at the Concord Airport for business travel, than to deal with the hassels of going through Douglass to get on a USAir flight. It's my opinion that a lot of other business travelers are going to feel the same way.

[dubone]

The FAA certification for this is only for existing jets in service already, not for new orders. Although, I'm sure it is inevitable. The good thing about those VLJs are that they suddenly put a high number of old short runway airports back into service.

I'm not totally sure I agree that it'll threaten USAirways. They have dramatically reduced their capacity. Even if VLJs take over a percentage of the growth, I don't believe it will cause negative growth any time this decade, certainly not enough to overcome the dramatic (though gradual) increase in leisure travel corresponding to the retirement travels of the early baby boom generation.

[monsoon]

They have dramatically reduced their capacity.

Combined USAirways Group Passenger Miles

July 2005 - 6,466,894

July 2006 - 6,076,396

This is a decrease of 6%.

USAir Portion Passenger Miles

July 2005 - 3,849,594

July 2006 - 3,634,583

This is a decrease of 5.6%

Available Seat Miles Combined

July 2005 - 31,701,126

July 2006 - 27,409,957

This is a decrease of 13.5% load factor went from 74 to 79.

[Mobuchu]

Small jets are actually more expensive to operate than large ones per ASM (available seat mile). All those new mini jets use as much or more fuel, yet they carry fewer passengers.

As a side note, US is also rumored to be in merger talks with Northwest. No anti trust concerns there, as their markets don't overlap.

Edited August 8, 2006 by Mobuchu

[RiverwoodCLT]

I think a Northwest merger would happen before a Delta meger. Delta is too large for US Air merger, unless Delta reduce it size by 40% or 50%.

Edited August 9, 2006 by RiverwoodCLT

[kickazzz2000]

I think a Northwest merger would happen before a Delta meger. Delta is too large for US Air merger, unless Delta reduce it size by 40% or 50%.

A NWA merger would be best for Charlotte. No Overlap. It would probably mean curtains for Memphis though...

[A2]

USAir would be ill served to link up with the debt laden, bankrupt Delta. Not that USAir is in much better shape, but a marriage of the two would be like the blind leading the blind. Delta only wishes they could marry someone that just got lasik surgery. lol.

Delta take it back to ATL, we don't want what you are selling!

A2

[ScottCLT]

Aside from the new parking deck being built, there is a lot of land being cleared away near is. Does anyone know if this is actually for a satellite terminal, like the ones mentioned before and also appear in the diagram posted a while back?

[kickazzz2000]

Aside from the new parking deck being built, there is a lot of land being cleared away near is. Does anyone know if this is actually for a satellite terminal, like the ones mentioned before and also appear in the diagram posted a while back?

Depends where. It could be the 3rd paralell runway west of 18R/36L.