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Big News For Little Rock National Airport


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I would love to see something on the west coast.  Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, LA, or San Diego.  If I'm not mistaken, XNA has a flight to LAX.

Currently, the furthest west you can get from LIT is Denver, Las Vegas, or Pheonix.

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Yeah XNA has a direct flight to Los Angeles. I think it's the only one we have that Little Rock doesn't.

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  • 2 months later...

Another LIT update:

Just read on KARK that LIT is planning to meet with the Little Rock City Planning Commission to discuss expansion over the next 5-10 years. The airport commission's chairman said in the next 5-10 years the airport could include international flights, another runway and millions of passengers.

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Another LIT update:

Just read on KARK that LIT is planning to meet with the Little Rock City Planning Commission to discuss expansion over the next 5-10 years. The airport commission's chairman said in the next 5-10 years the airport could include international flights, another runway and millions of passengers.

I'm not going against you here at all Arkansas Buff, but I'm not sure if all of this could happen.

I'm not sure if Little Rock's airport would necessarly get international flights and another runway in 5 to 10 years. Sure the airport is growing with around 1.5 million passangers, but Little Rock already has 3 runways, all they have to do expand the existing runways to 8000 or so feet and unless Little Rock was to become a hub city, I couldn't see international flights either. Places like Tulsa, Oklahoma City don't have international flights and they average much more emplaments than Little Rock. Kansas City only has 3 runways and they have almost 5 Million Emplaments a year.

Also, on the runway, it usually takes around 20 years or so for a runway to be built, from idea to reality. Right of way for the land must be aquired, not to mention all of the regulations from the FAA and the goverment. Also, funding would have to be reached and than construction would have to start. It would be better for Little Rock just to expand their other runways.

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I'm not going against you here at all Arkansas Buff, but I'm not sure if all of this could happen.

I'm not sure if Little Rock's airport would necessarly get international flights and another runway in 5 to 10 years. Sure the airport is growing with around 1.5 million passangers, but Little Rock already has 3 runways, all they have to do expand the existing runways to 8000 or so feet and unless Little Rock was to become a hub city, I couldn't see international flights either. Places like Tulsa, Oklahoma City don't have international flights and they average much more emplaments than Little Rock. Kansas City only has 3 runways and they have almost 5 Million Emplaments a year.

Also, on the runway, it usually takes around 20 years or so for a runway to be built, from idea to reality. Right of way for the land must be aquired, not to mention all of the regulations from the FAA and the goverment. Also, funding would have to be reached and than construction would have to start. It would be better for Little Rock just to expand their other runways.

If it wasn't for the fact that the airport sits between the river and Roosevelt Road another runway would've been built long ago. This situation, in fact, is what cost Little Rock Fed Ex many years ago. Since one of the main runways is also shorter than optimal and there was a major crash a few years ago that made a lot of people nervous the schedule has been pushed up for the movement of Roosevelt Road to accomodate another runway. Keep in mind as well that while LR is not a major freight center compared to Dallas or Memphis, it is the major freight distribution point for Arkansas.

As for your last point, the runways can't be expanded without moving Roosevelt. The cost of building new runways isn't much compared to moving a road that's been there at least a century.

"International" designation is relative. Jackson, MS is designated as such because of one flight a day. I expect LR to eventually get a flight to Mexico City and become an "international airport" as Hispanic immigration to Arkansas continues, though this is meaningless ultimately. It's just a name.

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If it wasn't for the fact that the airport sits between the river and Roosevelt Road another runway would've been built long ago. This situation, in fact, is what cost Little Rock Fed Ex many years ago. Since one of the main runways is also shorter than optimal and there was a major crash a few years ago that made a lot of people nervous the schedule has been pushed up for the movement of Roosevelt Road to accomodate another runway. Keep in mind as well that while LR is not a major freight center compared to Dallas or Memphis, it is the major freight distribution point for Arkansas.

As for your last point, the runways can't be expanded without moving Roosevelt. The cost of building new runways isn't much compared to moving a road that's been there at least a century.

"International" designation is relative. Jackson, MS is designated as such because of one flight a day. I expect LR to eventually get a flight to Mexico City and become an "international airport" as Hispanic immigration to Arkansas continues, though this is meaningless ultimately. It's just a name.

There's no need for a 4th runway at the airport. XNA only has one runway, I think we would need a second much more than you guys getting a 4th.

Also, what one flight are you talking about from Jackson, MS that is international?

All LR would have to do is add flights to cities like Houston or Dallas. Or simply upgrade the aircraft. International airports like Tulsa and Oklahoma City don't offer service to Mexico City, they simply fly to hub cities like Dallas and Houston. Kansas City doesn't even have a flight to Mexico City, and they have just as much, if not more hispanics than Arkansas does.

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There's no need for a 4th runway at the airport. XNA only has one runway, I think we would need a second much more than you guys getting a 4th.

Also, what one flight are you talking about from Jackson, MS that is international?

All LR would have to do is add flights to cities like Houston or Dallas. Or simply upgrade the aircraft. International airports like Tulsa and Oklahoma City don't offer service to Mexico City, they simply fly to hub cities like Dallas and Houston. Kansas City doesn't even have a flight to Mexico City, and they have just as much, if not more hispanics than Arkansas does.

You're missing the point, it wouldn't be our 4th FULL runway as none of the runways are optimal length by current FAA standards. This is why there's a foamcrete barrier at the end of one of them between it and the river.

I would bet between passenger, small aircraft, and freight traffic the LR airport is 4 times as busy and it carries 250% as much passenger traffic based on 2004 numbers. Don't forget Raytheon and Dassault Falcon Jet have major manufacturing facilities in the airport and fly planes in and out regularly as well.

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You're missing the point, it wouldn't be our 4th FULL runway as none of the runways are optimal length by current FAA standards. This is why there's a foamcrete barrier at the end of one of them between it and the river.

I would bet between passenger, small aircraft, and freight traffic the LR airport is 4 times as busy and it carries 250% as much passenger traffic based on 2004 numbers. Don't forget Raytheon and Dassault Falcon Jet have major manufacturing facilities in the airport and fly planes in and out regularly as well.

I'm sure traffic at Little Rock is 4 times as busy, and is the busiest airport in the state.

I misread your previous comment and took it the wrong way.

I was just making points that what the airport director was talking about might be a longterm plan of 20 or so years.

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  • 3 weeks later...

As an avid commercial aviation freak, I thought I'd let everyone know about LIT's Thanksgiving travel season numbers for 2005. The airlines serving Little Rock National Airport will handle 38,440 passengers during the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, up from the 35,547 passengers during the same period last year.

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As an avid commercial aviation freak

That makes two of us.

Also, attracting a Southwest flight to Ft. Lauderdale would be difficult seeing as how they only offer flights from Ft. Lauderdale outside of Florida on Southwest to Houston (Hobby), St. Louis, Nashville, Chicago (Midway), Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Long Island.

Although, Delta Connection has a quite a few flights out of Ft. Lauderdale.

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That makes two of us.

Also, attracting a Southwest flight to Ft. Lauderdale would be difficult seeing as how they only offer flights from Ft. Lauderdale outside of Florida on Southwest to Houston (Hobby), St. Louis, Nashville, Chicago (Midway), Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Long Island.

Although, Delta Connection has a quite a few flights out of Ft. Lauderdale.

I said "what I would like" not "what is likely". You can fly SWA to Orlando, it would nice to see that as a direct like the one from LR to Vegas but I don't know why LIT would merit one.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Southwest has been allowed to fly directly to KC and St Louis from Love Field. American Airlines in retaliation is going back to Love Field and will have several flights out of that airport daily. No idea on how this will affect LR airports as of yet. There are ten LR flights to DFW on American daily as of now, about half of the daily flights from LR to the Dallas area.

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Southwest has been allowed to fly directly to KC and St Louis from Love Field. American Airlines in retaliation is going back to Love Field and will have several flights out of that airport daily. No idea on how this will affect LR airports as of yet. There are ten LR flights to DFW on American daily as of now, about half of the daily flights from LR to the Dallas area.

^I saw that, does that mean that the Wright Amendment has been repealled?

I haven't heard anything on it in a while.

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^I saw that, does that mean that the Wright Amendment has been repealled?

I haven't heard anything on it in a while.

Not yet. It's a huge blow to DFW, though, as nobody thought American would start flying out of Love again. If Wright is completely repealed, Southwest will fly direct from Love to nearly everywhere it flies nationally. Flying directly from KC and St Louis had something to do with Missouri law and I really didn't quite catch why that was able to change.

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Not yet. It's a huge blow to DFW, though, as nobody thought American would start flying out of Love again. If Wright is completely repealed, Southwest will fly direct from Love to nearly everywhere it flies nationally. Flying directly from KC and St Louis had something to do with Missouri law and I really didn't quite catch why that was able to change.

This is bad for DFW.

Who's idea was it to repeal the Wright Amendment?

Southwest?

City Leaders of Dallas?

Airport Officials?

FAA?

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I saw an article recently about reactions in Arkansas airports. Little Rock and Ft Smith didn't seem overly concerned but admitted they may lose some flights. XNA didn't seem too ceoncerned at all. Texarkana was about the only one that admitted to being rather worried about this whole deal.

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This is bad for DFW.

Who's idea was it to repeal the Wright Amendment?

Southwest?

City Leaders of Dallas?

Airport Officials?

FAA?

Southwest, of course.

People support it because AA has a virtual monopoly on national flights out of Dallas, despite Southwest being HQ'd here. It is already having a drastic impact on prices, last minute prices to KC and St Louis are going to fall from $800-1000 to $129.

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