Charlotte-Douglas Airport (CLT) Expansion

[UrbanCharlotte]

Any guesses?

 

 

 

 

Edited August 7, 2019 by UrbanCharlotte

[CLT704]

I do get some info about AA but what I have heard for new routes is mostly Philadelphia related. In terms of CLT, the main I keep hearing is third daily London, AA is sitting on a slot at Heathrow; other ones I hear are leisure destinations, I hear whispers of Prague occasionally but I would guess that is wishful thinking. 

[TCLT]

38 minutes ago, CLT704 said:

I do get some info about AA but what I have heard for new routes is mostly Philadelphia related. In terms of CLT, the main I keep hearing is third daily London, AA is sitting on a slot at Heathrow; other ones I hear are leisure destinations, I hear whispers of Prague occasionally but I would guess that is wishful thinking. 

With the additional A gates coming online later this year, this should free up some D gates for potential international expansion in summer 2020.  But I agree with CLT704, this announcement probably will be focused on other hubs, but hopefully we get one or two long haul (probably seasonal) adds. A third LHR finally happening would be nice though.

 

[Temeteron]

2 hours ago, UrbanCharlotte said:

Any guesses?

 

 

 

 

I’m thinking TelAviv? (Dead Sea) or Morocco? 

[UrbanCharlotte]

Just now, Temeteron said:

I’m thinking TelAviv? (Dead Sea) or Morocco? 

Morocco, Israel, Poland, India, and Nice come to mind

[atlrvr]

Stockholm, Warsaw, Vietnam

[CarolinaDaydreamin]

One of those is a Molcajete from Mexico.

[CLT704]

In non-AA news, Lufthansa is putting the A340-600 back on the CLT route replacing the A350 from May 1. It’s a shame since the A350 is a beaut but it does reintroduce first class. 

Edited August 7, 2019 by CLT704

[JFerreira91]

5 hours ago, CLT704 said:

I do get some info about AA but what I have heard for new routes is mostly Philadelphia related. In terms of CLT, the main I keep hearing is third daily London, AA is sitting on a slot at Heathrow; other ones I hear are leisure destinations, I hear whispers of Prague occasionally but I would guess that is wishful thinking. 

CLT-London??

Around how much for the cheapest tickets on this flight? .. I booked for September, but going through NY first, as I always do.

[xapostrophe]

7 hours ago, TCLT said:

With the additional A gates coming online later this year, this should free up some D gates for potential international expansion in summer 2020.  But I agree with CLT704, this announcement probably will be focused on other hubs, but hopefully we get one or two long haul (probably seasonal) adds. A third LHR finally happening would be nice though.

 

Interestingly the new A Gates have parking lines for the 330 or other heavies.   Might see more departures from there...

[cltbwimob]

10 hours ago, CLT704 said:

I do get some info about AA but what I have heard for new routes is mostly Philadelphia related. In terms of CLT, the main I keep hearing is third daily London, AA is sitting on a slot at Heathrow; other ones I hear are leisure destinations, I hear whispers of Prague occasionally but I would guess that is wishful thinking. 

I hope that if/when we get a 3rd daily to LHR, that it is on British Airways and I hope it’s on a 777.  I really  would like to see some diversity of airlines and aircraft on international routes (Would also like to see Aer Lingus and Japan Airlines in CLT at some point soon as well).

6 hours ago, CLT704 said:

In non-AA news, Lufthansa is putting the A340-600 back on the CLT route replacing the A350 from May 1. It’s a shame since the A350 is a beaut but it does reintroduce first class. 

The A350 is a beaut, but I think the A340-600 is even more beautiful.  It’s of course bigger and has four engines which is becoming increasingly rare these days in the realm of passenger aircraft especially in markets like Charlotte.  I’m happy to see the return of a large quad jet in CLT.

 

This may be off base, but I have a theory as to why they are making the switch:

1.  Aligning seating arrangements with consumer demand. The A340-600 has considerably more premium seating and considerably less economy seating with less total seating than the A350.  My guess is the type of traffic that sustains this route is premium traffic from BMW that has been purported for some time as well as the high number of German companies in the Charlotte region that tend to prefer Lufthansa (according to Ted Reed) as opposed to hundreds of economy passengers.

2.   The need for additional cargo space.  A few years ago it was reported in the observer that BMW sent a lot of transmissions (and presumably other parts) for their cars being built in Greer via the MUC-CLT flight as belly cargo.  At some point later, dedicated freighter service between Munich and Greenville/Spartanburg was initiated which I suspect took a big chunk of the air cargo business away from Lufthansa.  It appears, according to flightaware.com and the air freight company’s website that the dedicated freighter service between MUC and GSP no longer exists.  This, in turn, may be creating significant demand for air cargo on the Lufthansa flight which cannot be accommodated by the smaller A350.

Edited August 8, 2019 by cltbwimob

[TCLT]

Part 1 of the announcements. Casablanca and Krakow added, Tel Aviv returns, and Prague and Budapest service expanded. Nothing for CLT though.
http://news.aa.com/news/news-details/2019/American-Airlines-Increases-International-Presence-Makes-First-Entrance-Into-Africa/default.aspx

Seasonal
PHL-CMN - 3x weekly -757
ORD-KRK - 5x weekly - 788
ORD-PRG - 5x weekly - 788
ORD-BUD - 5x weekly - 788

Year Round
DFW-TLV - 3x weekly - 789


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CLT704]

On 8/8/2019 at 5:20 AM, TCLT said:

Part 1 of the announcements. 

That’s the bit that worries me slightly, there should be an announcement about service cuts and frequencies so watch this space.

EDIT: the optimist in me likes to think this is the year that MAD and CDG go year-round.

Edited August 9, 2019 by CLT704

[LKN704]

Apparently BLQ is being dropped from PHL, and the KEF flight is being moved from DFW to PHL. 

Honestly for such a big hype AA had made (especially with that weird ASMR teaser video) I am a little underwhelmed. I know another announcement is due regarding Oceania and Asia flying so I wouldn’t be surprised to see AA sneak European cuts and frequency changes in that announcement. 

DFW-TLV is bizarre to me. It ignores the large Jewish diaspora on the East coast and is really only convenient for West Coast flyers. Though I guess AA is trying to avoid all the competition on the East coast. It’s just interesting  that UA and DL have the ability to make TLV from the East coast nonstop, while AA claimed that PHL-TLV was such a poor performer and “they would never be back at TLV” only for it to be lauded as a gold mine during US days and that US management was considering adding a second daily PHL-TLV or even a seasonal CLT-TLV. 

 

[TCLT]

1 hour ago, LKN704 said:

(especially with that weird ASMR teaser video)

The ASMR announcement video might be even weirder lol.

1 hour ago, LKN704 said:

DFW-TLV is bizarre to me.

Combination of less competition, strength of DFW (and Texas in general) economy, higher profitability due to the strength of the hub, and the ability to serve additional cities 1 stop that currently can't get to TLV in less than 2 stops should make it viable. Plus it's a much more efficient routing for Texas cities, particularly Austin, and cities to the west that typically have to take a transcon flight before the flight to TLV. The most bizarre part of this route to me is that it's only 3x per week.

1 hour ago, CLT704 said:

the optimist in me likes to think this is the year that MAD and CDG go year-round

Seems like it should be doable since there should be more winter slack in the A330 fleet  now that the premium economy mods are done and 767s and 787s are creeping into PHL. You'd think MAD at the very least would make sense since it's a JV partner hub.

[CLT2014]

1 hour ago, LKN704 said:

DFW-TLV is bizarre to me. It ignores the large Jewish diaspora on the East coast and is really only convenient for West Coast flyers. Though I guess AA is trying to avoid all the competition on the East coast. It’s just interesting  that UA and DL have the ability to make TLV from the East coast nonstop, while AA claimed that PHL-TLV was such a poor performer and “they would never be back at TLV” only for it to be lauded as a gold mine during US days and that US management was considering adding a second daily PHL-TLV or even a seasonal CLT-TLV. 

My guess is AA is targeting heartland tourists that are evangelicals and going to see Christian holy sites. AA is trying to carve out a niche by providing one stop service for cities like Houston, Austin, Albuquerque, San Antonio, Denver, Phoenix, San Diego, Las Vegas, etc... that have an OK sized Jewish population, but also large evangelical population that could more easily connect in DFW than New York or Washington DC. 

In 2018 61% of tourists to Israel were Christian, but air service has largely been focused on the Jewish diaspora. 

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-saw-record-breaking-4-million-tourists-in-2018-says-tourism-ministry/

Edited August 8, 2019 by CLT2014

[TCLT]

More confirmation from BizJournal of what we already know: it's really expensive to fly from CLT.

 

[Hushpuppy321]

You guys are so knowledgeable about Airport Flights and Operations.  Anyone know the best way/carrier to get cheapest flight (round trip) to JFK from CLT?

Edited August 9, 2019 by Hushpuppy321

[15895]

31 minutes ago, Hushpuppy321 said:

You guys are so knowledgeable about Airport Flights and Operations.  Anyone know the best way/carrier to get cheapest flight (round trip) to JFK from CLT?

Google “cheap flights” and google has a tool for you. It’ll show you the cheapest options. 

 

[LKN704]

15 hours ago, TCLT said:

The ASMR announcement video might be even weirder lol.

Vasu Raja just gives me frat-boy/frat-star vibes whenever he speaks. 

[CLT704]

On 8/8/2019 at 6:00 AM, CLT704 said:

That’s the bit that worries me slightly, there should be an announcement about service cuts and frequencies so watch this space.

EDIT: the optimist in me likes to think this is the year that MAD and CDG go year-round.

"CLT is getting "at least something" "

Edited August 9, 2019 by CLT704

[JacksonH]

19 hours ago, Hushpuppy321 said:

You guys are so knowledgeable about Airport Flights and Operations.  Anyone know the best way/carrier to get cheapest flight (round trip) to JFK from CLT?

I would suggest momondo.com.  Folks have been suggesting CLT is the most expensive airport to fly in and out of, and my brother often drives to other cities for that very reason.  But I just did an experiment using momondo.com flying round-trip to JFK (August 10-13)  from various nearby airports and the cheapest one is CLT!  Check this out.  These are the lowest prices from each airport:

CLT-JFK-CLT:  $289 (AA)

ATL-JFK-ATL:  $584  (Delta)

RDU-JFK-RDU:  $409 (Delta)

GSO-JFK-GSO:  $314 (Delta)

GSP-JFK-GSP:  $492 (AA)

CAE-JFK-CAE:  $484 (Delta)

Warning:  While momondo.com can find you great rates, be aware that it is essentially just a search engine.  It doesn't work like Travelocity, Expedia, KAYAK and others your are familiar with (most of which are apparently owned by the same company, which is why they all return the same prices) -- those sites buy up a bunch of tickets and then resell them.  Momondo doesn't work that way.  What it does is searches all travel sites, familiar ones as well as numerous obscure ones (all of them), and finds the absolute best prices.  So when you use momondo, you need to pay attention to the rules of the vendor that is actually selling you the ticket.  I recently used momondo for travel in June.  The actual vendor was called something like cheapfaremart.com, which I had never heard of.  I had to go read their rules and reviews to make sure there were no surprises.  So do you homework if you use momondo.  But in the end, everything worked out great:  I flew direct San Diego to CLT.  Six days later, I flew direct CLT to London Heathrow.  Then ten days after that, I flew from CDG (Paris), connecting at London Heathrow then direct all the way to San Diego (direct from LHR to SD).  The entire cost was only about $1,800.  I checked the same flights and schedule on the popular sites (e.g., Travelocity) and they were quoting me absurd prices starting at $4,000!

 

 

Edited August 9, 2019 by JacksonH

[LKN704]

4 hours ago, CLT704 said:

"CLT is getting "at least something" "

My money personally would be on MAD going year-round. It's essentially a hub to hub flight. When US ran CLT-CDG year-round (although 3x weekly) from 2010 to 2012, I remember the flights were pretty empty during the Winter time, although I have no idea on the yields. I will say that the "AA" brand is/was stronger in CDG than the US brand, just as the US brand was stronger in Germany than AA.

I believe that the slot that AA owns that Finnair currently uses is rumored to be for the third daily CLT-LHR flight-but I don't know whether Finnair has the rights to that slot until 2020 or 2021. 

[tozmervo]

The next A concourse expansion

 

[CLT2014]

Delta SkyClub!!!

Will all 10 gates be Delta?

Edited August 13, 2019 by CLT2014