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Update.......Little Rock National Airport.


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There is a prominent, front-page article in today's Democrat-Gazette regarding the status of the proposed new terminal. In short, the poor state of the economy and the proliferation of bankruptcies among 4-5 airlines (not to mention the consolidation) has all but dashed the idea of building an all-new terminal - at least all at once. The needs/demands for an enlarged facility are still there, so this will force the changes to occur over time in Phases, making each incremental step more palatable. I hate to hear this, but its not surprising. Its too bad that a short term bump (the economy) is making such an impact on a long-term solution. In the end though according to the planners, we'll in essence end up with an all-new facility.

[One side bar - they noted that at least in the short term, they would only be planning on 15 gates, which seems short-sighted with the current overcapacity on the existing 12 gates. The all-new terminal proposal, with the planned 18 gates, gave opportunity for two concourses, which is what I was hoping we'd see eventually. I'm not sure now how the new plan impacts this aspect.]

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Frontier is discontinuing LIT service June 1 as a result of them discontinuing the agreement with their regional affiliate as part of their CH11 Bankrupcy

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080423/law052.html?.v=101

Hopefully with DL dropping SLC and F9 dropping DEN, UA will find some sucess at LIT.

I wouldnt be too worried about loosing F9 as it was going to happen in some form or another since i dont think the airline will be around much longer as it is, despite how cute their planes are.

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Frontier is discontinuing LIT service June 1 as a result of them discontinuing the agreement with their regional affiliate as part of their CH11 Bankrupcy

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080423/law052.html?.v=101

Hopefully with DL dropping SLC and F9 dropping DEN, UA will find some sucess at LIT.

I wouldnt be too worried about loosing F9 as it was going to happen in some form or another since i dont think the airline will be around much longer as it is, despite how cute their planes are.

The article also mentioned that they were cutting service to Memphis, Tulsa and 2 other locations (which they didn't mention). I was unsure if by "cut" they meant reduced or eliminated from those markets altogether. They certainly landed in Memphis with quite a splash.

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The article also mentioned that they were cutting service to Memphis, Tulsa and 2 other locations (which they didn't mention). I was unsure if by "cut" they meant reduced or eliminated from those markets altogether. They certainly landed in Memphis with quite a splash.

The two other markets were Jacksonville, Fl and Sioux City, IA. They are elimininating service from all five markets.

This should help United and their Denver flight. Anyone know how those fights have been doing?

After Continetal's addition to Cleveland, I don't see LIT getting more flights anytime soon, so going from 12 gates to 15 in the new terminal expansion plan is not a bad thing. I hope that when they do add gates they place the infrastructure there to add a couple of more gates quickly if the climate changes.

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The two other markets were Jacksonville, Fl and Sioux City, IA. They are elimininating service from all five markets.

This should help United and their Denver flight. Anyone know how those fights have been doing?

After Continetal's addition to Cleveland, I don't see LIT getting more flights anytime soon, so going from 12 gates to 15 in the new terminal expansion plan is not a bad thing. I hope that when they do add gates they place the infrastructure there to add a couple of more gates quickly if the climate changes.

Yes, the silver lining is that this should really help United (to Denver), and ultimately, that's a good thing. Since Denver is served by United, does anyone see Southwest possibly adding Denver (its a new "emphasis" city for them)?

Also, if Delta is dropping Orlando, I'd LOVE to see Southwest pick this up, and sort of expect them to. They offer direct service from Jackson, MS...a smaller market (and smaller traffic airport).

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Yes, the silver lining is that this should really help United (to Denver), and ultimately, that's a good thing. Since Denver is served by United, does anyone see Southwest possibly adding Denver (its a new "emphasis" city for them)?

Also, if Delta is dropping Orlando, I'd LOVE to see Southwest pick this up, and sort of expect them to. They offer direct service from Jackson, MS...a smaller market (and smaller traffic airport).

I didn't know that Jackson had service to Orlando, that's encouraging. I'd use that flight 3 times a year or so.

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Yes, the silver lining is that this should really help United (to Denver), and ultimately, that's a good thing. Since Denver is served by United, does anyone see Southwest possibly adding Denver (its a new "emphasis" city for them)?

Also, if Delta is dropping Orlando, I'd LOVE to see Southwest pick this up, and sort of expect them to. They offer direct service from Jackson, MS...a smaller market (and smaller traffic airport).

Every city in our region has service to Orlando on Southwest; Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Nashville, Birmingham, New Orleans and Jackson as you mentioned. It would seem to make sense for them to add it from Little Rock, but in this climate I wouldn't hold my breath.

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Every city in our region has service to Orlando on Southwest; Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Nashville, Birmingham, New Orleans and Jackson as you mentioned. It would seem to make sense for them to add it from Little Rock, but in this climate I wouldn't hold my breath.

This is true...hopefully this will change shortly. However, I think there were two factors at play here - at least with Jackson specifically. 1 - they didn't have service to Orlando on Delta, and 2 - Jackson doesn't (can't) have direct service to Dallas/Texas so the weight of their service has to shift to other markets, and as you know, Dallas is Southwest's main emphasis on service from LR.

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This is true...hopefully this will change shortly. However, I think there were two factors at play here - at least with Jackson specifically. 1 - they didn't have service to Orlando on Delta, and 2 - Jackson doesn't (can't) have direct service to Dallas/Texas so the weight of their service has to shift to other markets, and as you know, Dallas is Southwest's main emphasis on service from LR.

I see your point, but if I'm not mistaken Jackson had service to Orlando on Southwest before we had service there on Delta. When Southwest started service to Jackson that was one of the original destinations. Southwest should have Orlando service from Little Rock. I think it would be very successful. Southwest may have looked at the market and saw that there were no flights to the west so they added service to Phoenix and Las Vegas instead.

Edited by theman
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DL isn't dropping MCO completely. It will be a Saturday only flight effective May 3rd.

Really? Interesting.

I might be mistaken, but I think that LR has never had much service that wasn't (basically) daily. In other words, we have never had many 2-3 times per week flights - usually associated with charter/vacation airlines. However, this service is basically vacation oriented so the schedule is not altogether surprising.

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MEM has AirTran nonstop to MCO. Cheap, too.

AirTran is based in Atlanta but Orlando is a big hub for them. LIT will never get AirTran because Southwest is so heavily involved here. Memphis doesn't have Southwest so they get AirTran, but I wouldn't trade. Memphis fares are a good bit higher than those out of LR in general because of the competition at LIT and Memphis' hub status with Northwest.

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  • 1 month later...

I read in the ADG that Southwest will end its Phoenix flight Aug 24. They said it had a high Load Factor, just full of connecting passengers. I have taken this flight to connect to LAX. Hey, give us LAX southwest.

Im hoping that US air will take over the flight. A daily CRJ-900 or E-190 would do good.

Anyways, LIT isnt doing to good this year. lets hope it stops with this.

So far:

St. louis: gone (aa)

Orlando: gone

Phoniex: gone

Kansas City:gone

Frontier: gone

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I read in the ADG that Southwest will end its Phoenix flight Aug 24. They said it had a high Load Factor, just full of connecting passengers. I have taken this flight to connect to LAX. Hey, give us LAX southwest.

Wow. That's disappointing. Aside from a loss of flights, it's the loss of a direct city for LIT. I don't EVER recalling SWA cutting service at LR, though that may not be entirely true...but unusual none-the-less. But in this tumultuous market for the airlines, we can't rule out anything. I have flown the Phoenix route a few times on SWA....I didn't realize that it was full of through-connecting passengers.

I flew to BWI (Baltimore) on SWA recently, and upon boarding realized how many passengers were already on board - some from OKC through DAL, etc. I hope this isn't a trend for SWA in LIT. Hopefully this might free them up to add Orlando?!

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Wow. That's disappointing. Aside from a loss of flights, it's the loss of a direct city for LIT. I don't EVER recalling SWA cutting service at LR, though that may not be entirely true...but unusual none-the-less. But in this tumultuous market for the airlines, we can't rule out anything. I have flown the Phoenix route a few times on SWA....I didn't realize that it was full of through-connecting passengers.

I flew to BWI (Baltimore) on SWA recently, and upon boarding realized how many passengers were already on board - some from OKC through DAL, etc. I hope this isn't a trend for SWA in LIT. Hopefully this might free them up to add Orlando?!

This may be the trend for LIT with Southwest. Last week I flew to and from San Antonio on Southwest. When I connected in Dallas for my trip to Little Rock, after the stop here the plane was going to St. Louis then to Chicago then to Manchester, New Hampshire.

I hate to loose the direct flight to Phoenix. It only leaves direct flights to Las Vegas on Southwest and Denver on United as the only options of connecting out west. I don't see anymore flights being added to LIT in the current climate. LIT will be doing good if it doesn't loose any more flights.

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This may be the trend for LIT with Southwest. Last week I flew to and from San Antonio on Southwest. When I connected in Dallas for my trip to Little Rock, after the stop here the plane was going to St. Louis then to Chicago then to Manchester, New Hampshire.

I hate to loose the direct flight to Phoenix. It only leaves direct flights to Las Vegas on Southwest and Denver on United as the only options of connecting out west. I don't see anymore flights being added to LIT in the current climate. LIT will be doing good if it doesn't loose any more flights.

I hope this really isn't. I know that the Baltimore flight is a connecting form Dallas. LIT is a connecting point to various destinations from Dallas. I really hope, that if anything good comes with the loss of Frontier, The UA flights maybe upgraded to a CRJ-700 or at least stay around. I would like to see US provide 1 daily flight to there west hub from LIT, which would be Phoenix. If oil doesn't go down, and the economy doesn't get any better, then i think LIT might be hit hard. Plus we have this Delta/Northwest thing coming up. Very interesting times.

At least the majority of the remaining flights are to hubs.

AA-Dallas, Chicago

CO-Newark, Houston, Cleveland.

DL-Atlanta, Cincinnati.

NW-Memphis, Detroit, Minneapolis.

UA-Denver, Washington D.C.

US-Charlotte.

SW-Dallas, Houston, St. Louis, Las Vegas, Baltimore, Chicago.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The Cleveland flights are going to be cut later this year. Another one bites the dust!

Just got the service and they are already going to cut it. That bites.

I've been reading articles recently about re-regulating the airline industry in lew of the expense fuel cost. What do you guys think about that?

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The Cleveland flights are going to be cut later this year. Another one bites the dust!

What?! Goodness, I guess the situation is so dire, they don't even care about any PR backlash....there are billboards for this new service all over the place! Where other destinations were cut from Cleveland?

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What?! Goodness, I guess the situation is so dire, they don't even care about any PR backlash....there are billboards for this new service all over the place! Where other destinations were cut from Cleveland?

From the following article:

http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2008/06...opkins_cap.html

"The nonstop destinations from Hopkins that Continental is dropping -- beginning Sept. 3 -- are flights to Austin, Texas; Birmingham, Ala.; Charleston, S.C.; Charleston, W. Va.; Cincinnati; Des Moines, Iowa: Detroit; Green Bay, Wis.; Greensboro, N.C.; Lexington, Ky.; Little Rock, Ark.; Memphis, Tenn., Nashville, Tenn.; Norfolk, Va.; Oklahoma City, Okla.; Omaha, Neb.; Ottawa, Canada; San Antonio, Texas; San Diego; Sarasota, Fla.; Savannah, Ga.; Toledo; Tulsa, Okla.; and Washington-Dulles."

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It almost looks like Little Rock's airport will soon not be much more than NWA's - a few flights to major hubs.

XNA will get slaughtered by this eventually. Both airports are way too dependent on regional jets, which have become less profitable with the fuel surge. At least Southwest is doing well at LIT.

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