Charlotte-Douglas Airport (CLT) Expansion

[turbocraig]

1 hour ago, CltFlyer said:

 

 

“Mirrors on the ceiling… the pink champagne on ice…”

[LKN704]

12 hours ago, CltFlyer said:

Also, there was a water main break near the airport causing most restaurants to close early (around 7pm) and even the Centurion Lounge had to close for a period of time.  It also limited bathroom usage.

A friend who is a flight attendant for AA said that they were being told to make onboard PA announcements to advise everyone to use the lavatory onboard if needed as they wouldn't be guaranteed an operable restroom in the terminal. 

Edited October 19, 2021 by LKN704

[CltFlyer]

They have done a very good job with the angles in the renderings, but the new Club CLT is going to be a very tight lounge.  Especially once Air Canada returns and Jetblue and Southwest are back to pre-covid levels.

[LKN704]

Delta put out a press release today highlighting their planned NYC growth (likely to counter the rise of the AA + JetBlue partnership) and specifically called out Charlotte as a key-market from the region that was due to see an increase in frequency starting next month. Today, Delta flies to JFK thrice daily on Embraer E-Jets, and to LGA five times daily, also on E-Jets. 

While mainline is still off (I believe CLT-JFK was all mainline on Delta pre-COVID), JFK jumps to five daily flights next month, and LGA goes to seven flights daily, for a total of 12 daily flights to the city's airports. 

Sadly, CLT-SLC loses the second daily flight starting next month.

[csweet]

11 hours ago, LKN704 said:

Delta put out a press release today highlighting their planned NYC growth (likely to counter the rise of the AA + JetBlue partnership) and specifically called out Charlotte as a key-market from the region that was due to see an increase in frequency starting next month. Today, Delta flies to JFK thrice daily on Embraer E-Jets, and to LGA five times daily, also on E-Jets. 

While mainline is still off (I believe CLT-JFK was all mainline on Delta pre-COVID), JFK jumps to five daily flights next month, and LGA goes to seven flights daily, for a total of 12 daily flights to the city's airports. 

Sadly, CLT-SLC loses the second daily flight starting next month.

Great news for CLT, any chance we see larger aircraft?

I find it so strange that they are removing the second daily right before ski season....

[CltFlyer]

12 minutes ago, csweet said:

Great news for CLT, any chance we see larger aircraft?

I find it so strange that they are removing the second daily right before ski season....

The 2nd daily flight is coming back in January and shows 2 daily through the rest of the schedule.  Delta  is practically back to pre-Covid levels.  

Also worth noting,  United is sending mainline to CLT again.  anywhere from 1 daily to 3 daily.  They are also almost back to pre-Covid levels.

Spirit and Frontier are back to pre-covid frequencies.  

Jetblue and Southwest are still lagging behind, and Air Canada is yet to return, otherwise we are nearly back to pre-covid flight levels.  

On a long haul front.  Lufthansa is back albeit at 3 weekly, Frankfurt is returning soon, and it appears that AA will be restarting flights to Munich on 12/16.

CLT has recovered from Covid quite well.  

 

 

 

 

 

[BarrenLucidity]

Pricing out some international travel next year and it looks like United is consistently undercutting American for most 1-stops. I'll gladly take some downward pressure on CLT tickets.

[Mgelbach]

[xapostrophe]

On 10/25/2021 at 7:51 PM, Mgelbach said:

Beautiful photos.  I'm happy to see the airport returning to being busy again.

[LKN704]

CLT is gaining an additional 2x daily flights on 777s for November, both to DFW. 

[csweet]

4 hours ago, LKN704 said:

CLT is gaining an additional 2x daily flights on 777s for November, both to DFW. 

Is CLT losing any 777 flights this winter? 

[LKN704]

8 hours ago, csweet said:

Is CLT losing any 777 flights this winter? 

Nonstop service to Honolulu ends 3 January. I suspect if they plan to continue the service we will know shortly. 

[buildleft]

On 10/19/2021 at 9:52 PM, LKN704 said:

Delta put out a press release today highlighting their planned NYC growth (likely to counter the rise of the AA + JetBlue partnership) and specifically called out Charlotte as a key-market from the region that was due to see an increase in frequency starting next month. Today, Delta flies to JFK thrice daily on Embraer E-Jets, and to LGA five times daily, also on E-Jets. 

While mainline is still off (I believe CLT-JFK was all mainline on Delta pre-COVID), JFK jumps to five daily flights next month, and LGA goes to seven flights daily, for a total of 12 daily flights to the city's airports. 

Sadly, CLT-SLC loses the second daily flight starting next month.

Not sure if this has been reported here but DL is also increasing their BOS frequencies from 3/day to 4/day, I assume this is to further compete with AA. DL will have 40/day out of CLT within the next few months.

[CltFlyer]

On 10/1/2021 at 10:32 AM, csweet said:

I would love to see AM add a MEX flight to CLT. The Volaris flight has been extremely successful, which led to AA adding GDL flights a couple years back. 

I'm not one to typically celebrate routes being cut, but Volaris has won the hypothetical war!

The last AA flight from CLT to GDL is on 12/15.  Hopefully, once they are able to increase frequency again, this gives them some room to grow to 3-4 weekly.

[LKN704]

^Performance must have been abysmal if they are closing the route before the Christmas season, which is peak season for VFR (visiting friends/relatives) routes like GDL. 

[KJHburg]

was out at CLT renewing something and stopped by the mega garage for a few photos.  It has been awhile for me out there. For the CLT experts what is going on near the new terminal A is that further expansion? 

so much is going on out there and there were cars and trucks parked to the roof of the mega garage.  Lots of photos!  I do wish every parking garage in Charlotte had large parking spaces like CLT airport.  

Today the Charlotte's region #1 economic development lure! 

[allthingsplanes]

1 hour ago, KJHburg said:

was out at CLT renewing something and stopped by the mega garage for a few photos.  It has been awhile for me out there. For the CLT experts what is going on near the new terminal A is that further expansion? 

so much is going on out there and there were cars and trucks parked to the roof of the mega garage.  Lots of photos!  I do wish every parking garage in Charlotte had large parking spaces like CLT airport.  

Today the Charlotte's region #1 economic development lure! 

Yes.  Phase 2 of the new concourse.  Basically like the first one.

[KJHburg]

2 minutes ago, allthingsplanes said:

Yes.  Phase 2 of the new concourse.  Basically like the first one.

are those the Delta gates or is Delta staying in the old A concourse?  I can't keep up with it anymore.  

[CltFlyer]

3 hours ago, KJHburg said:

are those the Delta gates or is Delta staying in the old A concourse?  I can't keep up with it anymore.  

Phase 2 will be the new Delta gates.  AA will take over the rest of the old A concourse.  The original renderings showed a Delta Sky Club in the expansion as well.  

[AP3]

On 11/5/2021 at 8:43 PM, allthingsplanes said:

Yes.  Phase 2 of the new concourse.  Basically like the first one.

Construction is slated to start in 2022.

[CarolinaDaydreamin]

1 hour ago, AP3 said:

Construction is slated to start in 2022.

Really wish there were a new curbside check in around A.

[Rufus]

2 hours ago, CarolinaDaydreamin said:

Really wish there were a new curbside check in around A.

It really feels like a missed opportunity. Who is going to want to rush from this end to something like E on a short layover? It's already a trek just from B to E. 

[CLT2014]

50 minutes ago, Rufus said:

It really feels like a missed opportunity. Who is going to want to rush from this end to something like E on a short layover? It's already a trek just from B to E. 

A-North will be Delta and Concourse E is 100% American so there should be few to no connections between these two rival airlines that don't codeshare. At many airports, rival airlines are even in completely separate terminals where you would have to re-clear security to get between them. In the off chance somebody booked a one-way on Delta connecting to a one-way on AA with a short layover, we are actually relatively easy with everything being behind one security checkpoint. People shouldn't book short layovers on separate tickets anyhow. If you miss your separate airline connection due to the first airline being late, the second airline can just charge you walk up fare pricing for being a no-show or be completely sold out with no obligation to take care of you. 

The main benefit of a separate check in area would be a shorter walk to the gate for O&D passengers on the non-AA airlines at CLT like United, Southwest, Delta, Frontier, et... The principal downside as an airport would be losing operational synergies. For example, Frontier is the only airline in Course A-North that operates a flight after 8PM, about an hour after the less batch of Delta flights. A-North is a ghost town largely at that hour and CLT closes down security check point A at 8:15. The Frontier passengers can go through check point B though with AA passengers and still get to their gate. If the check in area was separate, CLT would need to have 4 - 5 TSA agents available until 9:15PM, to get just 180 people through security for one loan Frontier flight. For the parking lots, you'd have to either increase the amount of buses to have some dedicated to each terminal or make it slightly longer for AA passengers by having a stop at Terminal A first, unload people, load on more people, et...

Edited November 8, 2021 by CLT2014

[CarolinaDaydreamin]

1 hour ago, CLT2014 said:

A-North will be Delta and Concourse E is 100% American so there should be few to no connections between these two rival airlines that don't codeshare. At many airports, rival airlines are even in completely separate terminals where you would have to re-clear security to get between them. In the off chance somebody booked a one-way on Delta connecting to a one-way on AA with a short layover, we are actually relatively easy with everything being behind one security checkpoint. People shouldn't book short layovers on separate tickets anyhow. If you miss your separate airline connection due to the first airline being late, the second airline can just charge you walk up fare pricing for being a no-show or be completely sold out with no obligation to take care of you. 

The main benefit of a separate check in area would be a shorter walk to the gate for O&D passengers on the non-AA airlines at CLT like United, Southwest, Delta, Frontier, et... The principal downside as an airport would be losing operational synergies. For example, Frontier is the only airline in Course A-North that operates a flight after 8PM, about an hour after the less batch of Delta flights. A-North is a ghost town largely at that hour and CLT closes down security check point A at 8:15. The Frontier passengers can go through check point B though with AA passengers and still get to their gate. If the check in area was separate, CLT would need to have 4 - 5 TSA agents available until 9:15PM, to get just 180 people through security for one loan Frontier flight. For the parking lots, you'd have to either increase the amount of buses to have some dedicated to each terminal or make it slightly longer for AA passengers by having a stop at Terminal A first, unload people, load on more people, et...

While that is true, its a relative nuisance for a Delta passenger to have to get dropped off at the main drop off, then walk all the way to A North. It also seems to limit the ability to expand A North even further. Most airports would have a separate Terminal for A (which would still allow for all the gates to be behind security).

[LKN704]

The original plans for the A North Gates displayed a two-level headhouse containing a departure level with four check-in islands/rows (major international airports no longer build terminals with the long line of check-in desks spanning the building as seen in the current CLT terminal) and an arrivals level with baggage carousels. I can try and look for the plans when I get home later. 

I believe this is still the long-range plan, I just am not sure when it would come to fruition. I’m also not sure how it would be laid out physically given the terminal approach road is so close to the A Gates.