Nashville International Airport Development thread

[BnaBreaker]

2 hours ago, Pdt2f said:

WOW air is kind of a joke. 

Maybe so, but I got to Reykjavik from Chicago direct for $345... so I can't argue with that price.  Then again, maybe that's why they're in the dumps.  lol

[e-dub]

I'm sure I missed this earlier in the thread, but why the hubbub re: having an Icelandic carrier specifically? Are they kind of like a "gateway" airline or something for the rest of Europe?

[Pdt2f]

4 minutes ago, e-dub said:

I'm sure I missed this earlier in the thread, but why the hubbub re: having an Icelandic carrier specifically? Are they kind of like a "gateway" airline or something for the rest of Europe?

The two primary Icelandic carriers (Icelandair, which is the older established airline, and WOW Air, which is a newer ULCC style) have made a nice little niche for themselves doing a few things. First off, they use Reykjavik’s location as relatively between North America and Europe to present it as a kind of between-the-continents transit hub, kind of like how the middle eastern airlines (Emirates, Etihad, Qatar, etc) do with connecting North American and European travelers with east/South Asia and Africa. Secondly, they offer their product as pretty low cost to try and steal leisure travelers from the larger European and North American carriers. Third, they focus their efforts on secondary cities like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, St. Louis, Milwaukee, etc that don’t have pre-existing European service so as to hold a basic monopoly on TATL service, as well as being more likely to get a bunch of idiotic incentives. It benefits European and North American consumers because it offers a low-cost option for transiting between the contininents, and it benefits Iceland because there’s like 250,000 people there so they can use all the tourism dollars they get, especially since both of the airlines offer discounted packages that include multiple-day layovers so as to promote tourism spending in local areas. I think service to Iceland would be cool, and I would be likely to use it if only to visit Reykjavik, I just don’t think it’s worth the $1 Million per year that St. Louis was paying WOW for that service. It’s not that convenient and I don’t think it’s smart for our airport to be paying out of pocket for LCC service to anywhere. 

[markhollin]

A permit valued at $2.3 million has been landed to raze the short term garage.  In July, the $144 million design/build contract was awarded to Messer Construction for the larger garage (6 levels and 3,000 spaces), airport admin. building (64,000 sq. ft.), and base for a future Hilton rand hotel.  those are to get underway in early 2019.

More behind the Nashville Post paywall here:

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/development/article/21028945/details-released-for-stockyard-project

[wmaddbb2018]

So is the hotel back on? 

[markhollin]

Looks like Hensel Phelps Construction out of Denver will receive a $327.7 million portion of the airport's largest section of the overhaul.   It will include the new central terminal and international arrivals facility.  This is from a new public notice from the Metro Nashville Airport Authority. The board should approve on Nov. 14th.

More behind the NBJ paywall here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2018/10/26/colorado-company-poised-to-snag-biggest-piece-of.html

[Guest]

Great write up of he BNA-LHR flight in the Tennessean

https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/nfl/titans/2018/10/26/british-airways-nashville-london-titans-eddie-george/1735591002/

 

[jmtunafish]

5 hours ago, nashville_bound said:

Great write up of he BNA-LHR flight in the Tennessean

https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/nfl/titans/2018/10/26/british-airways-nashville-london-titans-eddie-george/1735591002/

 

If I read the article correctly, it's apparently taken only a few months to reach the kinds of loads British Airways thought would take 3 years.  I hope other airlines are taking note.

[markhollin]

Plans are renewed for the terminal hotel.  Developers have until Nov. 28 to respond to a formal "request for information" the the Metro Nashville Airport Authority has issued today. This part of the development would be separate from the airport's $1.2 billion expansion plan...ie: a developer would underwrite the whole cost themselves for the hotel. 

Looks like they are still aiming for a 300 room project to be built upon the new garage that the airport would own.

In the document, the airport describes a luxury or "upper-upscale" hotel [such as a Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, Omni, etc.] with meeting and dining space, or another type of commercial development, as a "key component of the BNA Vision."

The development would be "a 'front and center' location with direct connection to the passenger terminal complex."

The airport authority wants the hotel or other development open by fall 2023. The project site won't be available for construction before September 2021, as a result of ongoing adjacent construction.

More behind the NBJ paywall here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2018/11/01/nashville-international-airport-revives-bid-for.html

[dmillsphoto]

Just tossing it out there, but I'd love to see a design that mimics the Nissan HQ in Cool Springs as the BNA Hotel...

[memphian]

I want to speculate on the brand but it’s just too early to make any sense yet.

[Pdt2f]

September saw 1,366,886 passengers, an 18.3% (!!!) increase over September of 2017. Last September’s numbers were lower than the average month-over-month totals, perhaps due to basically a week’s worth of flights to the Houston airports being cancelled due to hurricane Harvey, but this is still a whopping increase. We’re up 14.6 percent over the same point last year. We could be close to 16 million pax this fiscal year, if not more. 

[Mr_Bond]

45 minutes ago, Pdt2f said:

September saw 1,366,886 passengers, an 18.3% (!!!) increase over September of 2017. Last September’s numbers were lower than the average month-over-month totals, perhaps due to basically a week’s worth of flights to the Houston airports being cancelled due to hurricane Harvey, but this is still a whopping increase. We’re up 14.6 percent over the same point last year. We could be close to 16 million pax this fiscal year, if not more. 

Those are really big increases.  I wonder how those increases rate compared to all other airports nationwide.  Anyone know?

[Pdt2f]

2 hours ago, Mr_Bond said:

Those are really big increases.  I wonder how those increases rate compared to all other airports nationwide.  Anyone know?

Austin is comparable, probably even higher. I think last year we had the biggest percentage of year over year growth, though. This year it’s looking even better but AUS is starting to catch up to its city. 

[LA_TN]

9 hours ago, Mr_Bond said:

Those are really big increases.  I wonder how those increases rate compared to all other airports nationwide.  Anyone know?

All airports are growing, but BNA is growing at (figuratively) 10% while others are growing at 5%. BNA is growing faster (percentage) than almost all other airports

14.8% growth would have to occur for Q4 (Oct-Dec) to hit 16 million. I still think BNA will be a little under that

[Pdt2f]

Other interesting tidbits from the data:

-Cargo is up around 15% from this time last year. Has something to do with the BA flight and also the legacies are mainlining flights left and right which provides a lot more belly cargo room. 

-General aviation fuel sales are down around 15% at BNA, but up 10% at John C Tune airport. I suspect that with BNA becoming more crowded with commercial many of the weekend warriors are moving their private planes over to the less crowded (and less traffic-y) Tune. 

-Load factors are down from around 88% last year to less than 84% this year, due to increased frequency; the addition of new carriers like Allegiant, BA, and (starting now) Sun Country; and the legacies upgauging. It was 79% LF for September which is still very healthy. Plus, higher load factors don’t necessarily mean that the airlines were making more money. One occupied first class seat is worth 3-4 occupied economy seats to the airlines, so as long as those premium seats sell they’re making dough. 

[Pdt2f]

5 hours ago, LA_TN said:

All airports are growing, but BNA is growing at (figuratively) 10% while others are growing at 5%. BNA is growing faster (percentage) than almost all other airports

14.8% growth would have to occur for Q4 (Oct-Dec) to hit 16 million. I still think BNA will be a little under that

I meant for the July2018-June2019 FY, but it would still be close. 

[e-dub]

Caught the new BNA garage visuals as I was picking up a rental car.

https://i.imgur.com/oVH32zT.mp4

Edited November 12, 2018 by e-dub

[Will]

BNA is going to host an on-runway (2R/20L) 5K race in the spring: https://www.flynashville.com/about/Pages/BNA5K.aspx

[Bos2Nash]

I dont recall this video being posted in September. Sequencing for the Garage C.

 

[LA_TN]

BNA passes 1.5 million monthly passengers

NEW RECORD: October 2018 set a new monthly record for total number of passengers with 1,538,312 passengers! We also set a new single-day record yesterday, Nov. 12, with 28,550 departing passengers screened. Thanks for flying BNA.

OCTOBER 2018 TOP PASSENGER MONTH IN BNA HISTORY

Edited November 13, 2018 by LA_TN
URL

[smeagolsfree]

This would be the top news of the day if not for Amazon and Ernst & Young.

[Pdt2f]

22 minutes ago, LA_TN said:

BNA passes 1.5 million monthly passengers

NEW RECORD: October 2018 set a new monthly record for total number of passengers with 1,538,312 passengers! We also set a new single-day record yesterday, Nov. 12, with 28,550 departing passengers screened. Thanks for flying BNA.

OCTOBER 2018 TOP PASSENGER MONTH IN BNA HISTORY

Wow, 17% over last October, that’s insane. And with job, population, tourism, convention, and corporate relo growth seemingly accelerating I don’t see when it slows. 

[timmay143]

6 minutes ago, Pdt2f said:

Wow, 17% over last October, that’s insane. And with job, population, tourism, convention, and corporate relo growth seemingly accelerating I don’t see when it slows. 

 

[Binbin98]

With the amazon and ernst young announcements i see upgauging of nashville current service to seattle, san francisco, washington dc and new york airports in the near future. I cannot see any reason why this wouldn’t happen (besides american airlines who seems to never want to expand in nashville lol)  as amazon is a major corporation and may need extra business flights to all of its locations announced in the hq2 announcement. In addition, ernst and young is a london based company and the biggest accounting firm in the UK, so i wouldn’t be surprised to see upgauging for the BA flight. I also feel that nashville is poised to get many new domestic and even international flights in the coming years due to this announcement (most likely Delta or Condor at first), and because the amazon jobs will most likely expand and cause other relocations/jobs to form, i don’t really see anything bad in the future for BNA.