Nashville International Airport Development thread

[Rural King]

^ From this point on I need all this banter back and forth about who knows what and who doesn't to stop. Agree to disagree respectfully and move on. I have talked to both of you before about this and I don't think either of you mean to get this sort of thing started, rather it just happens because you are both so passionate about your views.

Thanks in advance.

[Lexy]

Getting back on topic here, as you know the US Military Airlift and Tanker Convention is this weekend at Gaylord Opryland. Well, as noted above, that means plenty-o-aircraft at the airport. Here are a few of the arrivals from Thursday. Departures will be all day Sunday!

USAF KC-10A Extender:

USAF C-17:

Please visit my galleries linked below for more!

[nashscan]

Michael, you may not be the first person to photograph a C-17, but you're definately the first to get a C-17, the New Orleans Manor, and downtown Nashville all in the same shot.

[Lexy]

At NAS JAX, we get the C-17 twice a week from Charleston AFB in South Carolina. We have "code language" for this thing. We call it BIG MOTHER F-ER!, because thats exactly what that is, one big-a air aircraft.

I hear ya man! I have stood next to a few and let me tell ya, they are big!

Nashcan, I got an even better one IMO....check this out....

Got a KC-10 taxing over the top of Murfreesboro Road with the morning rush hour in full swing. I love this shot!

Edited October 27, 2007 by Lexy

[Lexy]

Oakland Raiders charter flight:

Hawaiian Airlines Boeing 767-300:

And don't forget the Airlift & Tanker Convention gallery here: www.pbase.com/lexyky/airlifttanker. It is still being updated daily!!!!!

Edited October 29, 2007 by Lexy

[Lexy]

Bunch of goodies over the weekend here! We had a cool selection to pick from as far as pictures are concerned out at the airport. Here are a few from the fantastic weekend at BNA.

Carolina Panthers charter. US Airways Airbus A321-200 (rare here in Nashville to see a A321):

The cabin:

...and Cockpit:

US Air Force F16C Falcon (one of four that were here for the Titans game):

Southwest Airlines "Maryland One" theme jet (typical sight here each day almost, but I love it so I posted it here, LOL!):

Everythign can be seen in my Nashville links below.

Cheers!!!

[Lexy]

That's a badass SWA plane! Can we order three? One Nashville themed, one TN flagged one, and lastly, a guitar plane. That would be cool, I mena, come on, we are a "focus city"

Well, if we ever did get a plane in our honor, it'd be a "Tennessee" themed plane with the state flag. Just like the rest. I have heard of no such plans though and it's doubtful it will happen according to my sources.

[franktown]

We'd have to get in line behind a 'Florida One,' an 'Illinois One' (for MDW), but it sure would be cool! I don't see them doing as many state planes in the future IMO, because Washington DC made such a stink about the Maryland One (they claim that BWI draws from MD, DC, and VA - thus there should be a 'DC One')...that experience may have turned them off of the whole thing.

[Lexy]

We'd have to get in line behind a 'Florida One,' an 'Illinois One' (for MDW), but it sure would be cool! I don't see them doing as many state planes in the future IMO, because Washington DC made such a stink about the Maryland One (they claim that BWI draws from MD, DC, and VA - thus there should be a 'DC One')...that experience may have turned them off of the whole thing.

Possibly, but I think just general cost is what turned them off of doing themed jets. Peronsally, I think it's stupid to stop doing themed jets, but if doing them runs up the cost of a ticket then i'm cool with them stopping.

[Lexy]

Nashville retains it's Cancun non-stop flights on Frontier.

From Yahoo Business today: (Fair Use Excerpt)

Service to Cancun (CUN) from Indianapolis (IND), Nashville (BNA) and

St. Louis (STL) will be reduced to weekend service for the winter

schedule and will be seasonally removed for the summer and early fall.

Link: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/071108/lath182.html?.v=3

Also interesting to note, all the service they had in Memphis is being dropped sans the flights to Denver.

Service from Memphis (MEM) to Las Vegas (LAS) and Orlando (MCO) will be

discontinued Jan. 4, 2008, and Jan. 7, 2008, respectively. Service

between Memphis and Ft. Lauderdale (FLL) will be discontinued after

Jan. 6, 2008.

Also, Nashville is getting added frequencies on Southwest to New Orleans (a total of 3 roundtrips after the new flight) effective March 8, 2008 and they are adding a frequency to Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Saturdays (seasonal adjustment).

That brings the total Southwest daily operations at Nashville from 85 daily operations to 87. Positive growth for the last two schedule periods with no flights being decreased or dropped! That's not half bad fellas!!

Edited November 9, 2007 by Lexy

[Lexy]

I have sporadically put photos in this thread for the past couple of years. Searching for them, if that's your thing, would be hard and tedious to do. So in an effort to simplify things around here and make it easier for those of you that enjoy the pictures, I am putting a collection of newer shots here for your viewing pleasure. Remember, these are mine and are subject to international copyright laws. Please don't lift them without my permission. Thank you.

All of these are from Nashville and Cincinnati International Airports. And they were taken over the span of the last year.

Everything can be viewed in the main galleries located here: www.pbase.com/lexyky

Aviation Photos by Michael Davis © 2007

Nashville International Airport

Cincinnati International Airport

Airbus A380 World Tour 2007

I have so much more, but bandwith would be an issue for UP and I don't want that for them. Enjoy these and if you want more, or something more specific, let me know and I will dig it up for you happily!

[HSVTiger]

Thanks Lexy, top notch photos. Any special planes from the CMA awards last week? Hard to believe George Strait flew commercial.

[Lexy]

Thanks Lexy, top notch photos. Any special planes from the CMA awards last week? Hard to believe George Strait flew commercial.

You know, odd you would ask me that because you would think something was coming in with these stars. The only speck on the radar that caught my eye was an Allegiant MD80 from Las Vegas. It had some rigging crews on it from out in LA (why they didn't fly Southwest or American is beyond me considering both have nonstops to LA from here). Outside of that, there was a spike in private jets but the majority of traffic increases was on the commerical side of things.

Oh, thank you for the compliment. I could easily eat the bandwith of this site up all on one picture thread. But I won't do that to the good folks that run it. LOL!!!

[titanhog]

You know, odd you would ask me that because you would think something was coming in with these stars. The only speck on the radar that caught my eye was an Allegiant MD80 from Las Vegas. It had some rigging crews on it from out in LA (why they didn't fly Southwest or American is beyond me considering both have nonstops to LA from here). Outside of that, there was a spike in private jets but the majority of traffic increases was on the commerical side of things.

Oh, thank you for the compliment. I could easily eat the bandwith of this site up all on one picture thread. But I won't do that to the good folks that run it. LOL!!!

So many of the county stars have homes here or they arrive by tour bus...and you'd be surprised how many "stars" fly commercial.

[Jonny11788]

I flew in and out of BNA this weekend for the first time since March, and the renovations have really come along (at least on the C concourse). I can't wait to see it all done. It certainly will look much better than the airport at the other end of my journey, STL, which looks like it could really use some TLC. (I saw some equipment there marked with Ozark Air Lines insigna... they went out of business in 1986 - before I was born - which was cool for the airline geek in me.)

Also cool for the airline geek in me was my seeing a Delta 767 at Nashville (Jags' charter, I suppose?) and a couple of Champion Air (passenger) 727s at St. Louis... you don't see many of those hauling something other than boxes nowadays.

[Lexy]

I flew in and out of BNA this weekend for the first time since March, and the renovations have really come along (at least on the C concourse). I can't wait to see it all done. It certainly will look much better than the airport at the other end of my journey, STL, which looks like it could really use some TLC. (I saw some equipment there marked with Ozark Air Lines insigna... they went out of business in 1986 - before I was born - which was cool for the airline geek in me.)

Also cool for the airline geek in me was my seeing a Delta 767 at Nashville (Jags' charter, I suppose?) and a couple of Champion Air (passenger) 727s at St. Louis... you don't see many of those hauling something other than boxes nowadays.

Good stuff to hear! The 767 was infact the Jacksonville Jags. plane. We'll see the Champion Air 727's drop in here from time to time.

[burt]

Terrific pix, Lexy. Thanks.

Does Allegiant have regular service in and out of BNA? I thought it was strictly a small-market carrier, though I have no idea about its quality of service and equipment.

Incidentally, Jet Blue is talking of expanding RIC service.

[Lexy]

Terrific pix, Lexy. Thanks.

Does Allegiant have regular service in and out of BNA? I thought it was strictly a small-market carrier, though I have no idea about its quality of service and equipment.

Incidentally, Jet Blue is talking of expanding RIC service.

Allegiant does not have scheduled service to and from BNA. They are here enough it seems they could. But Southwest has such a massive presence here that Allegiant would have a VERY hard time making any money out of a place like here.

JetBlue will still fly into and out of Nashville once their station closes, but it will only be for maintanence. Tough luck I suppose.

[dxfret]

Katie Couric anchored the "CBS Evening News" live from downtown Nashville on Thursday, November 8th.

She and her CBS producers/crew flew from NYC LaGuardia to BNA on American's regularly scheduled morning non-stop arriving BNA around 9:00 a.m.

While in Nashville she interviewed Fred Thompson for an upcoming political segment, did a feature story on the change in owernship at the Bluebird Cafe, visited WTVF Channel 5, and anchored the "CBS Evening News" live from LP Field with a beautiful Nashville sykline as the backdrop.

Katie then flew home to NYC on the evening American Airlines non-stop to LaGuardia, arriving back in NYC around 11:00 pm local time.

[Lexy]

Katie Couric anchored the "CBS Evening News" live from downtown Nashville on Thursday, November 8th.

She and her CBS producers/crew flew from NYC LaGuardia to BNA on American's regularly scheduled morning non-stop arriving BNA around 9:00 a.m.

While in Nashville she interviewed Fred Thompson for an upcoming political segment, did a feature story on the change in owernship at the Bluebird Cafe, visited WTVF Channel 5, and anchored the "CBS Evening News" live from LP Field with a beautiful Nashville sykline as the backdrop.

Katie then flew home to NYC on the evening American Airlines non-stop to LaGuardia, arriving back in NYC around 11:00 pm local time.

Fascinating. I am quite surprised she didn't have a private charter for her flights.

[jcoop]

Always good to hear about the economic impact of the airport. From today's Tennessean:

Nashville airports boast wide economic impact

[Hankster]

Yes. Nashville's airports (Nashville International and John C. Tune) are a really big deal for the area. As the article say, they pump $3.7 Billion per year into the local economy and are responsible for 40,000 jobs. Pretty heady stuff.

Edited November 16, 2007 by Hankster

[Lexy]

Yes. Nashville's airports (Nashville International and John C. Tune) are a really big deal for the area. As the article say, they pump $3.7 Billion per year into the local economy and are responsible for 40,000 jobs. Pretty heady stuff.

We should also take into consideration the amount of cargo that is moved through here for the midstate. Now, we're not a Memphis or Louisville by any stretch, but those are the exception here because they are hubs for cargo carriers. But as it stands Nashville is in a neat position among it's peer airports in the area as it boast daily flights from Taiwan on China Airlines' Boeing 747, it has a large FedEx presence supporting daily MD-11, Boeing 727, and occasional Airbus A300 flights. Not to mention the smaller, contract carriers like Capital Cargo, DHL etc. It also has a healthy, HEALTHY cargo business for Southwest, American, and Northwest Airlines here repsectively. For a airport that is sandwiched between two of the biggest cargo airports in the world, we do well for ourselves. That was briefly touched on in the article. I do think we could do better, but for what we have, it's not bad at all!

[Lexy]

Well, runway 2L-20R will reopen along with runway 13-31 reopening as well. They both opened today as construction on both has finished. I must say, the new lights on 2L-20R are really bright now!

Either way, spotting and photographing from the observation lot is now in good shape again!!!!!!!!

[nashscan]

Lexy, is BNA utilizing LED technology now?