Tallahassee Regional Airport

[Florida]

sounds good.

[Relient J]

I am intrigued, and await your proposal.

[jpl02]

As promised, here is the illustration

It would start at an at-grade intersection with Railroad just south of Gaines. Rather than using Gaines Street proper, the road could use right of way just south of there, requiring primarily industrual and commercial properties. It would turn at Lake Bradford and head south, then along Springhill and an upgraded section of Capital Circle.

Interchanges/overpasses are denoted with the black circles. South of Orange, I don't see why this couldn't be a full freeway, as long as neighborhood streets are connected. I would propose using right-of-way from the east side of the road, which has fewer residences.

The insert shows a couple of slip ramps I propose to further aid travel to/from downtown, by using the Pensacola/St. Augustine one-way pair. Here, property acquistions would be extensive, but this part of the plan is purely optional.

FSU gets its own interchange at the massive Stadium/Gaines/Lake Bradford complex, in front of Bowden's stadium no less; Innovation Park and FAMU served by Levy/Kissimmee interchange.

[Glenn]

Nice Work jpl02! I'll study this in detail later today. Thanks so much for taking the time to put this together & share with us.

Also, I noticed your recent avatar change to the State Hwy 84 sign & was curious about it's significance to you. Are you from that area of South Florida? You forced me to read up on the interesting history of this particular road.

[Florida]

JPL... that was really good and well thought out. I think that's a valid proposal. I want to print it out right now and run it upstairs to the traffic engineer.

[jpl02]

Keep me posted on what he says, TJ!

[Florida]

^Oh! LOL! I'm not actually going to do it. I just felt like doing it!

[csmurphy8885]

lol, a big interchange in the shadow of the stadium would rock. I like the idea of using the IM field area to combine the one ways further west, and leave the RR area a little less traveled. I love limited access as an option while heading that direction, and our engineers need to be doing this thinking all over town. Monroe is horrible at 5, the one ways along her need to be tied in better (MLK@monroe in particular)

These things will certainly change the feel of the city...

[poonther]

This is today's article http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a.../603100347/1003 on Tallahassee possibly adding more flights. Which I don't think is a bad idea. Possibly more business, tourism. But then again this one stop things are kind of expensieve. What do yall think about this?

Having just used the airport, I think that the more options we have, the better off we are. I for one am tired of being "held hostage" by Delta. Their prices are out of control and I'm not a fan of the ATL airport. I try and do anything to avoid a connection there. Now w/the threat of a Delta pilot's strike, who knows what that could to do to service in Tally.

Also Delta's customer service is getting very poor. I was on a huge flight from LAX to ATL and after we arrived at the gate this plane full of passengers that had been on 4+hour flight had to wait over 15 minutes b/c Delta forgot to send someone over to hook up the jetway (those were the pilot's words not mine.) Then on the late 11pm outbound flight to Tally, the flight was late leaving b/c a flight attendent was extremely late in showing up and offered no apologies as she just waltzed up to the gate food and drink in hand. Now if I'd done that and the flight was on time, I'd have been left behind.

[laneyj34]

does anyone know what the deal is with the commercial property near the airport. there are signs on capital circle just east of the airport that signify what looks to be a mall or place for stores to be built. what is going up here, does anyone know?

[thetoolman]

does anyone know what the deal is with the commercial property near the airport. there are signs on capital circle just east of the airport that signify what looks to be a mall or place for stores to be built. what is going up here, does anyone know?

Do you mean this property?

http://www.edctallahasseeleon.com/airportcommercecenter.php

[Florida]

The commerce center has been there for about 5 years... I'd expect it won't get any SERIOUS attention until that portion of CC is widened.

[poonther]

TJ time flies for sure, but not that fast. I think the St. Joe airport commerce center has been completed 2 years max. I'm surprised that nothing has moved in there yet. I also think something will move in there before Cap Circle in area is widen...or at least I'm hoping so.....since that could be 10 years away.

[poonther]

Not good news at all:

Tallahassee Regional Airport had 77,417 passengers in February, compared with 89, 685 passengers in February of last year, a nearly 14-percent drop. Passenger traffic in January was down by 14 percent from the previous year as well. In 2005, the airport saw passenger numbers decline to 1,129,947 from the 1,155,072 passengers who flew in 2004

Something must be done to correct this problem soon!

Last week a Letter to the editor writer wrote the following that I completely agree with and have stated something similar in this thread. To follow the rules here on UP I can't paste the whole letter and I can't provide a link b/c Letters to Editor disappear in a week. Here's just a small part of the letter:

I have watched the same cycle for 25 years. A low-fare carrier comes in and all the established carriers immediately match the discounted fares.

Tallahasseeans, seemingly oblivious to what is happening over and over, continue to fly on the established carriers until the low-cost carrier gets frustrated from a lack of support and pulls out. Then all the prices go back up and people begin to complain again.

Somehow we must get Tally out from under the strangle of Delta and we must somehow educate the local flying public that when or if the next discount carrier comes to town, they MUST use it.

How to do that is a whole other story...any ideas?

[Florida]

I can see our airport doing better without Delta.

[poonther]

TallyDT(aka Chicken Little) I think TJ and the others would have preferred if you would have put that here!

No one is using our airport? While numbers are way way down, over the last few months that I've been going to the airport, I have seen people flying out of there, so I would not say NO ONE is using it.

What's high-class retail mean? Maybe you mean high-end retail?

Yeah I've reading those falling stats for sometime now. It isn't good news, but air traffic at Mobile, Pensacola, PC, Dothan, Valdosta etc etc has been declining over the same time periods. Tickets are pretty high everywhere b/c of gas prices, but a discount airline would help us out. I did get a ticket from TLH to Hawaii for $600 bucks in Oct, which is great price from any East Coast airport to Honolulu.

The PC airport is still years away, I'm not sure if they've even gotten final approval yet, not to say that it isn't going to happen b/c it is. The PC airport though will be built in far western Bay County almost to the Walton County line which is a good 120 miles from Tally. Since there are no limited expressways to there, it will still probably take just about as much time for us to reach there as it does JAX..

Learn to do links TallyDT and lighten up on the drama......please!

Scroll to bottom of page for stats!

[TD]

poonther watch your tone you are disrespectful when talking to others, im sorry your parents didnt teach you this..

Also, i didnt want to find the old thread..... making a new one brings life into it, o yea

so i came up with a nickname for you Poonther (freakshow)

Ah man, how does it feel, with your own nickname and a harsh comment?

Some people cant be civilized

[poonther]

poonther watch your tone you are disrespectful when talking to others, im sorry your parents didnt teach you this..

Also, i didnt want to find the old thread..... making a new one brings life into it, o yea

so i came up with a nickname for you Poonther (freakshow)

Ah man, how does it feel, with your own nickname and a harsh comment?

Some people cant be civilized

I was expecting this exact type of reply! Glad you did not disappoint.

-freakshow aka Poonther

[Florida]

Poonther! You're too much! Can't we all just get along. I agree with you Poonther, traffic has been on the decline at the airport, but this is not something that is unique to Tallahassee, as you've noted in reference to Pensacola, and Mobile.

I still maintain that we do need a discount air carrier.

[SkyDave]

I agree with poonther. The Tallahassee numbers are mostly down due to ALL airlines cutting back their flight capacity due to high fuel costs. We are seeing mostly regional jets flying into medium sized airports like Tallahassee.

Our airport is still somewhat busy and we have no reason to fear the small Bay County International Airport in Panama City with its 12 daily flights even when they relocate. (It is International only because it has a charter flight that flies out of there). According to its website [url=http://www.pcairport.com/airportinfo_stats.htm] only 382,551 passengers utilized the Panama City airport last year. This year passenger traffic has been significantly affected by the airlines decision to reduce capacity as was stated above.

However, Tallahassee's passenger traffic was 1.1 million last year. See Talgov.com airport statistics. Our users are mostly business, government, university, and leisure travelers. The Panama City airport is primarily tourist and leisure users only and is highly seasonal.

There has been some great news of late at Tallahassee Regional. Continental Airlines will be adding an additional flight to Houston this month. Also, In an article in the Tallahassee Democrat 6/15/2006 business section, DayJet will be starting service to business customers. This charter service is expected to begin by the end of the year. Finally, I believe you can look for further announcements from our airport as the entire airline industry redesigns itself. The best is yet to come!!!

[Glenn]

Panama City's new airport may have cleared another hurdle recently but they still have a very LONG way to go. They can't even get roads in Florida 4-laned as fast as they claim to be building this airport! There is still no steady, year-round business or industry over there that warrants this size airport but St Joe has convinced the powers that be & I'm all for planning towards the future. I think Tallahassee will grow in proportion just as the rest of Northwest Florida grows over the next decade or two.

Jacksonville, Florida - (May 11, 2006) - The Panama City - Bay County International Airport and Industrial District (Airport Authority) announced today that it has received the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) regarding the potential environmental impacts resulting from the proposed relocation of the Panama City-Bay County International Airport (PFN) to a new site in Bay County, Florida. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is a cooperating federal agency for this FEIS.

The five-volume FEIS and a summary will be available for download from the airport web site at www.pcairport.com. In the FAA's 34-page summary under the heading, Preferred Alternatives (EIS Summary page S-12), the FAA states:

"The FAA selects the West Bay Site 8,400-foot Alternative as its preferred alternative. For the reasons presented throughout this FEIS, the FAA has selected this alternative as its preferred alternative because of its superior ability to meet the purposes and needs of the project with fewer constraints than presented by any of the Existing Site alternatives. The FAA has also selected this alternative because the West Bay Site has been deemed the operationally preferable location as compared to the Existing Site.

The FAA has also considered environmental factors in its selection of a preferred alternative. From an environmental standpoint, neither the Existing Site nor the West Bay Site can be deemed clearly superior. Each site presents a different variety and extent of environmental impact, neither of which can be considered clearly more or less severe. The Existing Site alternatives represent greater impacts to surrounding communities, through noise impacts and relocations of residences and businesses. The West Bay Site, by contrast, is currently undeveloped and would have no impacts to community members but would involve wetland and biotic community impacts, as well as new floodplain impacts. In addition to the fundamental difference in the nature of the impacts at the two sites, FAA has also considered other environmental factors. For example, the sites differ in their opportunities for environmental enhancement and preservation(1) , as well as the availability of preventative strategies to reduce or avoid impacts that are unavoidable at the competing location(2). Because the impacts at the two locations are of fundamentally different varieties and the opportunities for enhancement and/or avoidance of impacts are disparate, the FAA cannot conclude that one site is clearly superior to the other from an environmental standpoint. As a result, FAA may consider the Airport Sponsor's stated goals and objectives when identifying a preferred alternative."

The proposed airport relocation site is near West Bay on land owned by The St. Joe Company (NYSE: JOE).

In an Airport Authority press release, Executive Director Randy Curtis said, "We've got a lot of work ahead of us, but this is a significant milestone. We are extremely grateful to the FAA for the time, attention and effort it has devoted to our airport. We clearly share the same goal - to provide the people of Bay County an airport that meets all federal safety and design standards and can operate without constraints. Today, we are one step closer to achieving that goal."

"Based on a preliminary reading of the FAA's FEIS Summary, this appears to be a significant step toward relocation of the airport to the West Bay Site," said Peter S. Rummell, chairman and CEO of JOE.

The FAA has said it expects to issue its Record of Decision (ROD) in September 2006. In addition, many regulatory steps remain before a final decision is reached on the relocation of the airport. The relocation of the airport is also dependent on adequate funding.

A complete copy of the FEIS on Compact Disc may be obtained by submitting a written request to the Executive Director of the Panama City-Bay County International Airport at 3173 Airport Road, Box A, Panama City, Florida 32405.

[poonther]

Thanks Glenn for that update on the PC airport. I thought they still had several hurdles to go. Seems every time I'm down in Bay County visiting my parents, there's some story on the news about another review the proposed airport must go through. It also seems that many in Bay do NOT want the new airport. It will service the beaches in Bay and Walton very well, however it will take the airport much further away, at least a 30 to 45 minute drive from the center of town and the east side 'burbs of Calloway, Parker and Tyndall AFB.

SD that's excellent news about Continental bringing another flight to Houston. Anything that gets our sole dependence off Delta and ATL airport is a good thing IMO.

And finally, I am and always have been w/ TJ on the fact that we do need another discount airline.

[SkyDave]

I had discussions with the good folks out at the airport earlier this year, addressing some concerns I had with the direction they seemed to be taking at the time. They assured me that they fully understood the need to wean ourselves off Delta. Their predatory practices is the SOLE reason why Airtran left this market and not the offical song and dance of low ridership. Therefore, we have to take baby steps to lure in other airlines for more point to point destinations. Next in line hopefully will be American Eagle to Dallas or another US Airways with a flight to an unnamed destination. The more non-stop fights we have the better.

Finally, we need to campaign the city commssion to release the Airport so they can have their own web site. The airport does not serve Tallahassee alone. It is a regional airport that supposedly serves 18 counties in a 100 mile radius. If we are ever to lure another discount airline we will need to increase passenger usage significantly. This could happen if the Airport is marketed to the entire region it serves.

Can we do it?????

[Florida]

We can do it. I've actually already started on a package to present to the city on this issue.

[SkyDave]

TJ, Here are some awesome airport websites that I believe do an incredible job of representing their communites and in increasing passenger usage. They are all relatively close to Tallahassee in size, service area populations, and current passenger usage. The only difference is they have a VISION and they are WORKING it !!! They have all been negatively impacted by the airlines reduced capacity due to high fuel costs, however, they remain intensely positive and forward looking. Let me know what you guys think. My top three top web sites:

1.) Des Moines International Airport www.dsmairport.com

2.) Jackson Ms. Municpal Airport www.jmaa.com

3.) Huntsville Al. International Airport www.hsvairport.org

Let the fun begin!!!!!