Nashville International Airport Development thread

[Pdt2f]

18 minutes ago, titanhog said:

Their motto: "Get A Little Drunk...Fly With Chunk"

TBH that sounds like something Southwest would have advertised in the 70s or 80s. They ran “free bottle of whiskey with your flight” promotions for a while, if I’m not mistaken  

[BnaBreaker]

It's only a matter of time, surely, that we actually start checking off the remainder of the more major domestic destination boxes.  Portland, Indianapolis, Hartford/Providence, Buffalo, Omaha, Albuquerque... to a lesser extent Boise?  Des Moines? Little Rock?  El Paso?  Grand Rapids? Winston-Salem/Greensboro?  Virginia Beach/Norfolk? Birmingham?

Edited August 15, 2018 by BnaBreaker

[Pdt2f]

39 minutes ago, BnaBreaker said:

It's only a matter of time, surely, that we actually start checking off the remainder of the more major domestic destination boxes.  Portland, Indianapolis, Hartford/Providence, Buffalo, Omaha, Albuquerque... to a lesser extent Boise?  Des Moines? Little Rock?  El Paso?  Grand Rapids? Winston-Salem/Greensboro?  Virginia Beach/Norfolk? Birmingham?

The only player in most of those markets that would make any sense from BNA is Southwest, and I think they’d be more likely to fly from those airports to BWI, MDW, HOU, and maybe even STL. PDX, IND, and Norfolk are definitely probables, though. Seems like another upstate New York location would do well, they’re typically great markets for tourism routes. 

[Hey_Hey]

9 hours ago, BnaBreaker said:

It's only a matter of time, surely, that we actually start checking off the remainder of the more major domestic destination boxes.  Portland, Indianapolis, Hartford/Providence, Buffalo, Omaha, Albuquerque... to a lesser extent Boise?  Des Moines? Little Rock?  El Paso?  Grand Rapids? Winston-Salem/Greensboro?  Virginia Beach/Norfolk? Birmingham?

With the exception of PDX, those are the kind of destinations that would be added (IMO) if Southwest takes the BNA station to the next level and uses it as more of a connecting city than they do now.  I wish they would step up and do that, but realistically it may not happen until the new gates are opened if ever.  On the domestic front, I think BNA is in a situation now in which we're going to have very few new destinations unless Southwest expands BNA's role. We'll see increased frequency, upgauging of service, and additional airlines serve existing destinations., but none of those things are going to make headlines.  

[Pdt2f]

4 minutes ago, Hey_Hey said:

With the exception of PDX, those are the kind of destinations that would be added (IMO) if Southwest takes the BNA station to the next level and uses it as more of a connecting city than they do now.  I wish they would step up and do that, but realistically it may not happen until the new gates are opened if ever.  On the domestic front, I think BNA is in a situation now in which we're going to have very few new destinations unless Southwest expands BNA's role. We'll see increased frequency, upgauging of service, and additional airlines serve existing destinations., but none of those things are going to make headlines.  

Agreed. What I look for in the next few years, outside of the random Southwest add, is PDX (like every BNA aviation enthusiast), maybe some more Bay Area and Northern California service like San Jose and Sacramento, upgauging by legacies, the addition of all the domestic ULCC’s (only NK left, really) that will hopefully lower the overall price of flights, and the fleshing out of some of the route networks (I.e JetBlue adding JFK, MCO, and hopefully San Juan; Allegiant adding LAS and SFB; Frontier maybe adding some service to AUS and SAT). And most importantly, further international service, primarily to Canada, Central America and Caribbean, Europe, and the white whale Japan. 

[markhollin]

A rendering I saw in the terminal when flying out the other day:

 

A parade of dump trucks importing rock for the apron extension.  I would think much of this is coming from the Eakin Peabody Plaza excavation:

[CenterHill]

4 hours ago, markhollin said:

 

Ha, thanks.     When I asked my question the other day about where all the excavated rock from construction projects is going, I actually thought about the airport apron.     The airport authority has to buy fill from somewhere to fill in the "great hole" and are probably not overly concerned with the quality of the fill, so why not source from excavation companies.   Makes sense.  

[titanhog]

6 hours ago, markhollin said:

 

 

I can't help but look at that image and think that if they could build jet wings to fold upwards (kinda like the WWII Corsairs)...we could put a few more gates in there. 

[Binbin98]

I have heard that the airport wants to get new concessions and overhaul their restaurants, and that Fraport USA (USA branch of Fraport, a major airport management company based in the Frankfurt Airport) wants to invest in BNA by overseeing this project. Although its nothing grand, it is nice to see a major international airport management company invest in Nashville. Now I hope this means that we will get service to Frankfurt sometime in the near future, but that is just my wishful thinking lol.

[Hey_Hey]

The NBJ had an article about this. It sounds like the new company is going to run it like a shopping mall.  It sounds like the current vendor runs everything and may license a name and theme.  However, the new company is going to allow individual companies to run the operations of their storefront.  With the current vendor, the Tootsie's isn't really Tootsie's.  However, it sounds like the new vendor is going to allow Tootsie's to actually run Tootsie's.  Also, it made mention that "street pricing" will be allowed instead of "airport pricing" which is good for the consumer.

[markhollin]

Here is the link to the NBJ article about the dining /shopping changes coming to the airport:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2018/08/15/its-official-change-is-coming-to-dining-shopping.html

Here is link to a recent NBJ interview with Ben Zandi of Fraport USA, which was awarded the new contract:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2018/06/29/meet-the-man-who-will-soon-control-whats-to-eat-at.html

[Rockatansky]

16 hours ago, titanhog said:

I can't help but look at that image and think that if they could build jet wings to fold upwards (kinda like the WWII Corsairs)...we could put a few more gates in there. 

[dmillsphoto]

18 hours ago, titanhog said:

I can't help but look at that image and think that if they could build jet wings to fold upwards (kinda like the WWII Corsairs)...we could put a few more gates in there. 

New Boeing 777s will have folding wingtips. So like... 15' total fold ability.

[jmtunafish]

From this morning's Sky5.  I don't think there were ever this many planes at BNA even during its American hub days.

[nashvylle]

9 minutes ago, jmtunafish said:

From this morning's Sky5.  I don't think there were ever this many planes at BNA even during its American hub days.

Does anyone know how much the garage on the right cost to build?

[MidTenn1]

^^^^^Look at the traffic headed toward the airport. ^^^

[titanhog]

What is that in the lower left corner?  Looks like a HUGE sinkhole.

[Lexy]

1 hour ago, titanhog said:

What is that in the lower left corner?  Looks like a HUGE sinkhole.

It's the "baseball diamond" where all of the storm water runoff goes.  It's being filled in so the terminal expansion can happen and give us more ramp space for RON aircraft and de-icing. 

[Pdt2f]

1 hour ago, titanhog said:

What is that in the lower left corner?  Looks like a HUGE sinkhole.

Alex Palmer was the original developer of the airport...

[Lexy]

Our neighbors to the north are sick of everyone else getting flights to Mexico and England.  Looks like they want to jump in the pool now.

All joking aside, it's an interesting read.

 

Might I add, if Air Canada wanted to serve Louisville, they could do it without FIS as it's Pre-Clear.

 

https://insiderlouisville.com/government/transportation/dan-mann-wants-to-put-the-international-in-louisville-international-airport/

[NashRugger]

5 hours ago, Lexy said:

Our neighbors to the north are sick of everyone else getting flights to Mexico and England.  Looks like they want to jump in the pool now.

All joking aside, it's an interesting read.

 

Might I add, if Air Canada wanted to serve Louisville, they could do it without FIS as it's Pre-Clear.

 

https://insiderlouisville.com/government/transportation/dan-mann-wants-to-put-the-international-in-louisville-international-airport/

Well, the fact is their business community isn't incredibly large and their tourism market is more regionally driven, besides the obvious singular MAJOR int'l event every May. 

[Lexy]

On 8/17/2018 at 3:48 PM, NashRugger said:

Well, the fact is their business community isn't incredibly large and their tourism market is more regionally driven, besides the obvious singular MAJOR int'l event every May. 

I don't disagree with you at all.  Louisville has been quite content to leave it status quo while neighboring airports have made improvements and expanded service.  I think they're trying to keep the "leakage" to a minimum there more than anything.

[Pdt2f]

Airport did a little more than 1.446 million pax in July, 11.1% over July 2017. The insane passenger growth continues. I’m curious to see how the 5 dailies to ATL that WN started in early August affect passenger numbers.

Also, cargo is up 20% over last July. This could be a one-month aberration, but I think it has something to do with 1. The cargo BA carries in the belly of its 788’s, 2. More mainline service from legacies and overall service from other carriers than last July. It adds up. 

Edited August 23, 2018 by Pdt2f

[markhollin]

I believe this is a rendering we haven't seen before:

 

[PillowTalk4]

I flew into Nashville for Labor Day Weekend and I must say that I'm glad to see that there will be an overhaul of the airport.  The current configuration while compact and eliminates a lot of walking, is also proving to be undersized for the current market.  The baggage claim area was a hot mess when I arrived on Thursday night.  Too many flights arrived at the same time and the amount of time it took to get our luggage was longer than it should have been for an airport that size.  I've gotten luggage quicker in much bigger airports. 

It's nice having the car rental desk inside the terminal, but again, the location is now too small and you find yourself having to navigate through people entering and existing the terminal. 

 As for the concessions in the terminal, I think they could use more options.  While I like the local flavor and the live music, I must admit that sitting at a gate between two musical acts was a bit annoying.  What I found interesting was the number of other travelers who felt the music was too loud and somewhat intrusive.  Quite honestly, there shouldn't be any sounds that compete against the airlines and or the airport making announcements.  We noticed as we walked past Tootsie's you couldn't hear the announcements coming over the PA system because of the live performer.   If Nashville wants live music in the airport, it probably should be limited to areas where there are no gates.  Some airports have shopping and dinning in a central area with additional dinning and newsstands in the concourses.  Nashville airport needs a common central area with multiple shops, dinning and service venues.  That should be the area where they have live music.  I would love to see an airport terminal similar to Orlando's in Nashville.  They have a large central area that is full of shops, restaurants and other specialty stores.  From a concessions perspective I think Nashville should visit Houston Intercontinental Airport.  They have a good variety of dinning options and most are now on a system where you order and pay using a tablet that is mounted at the table or at all the bar seats.   

One thing that I've noticed every time I return home to Nashville is the number of parking lots for the airport that are well away from the terminal.  Now, I understand that not all parking can be right next to the terminal.  However, Nashville really needs to consider building more garages to eliminate using up so much land for surface lots.  I really love BWI's parking.  The have four parking options that include 1 hourly garage that is connected to the terminal, 1 daily garage that has 8,400 spaces that utilizes shuttle buses,  1 express parking lot and 2 long term parking lots.  I always use the Daily garage because it's $10 cheaper per day than the Hourly garage and only $2 more per day than the uncovered  Express lot.  The design of the Daily garage makes it easy to enter, find a spot and exit.  It would be an ideal garage to build on the hill where the economy parking lot is for Nashville.  

On another note, I was glad to see that they added a traffic light at the entrance/exit of the airport on the east side.  The four way stop that used to be there was not adequate to control the flow of traffic.