Baton Rouge Metro Airport

[cajun]

https://www.wafb.com/2021/07/22/btr-given-grant-establish-direct-flights-washington-dc/

Quote

 

BTR given grant to establish direct flights to Washington D.C.

 

he Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport (BTR) will receive a $1 million grant to establish a direct flight between Baton Rouge and Washington D.C.

Rep. Garret Graves (R - LA), who is a member of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Aviation, made the announcement on Thursday, July 22.

Graves says the grant will complement funding provided by Louisiana Legislature to improve air service to and from BTR.

 

American Airlines is the big carrier out of DCA.   So I'm hoping that if American goes to DCA, United may try to open up a route to ORD once they are done with airport renovation and expansion at O'hare.   I think those are the two most obvious "new" routes that BTR can reasonably attain on mainline carriers.

Delta's lack of hubs in the middle of the country means they are likely sticking with Atlanta only connections for a long time.    

Edited July 22, 2021 by cajun

[richyb83]

Pilot training school lands at BTR Jet Center

https://www.businessreport.com/business/pilot-training-school-lands-at-btr-jet-center

 

ATP Flight School, the largest aviation training company in the U.S., has opened its first Louisiana location at the BTR Jet Center, a fixed-base operator that has a 6,600-square-foot facility and a 22,000-square-foot hangar at Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport.

The Florida-based ATP, with 62 flight schools around the country, is banking on the BTR Jet Center facility, which opened at the airport in March, to be an ideal training location to fill in-demand pilot positions.

“With a post-pandemic airline pilot shortage expected, Flight School’s new Baton Rouge training center brings professional career training to the area and expands access to this rewarding career,” says ATP spokesperson Michael Arnold. “We are seeing a surge in demand for pilots and the BTR training center will allow aspiring pilots in the Baton Rouge community to take advantage of the pilot shortage.”

 

ATP is leasing about 1,000 square feet of training space from BTR Jet Center, which will be used mostly for traditional classroom instruction and also to train on computer flight simulators.

[dan326]

An upgrade is coming for people boarding planes out of Baton Rouge; here's what's changing

Baton Rouge Metro Airport has been awarded a $5.2 million Federal Aviation Administration grant to replace passenger boarding bridges, making them more accessible and reliable.

 

https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/business/article_72d9ffd2-fe08-11ec-91ee-af8bf82c529b.html

[cajun]

On 7/8/2022 at 7:52 AM, dan326 said:

An upgrade is coming for people boarding planes out of Baton Rouge; here's what's changing

Baton Rouge Metro Airport has been awarded a $5.2 million Federal Aviation Administration grant to replace passenger boarding bridges, making them more accessible and reliable.

 

https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/business/article_72d9ffd2-fe08-11ec-91ee-af8bf82c529b.html

I want to see 3 new gates and Southwest Airlines service.  When is that happening?   And why has the metro council played politics with the Airport board and commissioner?   That's too important for their nonsense to influence.

[dan326]

12 hours ago, cajun said:

I want to see 3 new gates and Southwest Airlines service.  When is that happening?   And why has the metro council played politics with the Airport board and commissioner?   That's too important for their nonsense to influence.

Good questions. It would be nice to see even 1 new gate.

[cajun]

https://www.businessreport.com/insider/developer-leasing-53-acres-at-btrs-aviation-business-park?utm_campaign=dr_am-2022_Oct_13-10_00&utm_medium=email&utm_source=dr_am&oly_enc_id=6911F7561089J4A

Baton Rouge Metro Airport has announced that air cargo, freight and logistics developer Burrell Aviation LLC plans to lease 53 acres of runway-accessible land at its Aviation Business Park.

The lease, approved last night by the Metro Council, is expected to be executed Nov. 1, says Mike Edwards, director of aviation for BTR.     Burrell will be responsible for marketing the site, securing anchor tenants and solidifying plans for facilities and infrastructure.   

The project could potentially create 800-1,400 permanent jobs.

BTR secured grant funding through Louisiana DOTD’s aviation trust fund in 2019 to make the site shovel-ready. So far, a two-lane roadway has been completed and construction of a utility corridor to Burrell’s lease area is in its final phase, Edwards says.

A 200,000 square-foot air cargo facility, a 40,000-square-foot maintenance and repair facility and 137,000-square-foot cold storage facility are all planned to be built on the property, plus additional loading docks and parking.

[richyb83]

Here's a follow up from Cajuns post above

Expansion coming to Baton Rouge Metro Airport

https://www.wafb.com/2022/12/12/expansion-coming-baton-rouge-metro-airport/

[cajun]

On 7/22/2021 at 2:30 PM, cajun said:

https://www.wafb.com/2021/07/22/btr-given-grant-establish-direct-flights-washington-dc/

American Airlines is the big carrier out of DCA.   So I'm hoping that if American goes to DCA, United may try to open up a route to ORD once they are done with airport renovation and expansion at O'hare.   I think those are the two most obvious "new" routes that BTR can reasonably attain on mainline carriers.

Delta's lack of hubs in the middle of the country means they are likely sticking with Atlanta only connections for a long time.    

 

 

 

It's finally happening.   American Airlines will add daily nonstops to DCA from BTR.   It's going to be at the rush hours (for flying), which means BTR likely has more planes than jetways between 5-7AM and again after 9PM.    

This means that American will have to retain the CRJ (which has its own stairs in the door) for their connection to Charlotte and use gate B3, which doesn't have a jetway.   Or BTR needs to expand their concourse and reshuffle which airlines get which gates.   Hope they have a plan to add at least 2 new gates and jetways, because a United flight to O'Hare and/or Denver is also in the works.   And Allegiant is also sniffing around again.   

Edited January 27, 2023 by cajun

[richyb83]

Baton Rouge Metro Airport passenger numbers nearing those of 2019 

https://www.businessreport.com/business/baton-rouge-metro-airport-passenger-numbers-nearing-those-of-2019

Going to an LSU road game? New direct flights are coming to Baton Rouge's airport.

https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/business/united-adds-direct-flights-ahead-of-lsu-football-season/article_e20a9b36-2d5b-11ee-9c53-17911a8fe5f4.html

 

Edited August 1, 2023 by richyb83

[cajun]

16 hours ago, richyb83 said:

Baton Rouge Metro Airport passenger numbers nearing those of 2019 

https://www.businessreport.com/business/baton-rouge-metro-airport-passenger-numbers-nearing-those-of-2019

Going to an LSU road game? New direct flights are coming to Baton Rouge's airport.

https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/business/united-adds-direct-flights-ahead-of-lsu-football-season/article_e20a9b36-2d5b-11ee-9c53-17911a8fe5f4.html

 

Can confirm that there are larger crowds at BTR at rush hour this summer.    I've noticed that the garage parking is more consistently full now; and my usual spaces closer to the skybridge are impossible to get.    And seating in the terminal itself is very sparse now in both A and B concourses during rush hour on Monday AM and Thursday PM.

And my prediction about the lack of jetways also turned out to be true.   The last flight of the day from CLT lands at BTR around midnight and it has no available jetway at that point.    The CLT flights during the day and on weekends use B1 or B2, which do have  jetways.    But the inbound flight from DCA is on a larger ERJ-175 jet, and it can't use a ramp to offload and still meet ADA requirements, so it parks at B2 overnight and takes off back to DCA first thing in the morning.   And since the DFW flight takes B1 overnight, the CLT flight (usually on a CRJ-700), gets left out at B3 which has no jetway.   Passengers have to walk out on the tarmac.   

BTR really needs to expand B concourse out and curve it towards the parking deck.   Then they need to make B3 and B4 into gates with jetbridges like B1/B2.    And yeah - during early afternoons, they wouldn't all be utilized.   But for rush hour, they would be.   

Or if they are really ambitious, they could expand the tarmac past A concourse closer to the intersection of the two runways, then add 6-8 new gates out on A concourse, then renno the area where A1-A4 exists to add new restaurant, and mothball the B concourse until Southwest Airlines comes knocking and asking for 3-4 gates of their own.    

TL:DR - BTR needs at least one new gate with a jetbridge immediately in the B Concourse.   And probably another couple of more on A concourse to  handle growth and to manage space during future rennovations - otherwise any new non-stops added (like to ORD, DEN, LGA, etc.) would not be able to depart/arrive during rush hour because there would be no available gates.    Every gate has a jet parked at it overnight - and A2 actually has 2 Delta jets parked there overnight (but A2 jetway can reach both parking spaces).     If Southwest wanted to move to BTR now, there would be no place to put them.  

Edited August 1, 2023 by cajun

[dan326]

On 8/1/2023 at 3:30 PM, cajun said:

Can confirm that there are larger crowds at BTR at rush hour this summer.    I've noticed that the garage parking is more consistently full now; and my usual spaces closer to the skybridge are impossible to get.    And seating in the terminal itself is very sparse now in both A and B concourses during rush hour on Monday AM and Thursday PM.

And my prediction about the lack of jetways also turned out to be true.   The last flight of the day from CLT lands at BTR around midnight and it has no available jetway at that point.    The CLT flights during the day and on weekends use B1 or B2, which do have  jetways.    But the inbound flight from DCA is on a larger ERJ-175 jet, and it can't use a ramp to offload and still meet ADA requirements, so it parks at B2 overnight and takes off back to DCA first thing in the morning.   And since the DFW flight takes B1 overnight, the CLT flight (usually on a CRJ-700), gets left out at B3 which has no jetway.   Passengers have to walk out on the tarmac.   

BTR really needs to expand B concourse out and curve it towards the parking deck.   Then they need to make B3 and B4 into gates with jetbridges like B1/B2.    And yeah - during early afternoons, they wouldn't all be utilized.   But for rush hour, they would be.   

Or if they are really ambitious, they could expand the tarmac past A concourse closer to the intersection of the two runways, then add 6-8 new gates out on A concourse, then renno the area where A1-A4 exists to add new restaurant, and mothball the B concourse until Southwest Airlines comes knocking and asking for 3-4 gates of their own.    

TL:DR - BTR needs at least one new gate with a jetbridge immediately in the B Concourse.   And probably another couple of more on A concourse to  handle growth and to manage space during future rennovations - otherwise any new non-stops added (like to ORD, DEN, LGA, etc.) would not be able to depart/arrive during rush hour because there would be no available gates.    Every gate has a jet parked at it overnight - and A2 actually has 2 Delta jets parked there overnight (but A2 jetway can reach both parking spaces).     If Southwest wanted to move to BTR now, there would be no place to put them.  

Good analysis. It would be nice for BTR to be expanded, at least just a bit.