Charlotte-Douglas Airport (CLT) Expansion

[uptownliving]

On 1/5/2016 at 2:25 PM, xapostrophe said:

Wasnt the D/E foodcourt and escalator supposed to be done years ago?   And I am fairly certain that we were told that the A reno was supposed to start in October?

and another thing how about some jet bridges on e concourse?   its embarrassing to drop off 76 passengers into the rain down there. the airline has made it clear to us that its the airport that isn't putting them in.   sickening.

The D/E food court was supposed to be done years ago, but US Airways put a hold on it. They released that hold last year and the airport sent it into design. It seems now that the major tenet being American they are a lot more willing to spend money than US Airways was.

As far as jetbridges the plan is to add them to the E gates that don't have them when they start construction on the 10 gate expansion later this year.

[xapostrophe]

Both of those items are great news.   Thanks for the insight.

 

 

 

 

On 1/7/2016 at 9:15 AM, HopHead said:

Never thought I'd see the day where I was glad that CLT now has competition for Orlando flights. I noticed that among other airports, Frontier is adding more nonstop desitations for Cincinnati. They will have new flights to San Francisco and LA. Those will be 3x a week in addition to the daily flights Delta already has. I know this is beating a dead horse here, but would be great to see another airline, whether it's Frontier or someone else, offer more west bound destinations. Right now, I think Salt Lake City (Delta) and Denver (United) are the only places where American has competition. 

I am pretty sure that Frontier and Allegiant are trying to grow CVG significantly

[cltbwimob]

Clt will become a test bed for the NEXTGEN air traffic control system.  Once implemented in Charlotte, it is expected to save airlines $9.4 million per year in saved fuel.  

http://m.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/queen_city_agenda/2016/01/feds-clt-teaming-up-to-get-you-and-planes-off-the.html

Edited January 9, 2016 by cltbwimob
Spelling

[rancenc]

11 hours ago, xapostrophe said:

Both of those items are great news.   Thanks for the insight.

 

 

 

 

I am pretty sure that Frontier and Allegiant are trying to grow CVG significantly

Allegiant has a growing presence at Concord Regional Airport.

[cltcane]

I would personally like to see Spirit come to CLT after the first phase of A-North is completed.  They've done quite well, at least up to this point, competing against AA, DL, and UA in large hubs (ATL, DFW, DTW, IAH, LAX, MSP, ORD) and would add some much-needed additional low-fare competition to these hubs and especially Florida.

[CLTaviation13]

1 hour ago, cltcane said:

I would personally like to see Spirit come to CLT after the first phase of A-North is completed.  They've done quite well, at least up to this point, competing against AA, DL, and UA in large hubs (ATL, DFW, DTW, IAH, LAX, MSP, ORD) and would add some much-needed additional low-fare competition to these hubs and especially Florida.

I like the thought on spirit. I personally would rather see Frontier expand there footprint more in CLT than having Spirit come in and 'possibly' overlap each other on routes and kick one another out. If they compliment each other I think that would be great!

 

Its so frustrating to me that JetBlue hasn't brought back CLT-FLL yet. I have a few friends who work with them & keep telling me they want to connect all the major markets they serve on the eastern seaboard to FLL. Not only for O/D but for connection in FLL. JetBlue has even been publicly open on that too.  It's not about the competition between AA/B6 on CLT-FLL. JetBlues FLL operation on the other end is 5 times bigger than it was in 07...

 

what about Alaska coming to CLT?

Edited January 9, 2016 by JetBlueCLT

[CLT2014]

17 minutes ago, JetBlueCLT said:

What about Alaska coming to CLT?

Do they codeshare with American on the nonstop SEA and PDX flights? Probably not worth the cost of opening up a station for one flight per day to their hubs if American do the heavy lifting via a codeshare.

[CLTaviation13]

2 hours ago, CLT2014 said:

Do they codeshare with American on the nonstop SEA and PDX flights? Probably not worth the cost of opening up a station for one flight per day to their hubs if American do the heavy lifting via a codeshare.

I don't believe they do. Not 100% sure though. I know AA/AS codeshare but I don't think they do on the AA nonstops to PDX/SEA

[Deleted.]

We will be beginning wide body cross-fleeting in May. The first hubs that will see a switch between LAA and LUS aircraft are PHL (Philly) and ORD (Chicago):

PHL-Zurich (ZRH) will see a LAA 767-300 instead of a LUS A330-200 (This was to be expected, loads on the 330 last summer were bad)

ORD-Dublin (DUB) will see a LUS A330-200 instead of a LAA 767-300 (The aircraft will still be based in CLT/PHL, so it is likely the aircraft will do a routing such as CLT-DUB-ORD-DUB-CLT)

More are to come, expect a 777 on at least one of the CLT-LHR frequencies. RDU-LHR may become a 332, if that happens, expect a 332 on the other CLT-LHR frequency so the aircraft can operate LHR-RDU (typical routing will probably be CLT-LHR-RDU-LHR-CLT or maybe we will see a daily A330 flight between CLT-RDU-CLT!) If the 330 operates on RDU-LHR, a 3rd frequency may be added to make up for the loss in capacity. 

Edited January 10, 2016 by Piedmont767

[Deleted.]

http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/the-worlds-most-punctual-airports-revealed-japanese-danish-and-us-hubs-score-high-but-britain-has-a6802116.html

We are the 13th most punctual airport in the world.

[queensguy06]

Is Frontier from CLT to ORD seasonal or is this a new year round route starting up in April?  My family is from Chicago and I am going to visit my sister in April.  Frontier starts flying a few days a week to ORD mid April.  I just booked roundtrip flight leaving on a Wed. and coming back on the following Mon. for $96.50 including taxes.  And that's nonstop.

[ChessieCat]

On 1/10/2016 at 4:11 AM, Piedmont767 said:

We will be beginning wide body cross-fleeting in May. The first hubs that will see a switch between LAA and LUS aircraft are PHL (Philly) and ORD (Chicago):

PHL-Zurich (ZRH) will see a LAA 767-300 instead of a LUS A330-200 (This was to be expected, loads on the 330 last summer were bad)

ORD-Dublin (DUB) will see a LUS A330-200 instead of a LAA 767-300 (The aircraft will still be based in CLT/PHL, so it is likely the aircraft will do a routing such as CLT-DUB-ORD-DUB-CLT)

More are to come, expect a 777 on at least one of the CLT-LHR frequencies. RDU-LHR may become a 332, if that happens, expect a 332 on the other CLT-LHR frequency so the aircraft can operate LHR-RDU (typical routing will probably be CLT-LHR-RDU-LHR-CLT or maybe we will see a daily A330 flight between CLT-RDU-CLT!) If the 330 operates on RDU-LHR, a 3rd frequency may be added to make up for the loss in capacity. 

Would be nice to see a 77W on the CLT-LHR route but a 772 will do!

[ChessieCat]

On 1/9/2016 at 10:27 AM, cltcane said:

I would personally like to see Spirit come to CLT after the first phase of A-North is completed.  They've done quite well, at least up to this point, competing against AA, DL, and UA in large hubs (ATL, DFW, DTW, IAH, LAX, MSP, ORD) and would add some much-needed additional low-fare competition to these hubs and especially Florida.

Now that Spirit has axed their CEO, it looks like a Frontier-Spirit merger is gaining traction considering their management teams all worked for each other at some point.  Hopefully the combined entity will take up a chunk of A-North.  Crossing fingers that JetBlue adds FLL & MCO before this happens to solidy their position...    

Edited January 11, 2016 by ChessieCat

[cltcane]

1 hour ago, ChessieCat said:

Would be nice to see a 77W on the CLT-LHR route but a 772 will do!

Only if it's one of the newly-retrofitted 772s.  The old ones are arguably the WORST planes I have ever flown on.  Worn seats, no power adapters (well there is one DC outlet on every third row) or Wi-Fi, small overhead bins, no MCE, 2-3-2 business class, a 5-inch entertainment screen with a visible grid and very limited entertainment choices, and movies that don't start on demand (and often start over when the cabin crew inevitably has to reset the system because multiple screens freeze).  I've taken less convenient routings just to avoid the AA 772.

[CLT2014]

23 hours ago, queensguy06 said:

Is Frontier from CLT to ORD seasonal or is this a new year round route starting up in April?  My family is from Chicago and I am going to visit my sister in April.  Frontier starts flying a few days a week to ORD mid April.  I just booked roundtrip flight leaving on a Wed. and coming back on the following Mon. for $96.50 including taxes.  And that's nonstop.

It is year round service, but Frontier's scheduling and marketing department is brilliant.... they add a whole bunch of routes to get media coverage with promo fares... people rush to book it. They keep a portion of the routes that do best and cancel the rest after a couple months and shift them to new "promo" routes that again get a bunch of media coverage, lead to a rush to book and then they keep some and cancel some all over again. They repeat this cycle over and over. This is why Frontier is going away from the hub and spoke model - they don't need loyalty and are relying on leisure travelers that fly once per year. One of their top complaints from customers is how they book a flight only for it to get removed from the schedule, refunded, and then they have to search for a last minute fare on another airline for much higher costs than originally. Frontier doesn't care though! We'll all be back in a year when they have the lowest fare again.

Cleveland Hopkins recently went through a wave of Frontier adding flights in 2015, canceling a bunch and shifting schedules, and then adding more promo flights back: http://www.cleveland.com/travel/index.ssf/2015/02/frustrated_with_frontier_airli.html

Frontier and Spirit stimulate low fares, but they somehow have managed to have worse service than United has managed to bring this country. Spirit in particular can have dreadful delays. At one point 60% of their flights were on time, I think they are up to 72%. I really want the competition to drive fares down in Charlotte, but I mainly want it to force American down so I can continue to fly them at lower fares! Haha. I wish I could have it all 

Edited January 11, 2016 by CLT2014

[CLTaviation13]

3 hours ago, ChessieCat said:

Now that Spirit has axed their CEO, it looks like a Frontier-Spirit merger is gaining traction considering their management teams all worked for each other at some point.  Hopefully the combined entity will take up a chunk of A-North.  Crossing fingers that JetBlue adds FLL & MCO before this happens to solidy their position...    

Slim chances with MCO for JetBlue. 

[ChessieCat]

16 hours ago, JetBlueCLT said:

Slim chances with MCO for JetBlue. 

FLL will do just fine!

18 hours ago, cltcane said:

Only if it's one of the newly-retrofitted 772s.  The old ones are arguably the WORST planes I have ever flown on.  Worn seats, no power adapters (well there is one DC outlet on every third row) or Wi-Fi, small overhead bins, no MCE, 2-3-2 business class, a 5-inch entertainment screen with a visible grid and very limited entertainment choices, and movies that don't start on demand (and often start over when the cabin crew inevitably has to reset the system because multiple screens freeze).  I've taken less convenient routings just to avoid the AA 772.

I heard the same thing about AA's 763s.  Keep those things in MIA! 

Edited January 12, 2016 by ChessieCat

[ChessieCat]

18 hours ago, CLT2014 said:

It is year round service, but Frontier's scheduling and marketing department is brilliant.... they add a whole bunch of routes to get media coverage with promo fares... people rush to book it. They keep a portion of the routes that do best and cancel the rest after a couple months and shift them to new "promo" routes that again get a bunch of media coverage, lead to a rush to book and then they keep some and cancel some all over again. They repeat this cycle over and over. This is why Frontier is going away from the hub and spoke model - they don't need loyalty and are relying on leisure travelers that fly once per year. One of their top complaints from customers is how they book a flight only for it to get removed from the schedule, refunded, and then they have to search for a last minute fare on another airline for much higher costs than originally. Frontier doesn't care though! We'll all be back in a year when they have the lowest fare again.

Cleveland Hopkins recently went through a wave of Frontier adding flights in 2015, canceling a bunch and shifting schedules, and then adding more promo flights back: http://www.cleveland.com/travel/index.ssf/2015/02/frustrated_with_frontier_airli.html

Frontier and Spirit stimulate low fares, but they somehow have managed to have worse service than United has managed to bring this country. Spirit in particular can have dreadful delays. At one point 60% of their flights were on time, I think they are up to 72%. I really want the competition to drive fares down in Charlotte, but I mainly want it to force American down so I can continue to fly them at lower fares! Haha. I wish I could have it all 

I'm surprised Frontier's CLT-TTN route has lasted as long as it has considering they also fly to PHL.  That's quite a niche they have in Trenton.

AA needs competition to FL and CA.  A wish list would include CLT-SFO on United, CLT-LAX on Delta and/or United, CLT-FLL on JetBlue and/or Southwest, and CLT-MCO/FLL on a merged Spirit/Frontier.

Edited January 12, 2016 by ChessieCat

[CLTaviation13]

If I had to predict what a CLT-FLL schedule would look like for JetBlue.

A320 flight 

FLL-CLT 1900 departure with 2050 arrival

CLT-FLL 0730 departure with 0915 arrival 

Those times allow connections for JetBlue Caribbean/Latin America bank of flights.

If Southwest couldn't make CLT-MCO work, not sure FLL would be any better. They crack me up with there "ambitious" plans to go international out of FLL. There a little late to the game on that, JetBlue and Spirit have that covered already.

[Miesian Corners]

What happened to all the people on the forum who complained non-stop (pun intended) about the use of city codes and acronyms on here? 

 

[ah59396]

2 hours ago, Miesian Corners said:

What happened to all the people on the forum who complained non-stop (pun intended) about the use of city codes and acronyms on here? 

 

 

I don't even read this anymore, but i'm OCD and can't stand it being bolded.  So I just click on it, scroll through it without reading the posts that look like mumbo-jumbo (to me), then go back to the main thread.  haha.

[km1789]

27 minutes ago, ah59396 said:

 

I don't even read this anymore, but i'm OCD and can't stand it being bolded.  So I just click on it, scroll through it without reading the posts that look like mumbo-jumbo (to me), then go back to the main thread.  haha.

Exactly what he said....

 

[tozmervo]

35 minutes ago, ah59396 said:

 

I don't even read this anymore, but i'm OCD and can't stand it being bolded.  So I just click on it, scroll through it without reading the posts that look like mumbo-jumbo (to me), then go back to the main thread.  haha.

Uhg, which airport is OCD again?

[kermit]

Since I am in a very literal mood today:

Orcadas Base Airport (OCD) located in Laurie Island, Argentine Antarctica, Argentina. (although it does not appear to be an 'official' code)

[HopHead]

This may or may not make your blood boil. Charlotte has the 2nd highest average airfare of the 50 busiest airports in the nation at $458. Only Newark was worse at $478. The national average if $385. 

By comparison in just North Carolina, Raleigh-Durham has an average fare of $393, Piedmont Triad has $470. 

Not getting my hopes up because we know Charlotte will bend over backwards to accommodate them, but it would be great if the city took a hard line with American Airlines to get the fares reduced with the new airport lease that's coming up. Even it's only on X routes. Or better yet, open up more gates to other airlines who can compete with them on said routes. 

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2016/01/12/average-airfares-at-clt-among-highest-of-nations.html