Nashville International Airport Development thread

[NashRugger]

If anyone cares to take notice, Nashville now will have direct service to all United hubs from here, which is pretty big. That could be a growing place for a focus city for united since Bush and O'Hare are maxing out their capacities.

[GreenHillsBoy]

4 hours ago, SoundScan said:

All this teasing for a non-stop (on United--perhaps the worst domestic airline) to SFO? Big letdown.

I have to agree about United, the merger with Continental has been a mess for the most part as the systems apparently are very different and the workers don't seem pleased with the merger.  I would especially say that their international is the worst of any of the airlines I have used over the years, with a return from Berlin right after the merger being nothing short of abysmal.  The unfortunate part of international service is that virtually none of the domestic airlines can come even remotely close to the service on European airlines (Iberia being the exception), in my opinion.  I can't fly first class but coach service on SAS, Air France, KLM, and British Airways are all superior to any of the domestic I have used.

[Hey_Hey]

I'm much more likely to use this flight for a trip to SF than anywhere international.  However, the timing for domestic seems less than ideal.  If they would have two flights a day the there could be an AM and PM departure.  Honestly, I would rather fly through another airport and get there earlier in the day. 

[NashRugger]

May 5th will be a big and busy day with United to SFO launching and the much anticipated return of JetBlue to Fort Lauderdale (FLL) & Boston-Logan (BOS).

[RonCamp]

Great article about BNA today from Nashville Public Radio - http://nashvillepublicradio.org/post/nashville-airport-bid-goodbye-its-10-minute-waiting-area-add-plenty-new-spaces#stream/0

Interesting to remember that the airport was built as a hub, which explains why there are rarely issues with getting a gate (even if your plane arrives early or late) or having to wait to taxi in or out - but the baggage claim areas, arrival driveways, etc. are almost always overflowing at peak times.

 

I should also say that it's high time they got rid of the 10 minute waiting area.  Incredibly inefficient use of valuable space, not to mention it encourages people to wait in the main driving lanes for the ten minute spaces to open up, making the congestion and delays in the area much worse than necessary.

[GreenHillsBoy]

2 hours ago, RonCamp said:

Great article about BNA today from Nashville Public Radio - http://nashvillepublicradio.org/post/nashville-airport-bid-goodbye-its-10-minute-waiting-area-add-plenty-new-spaces#stream/0

Interesting to remember that the airport was built as a hub, which explains why there are rarely issues with getting a gate (even if your plane arrives early or late) or having to wait to taxi in or out - but the baggage claim areas, arrival driveways, etc. are almost always overflowing at peak times.

 

I should also say that it's high time they got rid of the 10 minute waiting area.  Incredibly inefficient use of valuable space, not to mention it encourages people to wait in the main driving lanes for the ten minute spaces to open up, making the congestion and delays in the area much worse than necessary.

Apparently they heard you about the 10 minute waiting area, to be gone and replaced with a much larger cell phone waiting area more than doubling the amount of space.  Also, new parking garage to be added on site.  Article just appeared in The Tennessean.

[Nathan_in_DC]

Flying in on Monday, I saw yet again just how dated and cramped the baggage claim and passenger pickup is. My sister was stuck waiting in traffic because of poor traffic management and the problems caused by the 10 minute waiting area (which, since the advent of cell phone lots, is simply obsolete).

Unfortunately I'm not sure how they can fix the baggage claim area. That will require some major rebuilding, and the terminal architecture prevents the space from being expanded.

[rookzie]

13 hours ago, Nathan_in_DC said:

Flying in on Monday, I saw yet again just how dated and cramped the baggage claim and passenger pickup is. My sister was stuck waiting in traffic because of poor traffic management and the problems caused by the 10 minute waiting area (which, since the advent of cell phone lots, is simply obsolete).

Unfortunately I'm not sure how they can fix the baggage claim area. That will require some major rebuilding, and the terminal architecture prevents the space from being expanded.

..And this time of year just makes is that much worse, getting "worser" every 6 months or so. -==-

EDIT: On another note, I hope and pray that all's OK back home for your family in Perry Co., in the wake of the two lives lost in this evening's tornado. -==-

Edited December 24, 2015 by rookzie

[UTgrad09]

November numbers were very strong.

2014 - 879,120

2015 - 969,427 (+10.3%)

Total for calendar year 2015 (so far) is 10,729,228. Last year's December was over 900k.

[Nathan_in_DC]

On 12/24/2015 at 9:42 PM, rookzie said:

..And this time of year just makes is that much worse, getting "worser" every 6 months or so. -==-

EDIT: On another note, I hope and pray that all's OK back home for your family in Perry Co., in the wake of the two lives lost in this evening's tornado. -==-

Thanks, my family is all well. Lots of flooding, though. Mousetail Landing SP is cut off because of rising Tennessee River water save for a single dirt access road that wasnt completely flooded, along with many other low lying areas. Certainly makes tornado cleanup that much more difficult.

On 12/30/2015 at 11:30 PM, UTgrad09 said:

November numbers were very strong.

2014 - 879,120

2015 - 969,427 (+10.3%)

Total for calendar year 2015 (so far) is 10,729,228. Last year's December was over 900k.

Can't wait to see what the year end numbers are. The crowd flying in for the NYE bash and those traveling after Christmas will certainly add a couple thousand.

[NashRugger]

We have a new domestic air service announcement coming tomorrow. Anyone want to guess what it could be? Please be a new airline, cough, Virgin America.

[AUNash]

I noticed the following list on Southwest's website:

Top Ten Cities by Departures

City - No of daily departures - no of gates - nonstop destinations

Chicago (Midway) - 247 - 35 - 67

Las Vegas - 213 - 24 -58

Baltimore- 200 - 28 - 61

Dallas (Love Field) - 180 - 18 - 51

Denver - 179 - 22 - 56

Phoenix- 163 - 24 - 48

Houston (Hobby) - 156 - 19 - 50

Atlanta - 122 - 18 - 37

Los Angeles - 121 - 15 - 26

Oakland -106 - 13 -23

So Oakland is number 10 at 106 departures. We have 90 departures a day from 10 gates to 33 cities. Sure would love to crack their top 10. Wonder how feasible that would be. Does their entry into ATL make it less likely they would continue to build at BNA?

[Hey_Hey]

Frontier announced to Philadelphia, Orlando, and Chicago O'Hare starting in April.  That's a good announcement and one that is more than what I thought we were going to get.

[Hey_Hey]

Now I'm a little less than enthused.  None of them are daily year round. Still good and will hopefully make those routes more competitive, just not as good as my initial impression.

[BnaBreaker]

Good news, but I think the airport's facebook page just needs to stop with the suspenseful question mark posts unless it's about a round-trip flight on All Nippon to Tokyo or something like that.  They just lead to disappointment otherwise. 

[Nathan_in_DC]

Yeah, whoever is managing their PR could learn from that whole Chicken Little thing...

[Melrose]

On 1/7/2016 at 3:03 PM, Nathan_in_DC said:

Yeah, whoever is managing their PR could learn from that whole Chicken Little thing...

I think some folks on this site are getting things a little out of proportion and just need to lower their expectations for what are obviously going to be smaller news items.  BNA is promoting these small announcements on their Facebook page.  Who really cares about a Facebook post and who really expects that to lead to something huge?   Any real big news, like an international route,  would be promoted in the actual media and teased through the Tennesseean, NBJ, etc.   There would be TV news coverage, there would be a press conference called and promoted where the Mayor, Governor, probably executives from companies with international ties to the destination and others would be announced as the guests.   It would not be teased just by a Facebook post.    

[Nathan_in_DC]

9 hours ago, Melrose said:

I think some folks on this site are getting things a little out of proportion and just need to lower their expectations for what are obviously going to be smaller news items.  BNA is promoting these small announcements on their Facebook page.  Who really cares about a Facebook post and who really expects that to lead to something huge?   Any real big news, like an international route,  would be promoted in the actual media and teased through the Tennesseean, NBJ, etc.   There would be TV news coverage, there would be a press conference called and promoted where the Mayor, Governor, probably executives from companies with international ties to the destination and others would be announced as the guests.   It would not be teased just by a Facebook post.    

The point is, why even do a silly 'teaser' post for non-news? And, in this day and age, Facebook is the primary communications vehicle for a number of large organizations. It's not unreasonable to think something big could be announced following a cryptic "big news is coming" post, even if it is just on Facebook.

[nashvillwill]

I've got to agree with Melrose on this one. Good on BNA and their PR for using a little hype to make announcements. Some of you may say some of these flights are "not news", but these are critical needs for many people. The SFO flight was a very big need. It may not be as "cool" as an overseas flight, but certainly needed. Hell, I was planning to book a flight to Philly last week. Had it not been for their mysterious post, I probably wouldn't have even heard about the frontier service.  As a result, I looked it up, booked it and saved a few bucks. 

[markhollin]

BNA sets new annual record with 11.6 million passengers in 2015:

http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/2016/01/nashville-international-airport-sets-new-passenger.html

[UTgrad09]

2 hours ago, markhollin said:

BNA sets new annual record with 11.6 million passengers in 2015:

http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/2016/01/nashville-international-airport-sets-new-passenger.html

Well, they haven't updated their numbers on their own site, but using the power of subtraction, that means that December saw 944,405 passengers.

2014 - 901,949

2015 - 944,405 (+4.7%)

[Will]

Apparently in July 2015, the Airport Authority reverted back to autonomous control after years of external oversight. After that happened, leadership commissioned a consultant's report that suggests there are some structural problems in management and strategy: http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2016/01/16/audit-slams-nashville-airport-authority-calls-culture-change/78423792/

[NashRugger]

I flew in from DFW for this weekend and my god, the baggage claim area is just terrible and is probably the most in need of a rehab part of the entire airport. Stained ceiling tiles, a leak by carousel 2, and just general color scheme and feeling like a basement needs to be addressed pronto.

[Jonny11788]

I haven't seen any releases from BNA or the airline about this yet, but it appears that Canadian carrier WestJet is starting 5x weekly service to Toronto on June 15 (every day but Tuesday and Thursday, operated by their regional subsidiary Encore), per posts on Airline Route and airliners.net. It appears to be bookable on WestJet's website, too.

[BnaBreaker]

45 minutes ago, Jonny11788 said:

I haven't seen any releases from BNA or the airline about this yet, but it appears that Canadian carrier WestJet is starting 5x weekly service to Toronto on June 15 (every day but Tuesday and Thursday, operated by their regional subsidiary Encore), per posts on Airline Route and airliners.net. It appears to be bookable on WestJet's website, too.

Nice!  WestJet does a good job.  Hopefully Nashville can eventually get flights to Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary as well.