Nashville International Airport Development thread

[Pdt2f]

3 hours ago, NashRugger said:

Yeah, only a couple airports ATL serves versus what BNA does within the Southwest network. That said, the business community is most excited since Delta had that route on total lock, until August. Delta will slash those ticket prices, if they already haven't today, for those dates and onward in August. Atlanta and Nashville have a sort of similar business relationship to Dallas and Houston, although that example is about as big an example between two cities you'd ever get.

I’m curious to see what delta does to retaliate, besides cutting their own prices. They’ve been know in the past to start “spite flights” when another airline encroaches on their turf. Like in the early to mid 2000s they greatly increased flights at JFK, to the extent of losing money, simply so JetBlue’s on-time record would suffer. I could see Delta increasing their service to Orlando to daily and year round to bite into a lucrative Southwest route, or perhaps increasing frequency to Los Angeles. 

What will we have now, 15 flights a day total to ATL? Seems excessive haha. 

Edited February 16, 2018 by Pdt2f

[Hey_Hey]

I wish they would get back at them by making BNA a focus city with 15-20 destinations. That won't happen, but it would be great if they did.

My first thought was similar to yours.  Southwest dominates the Orlando traffic, and there is plenty of demand for a 1x daily to MCO year round with 2x daily in the peak months.  They already have 1x in peak months so it isn't a huge increase.  

[Pdt2f]

31 minutes ago, Hey_Hey said:

I wish they would get back at them by making BNA a focus city with 15-20 destinations. That won't happen, but it would be great if they did.

My first thought was similar to yours.  Southwest dominates the Orlando traffic, and there is plenty of demand for a 1x daily to MCO year round with 2x daily in the peak months.  They already have 1x in peak months so it isn't a huge increase.  

If delta eventually adds an Amsterdam flight from BNA, as has been rumored, the focus city idea could totally work if only for the connections. Kind of like their situation in Raleigh-Durham. In any case when the Airlines fight for routes it’s good for us, the consumers. 

[Will]

What's the latest on that AMS rumor? Anybody hear anything? I have only seen anything about that on here, not on Flyertalk or the airliners.net boards. 

[markhollin]

I don't believe we've had access until now of this full rendering of how the hotel will be situated with the new terminal:

 

[MLBrumby]

If I'm remembering correctly, that garage is also 4-5 floors tall. So that tower will be about 17-19 stories tall. 

If I'm remembering correctly, that garage is also 4-5 floors tall. So that tower will be about 17-19 stories tall.  What is the brand (flag)? 

[dmillsphoto]

48 minutes ago, MLBrumby said:

If I'm remembering correctly, that garage is also 4-5 floors tall. So that tower will be about 17-19 stories tall. 

If I'm remembering correctly, that garage is also 4-5 floors tall. So that tower will be about 17-19 stories tall.  What is the brand (flag)? 

I don't think the flag has been raised yet.  Looking at similar airport-attached hotels, You can bet it will be one of the big three and likely will be Hilton.

 

Side joke... I wonder if they got FAA approval to go this tall...

[NashRugger]

1 hour ago, MLBrumby said:

If I'm remembering correctly, that garage is also 4-5 floors tall. So that tower will be about 17-19 stories tall. 

If I'm remembering correctly, that garage is also 4-5 floors tall. So that tower will be about 17-19 stories tall.  What is the brand (flag)? 

I could honestly see Hyatt as a brand potential, considering they're onsite at MCO (Orlando) and a regular at Terminal C and Hyatt Regency at Terminal D at DFW.

I could see Delta adding more service here, including upgrading Orlando. That also said, JetBlue may be preparing to make a move in that direction for BNA as well. I wish they'd add JFK back into the mix because that'd open up a lot more connections to smaller airports in the Northeast, such as BTV (Burlington, VT).

[tragenvol]

4 hours ago, NashRugger said:

I could see Delta adding more service here, including upgrading Orlando. That also said, JetBlue may be preparing to make a move in that direction for BNA as well. I wish they'd add JFK back into the mix because that'd open up a lot more connections to smaller airports in the Northeast, such as BTV (Burlington, VT).

Yes...crepes with a Heady Topper at BTV; an afternoon I'll never get back, but I'm in!  Someone told me the hotel is already under construction at BNA, is this true?

[memphian]

Maybe a Westin since there’s only one other in Nashville?

[Pdt2f]

11 hours ago, NashRugger said:

I could honestly see Hyatt as a brand potential, considering they're onsite at MCO (Orlando) and a regular at Terminal C and Hyatt Regency at Terminal D at DFW.

I could see Delta adding more service here, including upgrading Orlando. That also said, JetBlue may be preparing to make a move in that direction for BNA as well. I wish they'd add JFK back into the mix because that'd open up a lot more connections to smaller airports in the Northeast, such as BTV (Burlington, VT).

I want JetBlue to add JFK as well, but I doubt it happens anytime soon. JetBlue is extremely tight with slots at JFK right now so any flight to BNA would most likely be O&D, since the cherry connection times are mostly taken up. With the BNA-NYC routes as covered as they are it will probably be a couple years. A daily E-190 could probably do well, though, considering how good the JetBlue product is. They could probably make MCO work well, too, especially if delta doesn’t increase service. 

[LA_TN]

8 hours ago, tragenvol said:

Yes...crepes with a Heady Topper at BTV; an afternoon I'll never get back, but I'm in!  Someone told me the hotel is already under construction at BNA, is this true?

Not true, sorry. That is still several years away 

[Pdt2f]

Alaska is adding a second daily Seattle flight this summer, starting June 18. They’ll use former Virgin America A320’s on one flight and 739’s on the other. Southwest also restarts their seasonal SEA flight in early June so we’ll have 4 dailies to SEA!

[Pdt2f]

January numbers are in: 1.016 million, a 7.7% increase over January 2017. It’s also, I believe, the first time BNA has gone over 1,000,000 passengers in a January. Pretty amazing considering it was around 767,000 in January 2014. 

[dxfret]

The strong passenger growth and the new improvements at BNA are positive signs for Nashville and the region.  

The British Airways nonstop to London Heathrow will bring even more. 

[jmtunafish]

Today's NBJ is reporting, among other things, that the airport authority CEO says BNA is "fairly close" to getting a nonstop to Iceland.  That's pretty exciting!  He also said it's not likely we'll get a nonstop to Tokyo anytime soon.

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2018/02/27/with-the-west-coast-conquered-and-london-on-the.html

[NashRugger]

33 minutes ago, jmtunafish said:

Today's NBJ is reporting, among other things, that the airport authority CEO says BNA is "fairly close" to getting a nonstop to Iceland.  That's pretty exciting!  He also said it's not likely we'll get a nonstop to Tokyo anytime soon.

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2018/02/27/with-the-west-coast-conquered-and-london-on-the.html

I personally hope BNA gets Icelandair instead of WOW Air. I'm still bamboozled how the hell Kansas City, MO (MCI) got seasonal service from Icelandair. Just such a random airport unless they paid for it.

[markhollin]

Nashville International Airport has pushed back the timeline for building a 300-room hotel as part of its $1.2 billion expansion

Airport officials had expected to finance the hotel solely with bonds backed by the airport's annual revenue. The airport solicited bids from hotel operators, and was about to select one, when president and CEO Doug Kreulen decided to rethink that piece of the massive overhaul. 

Kreulen said the airport is now pursuing a different financing approach — courting an investor that would fund the hotel portion of the project in a public-private partnership.

"I wouldn't say I got cold feet, but … I didn't want to jeopardize a $1.2 billion expansion for a hotel," Kreulen said in an interview after the event. "We had focused on funding the hotel ourselves, but … I ultimately advised our board, 'Look, let's turn this over to someone who would make that investment, because I have a bigger bill to pay.'"

As part of the switch, Kreulen said he isn't expecting to start construction on the 300 room hotel for another two years.

Postponing the start date raised the forecasted hotel construction cost from $130 million to $158 million, Kreulen said. The airport made changes to the plans that trimmed the cost to $124 million. Even then, Kreulen said he concluded the airport could finance only about an $83 million hotel on its own "without putting airport revenue in jeopardy."

Full story behind paywall here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2018/02/27/airport-rethinks-plan-for-300-room-hotel-as-part.html

[Pdt2f]

3 hours ago, NashRugger said:

I personally hope BNA gets Icelandair instead of WOW Air. I'm still bamboozled how the hell Kansas City, MO (MCI) got seasonal service from Icelandair. Just such a random airport unless they paid for it.

I think reasonable expectations for the next year or two is one of the Icelandic airlines, and then a continental European low cost airline like Condor or Norwegian, or maybe even Aer Lingus. I don’t think we have the population or need for a direct to Japan yet. I think it’ll be 2-3 years before it becomes realistic. 

[Binbin98]

17 hours ago, Pdt2f said:

I think reasonable expectations for the next year or two is one of the Icelandic airlines, and then a continental European low cost airline like Condor or Norwegian, or maybe even Aer Lingus. I don’t think we have the population or need for a direct to Japan yet. I think it’ll be 2-3 years before it becomes realistic. 

Personally I wish for international flights to Iceland, Frankfurt, maybe possibly Amsterdam if this unsubstatiated rumor with Delta is true (I doubt it is), Mexico City (or somewhere in Latin America) and maybe even Paris. I am hoping and as well believe that Nashville will get a flight to Japan in the next decade, but there are markets such as Philadelphia, Charlotte, and Miami that all don't have service to East Asia yet, which in my opinion should come first before Nashville.

[Pdt2f]

9 hours ago, Binbin98 said:

Personally I wish for international flights to Iceland, Frankfurt, maybe possibly Amsterdam if this unsubstatiated rumor with Delta is true (I doubt it is), Mexico City (or somewhere in Latin America) and maybe even Paris. I am hoping and as well believe that Nashville will get a flight to Japan in the next decade, but there are markets such as Philadelphia, Charlotte, and Miami that all don't have service to East Asia yet, which in my opinion should come first before Nashville.

You never know, we hit above our weight culturally and financially, so an industrious thinking Japanese airline could see more traffic to Nashville than CLT or PHL. MIA might just be a distance thing, you’d think they’d have a Tokyo flight by now. 

[Binbin98]

10 hours ago, Pdt2f said:

You never know, we hit above our weight culturally and financially, so an industrious thinking Japanese airline could see more traffic to Nashville than CLT or PHL. MIA might just be a distance thing, you’d think they’d have a Tokyo flight by now. 

I feel we need to get flights to portland, maybe another to the bay area (San Jose), and Hartford amongst other international flights before anything regarding Japan happens. I think it will eventually happen or so, but not until I'm in my late twenties lmao. Also philadelphia is a more attractive market for service to asia (specifically China) than Nashville, I'm sorry but I have to be honest.

[Flatrock]

20 hours ago, Binbin98 said:

Nashville will get a flight to Japan in the next decade, but there are markets such as Philadelphia, Charlotte, and Miami that all don't have service to East Asia yet, which in my opinion should come first before Nashville.

With respect: I'm curious what data sets you're basing this statement on?  Firstly, I don't see what Philly or Miami  getting a flight to Shanghai or Hong Kong has to do with Nashville getting a flight to Tokyo. Secondly, are you aware how huge the financial/corporate connection is between Tennessee and Japan?  184 plants employing about 50,000 Tennesseans. Nissan, Bridgestone, Calsonic, Denso and many others with huge presences in Tennessee. Philly, Charlotte and Miami have NOTHING like our Japanese business-related travel demand/dynamic. One reason we have a Japanese consulate in Nashville. You might be right about 10 years away, but it's not because of (lack of) demand or need here.

[BnaBreaker]

6 hours ago, Binbin98 said:

I feel we need to get flights to portland, maybe another to the bay area (San Jose), and Hartford amongst other international flights before anything regarding Japan happens. I think it will eventually happen or so, but not until I'm in my late twenties lmao. Also philadelphia is a more attractive market for service to asia (specifically China) than Nashville, I'm sorry but I have to be honest.

Agreed... id like to see BNA check all the major boxes on this continent as much as I want to see the overseas flights start streaming in.... Destinations like Portland, San Juan, Honolulu, Anchorage, Vancouver, Montreal, Mexico City, Guadalajara, Panama City Panama etc

[Pdt2f]

5 hours ago, BnaBreaker said:

Agreed... id like to see BNA check all the major boxes on this continent as much as I want to see the overseas flights start streaming in.... Destinations like Portland, San Juan, Honolulu, Anchorage, Vancouver, Montreal, Mexico City, Guadalajara, Panama City Panama etc

How likely do you think Anchorage is? Would that be an AS flight if it happened?