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

[Architect]

I wounder if southwest will move some of Airtrans 717's into Little Rock. This would be the perfect aircraft for an Orlando flight. But honestly, If Jackson Miss can support an Orlando flight, so can LIT.

I would also think that they will add Atlanta. It will be interesting to see what happens.

I still want my LAX flight. UA/CO please?

Im kind of amazed at how small Delta has gotten. At one point they had(including Norhtwest), Atlanta, Cincinnati, Salt Lake City, Orlando, Memphis, Detroit & Minneapolis. Now its just I Atlanta(1 mainline flight), Detroit(1 express flight) and Memphis(Down from 3 mainline to 3 express). Before Katrina, there was talk of a New Orleans flight. Delta use to be king, but now has lost its crown to Southwest.

Im also still surprised that US air hasn't added a flight to Phoenix. The whole reason they merged, beside to stay alive, was to offer a west coast hub. But Memphis just lost their flight so who knows.

By the end of this year, we will be down to 5 airlines.

Delta

United

American

US

Southwest

Vision will be #6, that is if they make it.

Good summarization. Two quick points:

1 - There wasn't just talk, Delta had officially announced the LIT-MSY (New Orleans) flight. It was just weeks later when Katrina hit. I, too, am dismayed at Delta's seemingly shrinking presence. I always gave them respect when they were expanding mainline even as American exited. Now it seems, the table is turned.

2 - The shrinking number of airlines is industry wide, not just a LIT issue. Consolidation.

[jnholmes]

I am a loyal Delta flier and it is extremely frustrating the way Delta has downsized LIT's flights. There is no timely way to get to the west coast. I literally have to fly other airlines to shave off 3+ extra hours of travel time to places like SMF, PDX, and LAX. I sent an email to Delta and actually received a personal reply. I encourage everyone to do the same. One flight to MSP or SLC would greatly help us left of the Mississippi river.

[LRguy21]

It seems delta has upgraded some of its ATL flights. Starting in April/May, there will be 2 MD-80 flights and 1 A-319 flight. That's pretty nice. I think there are still another 3-4 regional flights. Still a far cry from the delta of yesteryear.

[Architect]

It seems delta has upgraded some of its ATL flights. Starting in April/May, there will be 2 MD-80 flights and 1 A-319 flight. That's pretty nice. I think there are still another 3-4 regional flights. Still a far cry from the delta of yesteryear.

Wow....very nice, especially the A319. That's NEVER been used on the LIT-ATL route.

I took a trip to Charlotte back in '02 on Delta through ATL, and we were on a NEW 737-800 (BOTH coming and going). It was the nicest equipment I'd ever flown out on from LIT, and was nicer than the plane from Atlanta to Charlotte. It had the flip down video monitors, and they showed television shows on the flight, and had the NAV screen on in between episodes. Back in the day, as they say.

[gwarren25]

I found something interesting today when looking at the Route Map on the Southwest Airlines website - it shows nonstop service between Little Rock and Pittsburgh. I didn't recall hearing an announcement about this new service so I searched the flight schedules. There are some nonstop flights between the cities, but only on a couple of days.

Thursday, 2/3

Flight #215 dep PIT 9:20 a.m.; arr LIT 10:45 a.m.

Flight #149 dep PIT 5:45 p.m.; arr LIT 7:10 p.m.

Friday, 2/4

Flight #254 dep LIT 2:05 p.m.; arr PIT 5:10 p.m.

Monday, 2/7

Flight #127 dep PIT 12:25 p.m.; arr LIT 1:50 p.m.

Thursday, 2/10

Flight #116 dep LIT 8:55 a.m.,; arr PIT 12:00 p.m.

Flight #151 dep LIT 5:50 p.m.; arr PIT 8:55 p.m.

That's it - there are no more non-stops between Little Rock and Pittsburgh through the remainder of Southwest's open schedule through August 12.

Any ideas on what these flights are? Maybe re-positioning due to the weather cancellations recently? Something with Super Bowl since the flights surround Super Bowl Sunday?

[LRguy21]

I found something interesting today when looking at the Route Map on the Southwest Airlines website - it shows nonstop service between Little Rock and Pittsburgh. I didn't recall hearing an announcement about this new service so I searched the flight schedules. There are some nonstop flights between the cities, but only on a couple of days.

Thursday, 2/3

Flight #215 dep PIT 9:20 a.m.; arr LIT 10:45 a.m.

Flight #149 dep PIT 5:45 p.m.; arr LIT 7:10 p.m.

Friday, 2/4

Flight #254 dep LIT 2:05 p.m.; arr PIT 5:10 p.m.

Monday, 2/7

Flight #127 dep PIT 12:25 p.m.; arr LIT 1:50 p.m.

Thursday, 2/10

Flight #116 dep LIT 8:55 a.m.,; arr PIT 12:00 p.m.

Flight #151 dep LIT 5:50 p.m.; arr PIT 8:55 p.m.

That's it - there are no more non-stops between Little Rock and Pittsburgh through the remainder of Southwest's open schedule through August 12.

Any ideas on what these flights are? Maybe re-positioning due to the weather cancellations recently? Something with Super Bowl since the flights surround Super Bowl Sunday?

It all has to do with the fact that Southwest uses DAL and not DFW. SW can only serve a few select states outside of Texas. So, in order to serve PIT from DAL, they must make a stop in LIT, tulsa, st. louis, etc. Im sure it will be gone after this weekend.

[Architect]

I'm guessing these are connecting flights for Dallas from Pittsburg solely for the Super Bowl. The Wright Amendment prevents direct flights from Dallas Love Field to states that don't border. But...you can ticket through with one-stop...in this case, Little Rock.

[gwarren25]

I should have dug a little deeper, but it was late when I was looking. You are correct, on the schedule on just those days are non-stops between LIT - DAL with the same flight number. Obviously a tactic to accomodate Super Bowl traffic while working within the confines of the Wright Amendment. Interesting that they would add additional flights for this... I guess it has to make sense to them financially, otherwise Southwest wouldn't have added the flights.

[LRguy21]

It would have been cool though for SW to add some more flights to LR on a permanent basis.

[LRguy21]

AA mainline starts this week. Been almost a decade since last mainline flight to DFW from LIT!! This is big news for LIT!! It will be great to see big boy jets in little rock again at the AA gate.

[LRguy21]

Does anybody know how the Vision Airlines flights are doing going out of Little Rock? As much as I love the low fares, I do wish that the flight would have been on a more dependable carrier such as Delta or Southwest. Its to bad neither one of them have jumped on the Florida market from LIT.

[Sammy00]

This is a good, wide-ranging article that goes pretty in depth about the expansion of LIT. Really paints LIT officials in a positive light as well:

http://www.airportimprovement.com/content/story.php?article=00259

[cozmosis]

According to the Arkansas Times: "Beginning July 1, Delta Airlines will fly nonstop from Little Rock National Airport to Minneapolis-St. Paul. A 50-seat regional jet will depart Minneapolis for Little Rock at 1:20 p.m. daily and fly from Little Rock to Minneapolis with a 3:50 departure."

[thewizard16]

According to the Arkansas Times: "Beginning July 1, Delta Airlines will fly nonstop from Little Rock National Airport to Minneapolis-St. Paul. A 50-seat regional jet will depart Minneapolis for Little Rock at 1:20 p.m. daily and fly from Little Rock to Minneapolis with a 3:50 departure."

This is good news. I don't have to fly there often, but I have friends that do and they've gone to other airports before to get a direct flight instead of dealing with the hassle of the sometimes lengthy plane change you currently have to do to get from LIT to Minneapolis. Good for the airport!

[jnholmes]

According to the Arkansas Times: "Beginning July 1, Delta Airlines will fly nonstop from Little Rock National Airport to Minneapolis-St. Paul. A 50-seat regional jet will depart Minneapolis for Little Rock at 1:20 p.m. daily and fly from Little Rock to Minneapolis with a 3:50 departure."

YES!!!! I'm so excited. This will help me get to PDX a lot quicker than through ATL! So excited.

[LRguy21]

I wish Delta would add LAX or Salt Lake City. That would make going west so much easier.

[cmatthews40510]

From the DemGaz: http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2011/jun/22/airport-plans-open-cell-phone-lot-week-20110622/?email-morning

LRNA to open its 40 sport 'cell phone' parking lot by this Thursday.

Mathieu said just more than $21,000 was spent to renovate the parking lot at the center. Striping, lighting and signs had to be established and drainage issues and potholes fixed before the 40-space lot could open, he said. Dailey said the commission hopes the airport will eventually find a tenant to use the Aerospace Education Center building, and if that happens, the airport will have to decide what to do about the cell-phone lot.

“It won’t necessarily have to be [moved] because there is a lot of parking space there,” Dailey said.

While the lot won’t create revenue for the airport, Schueck said it will help customers save money and cut down on traffic.

He almost sounds sad it won't generate any revenue....

[Sammy00]

Non-stop to Denver and Palm Springs via Frontier Air!

Link

[Architect]

Non-stop to Denver and Palm Springs via Frontier Air!

Link

Correction to your post: Frontier is only adding service to Denver from LIT beginning November 17. The link states that Frontier also added Palm Springs as a new destination from Denver, not flights between Palm Springs and Little Rock. Specifically, here's the link and flight details:

LIT-DEN service will operate utilizing E190, 99-seat aircraft on the following schedule:

Departs DEN at 3:15 p.m. arrives LIT at 6:15 p.m. Daily except Saturday

Departs LIT at 6:50 p.m. arrives DEN at 8:05 p.m. Daily except Saturday

[Sammy00]

Correction to your post: Frontier is only adding service to Denver from LIT beginning November 17. The link states that Frontier also added Palm Springs as a new destination from Denver, not flights between Palm Springs and Little Rock. Specifically, here's the link and flight details:

Yes I misunderstood. I thought it seemed odd...

And today, Vision Airlines stated they will drop service to Destin on November 2nd and replace it with service to Orlando this winter.

http://www.arktimes....sion-to-orlando

Edited August 9, 2011 by Sammy00

[Architect]

Yes I misunderstood. I thought it seemed odd...

And today, Vision Airlines stated they will drop service to Destin on November 2nd and replace it with service to Orlando this winter.

http://www.arktimes....sion-to-orlando

Interesting. Weren't the flights to Destin an intermediate stop on the way to Orlando anyway...so they're just dropping the Destin stop? This is curious. My brother-in-laws family flew on Vision to Destin in July, and said the 737 was pretty full. I'm unclear on what loads they were expecting, and frankly, I question whether or not Orlando would command higher destination numbers than Destin. Perhaps Destin proved to be tough since it's a fairly easy 8 hour drive.

[Arkanzin]

Vision Airlines is no longer serving the cities of St. Louis, Shreveport, Lafayette, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Asheville, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Meyers and Little Rock.

Vision Airlines....we hardly knew ya!

[adman0468]

Vision Airlines is no longer serving the cities of St. Louis, Shreveport, Lafayette, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Asheville, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Meyers and Little Rock. Vision Airlines....we hardly knew ya!

Today's D-G says that Vision is scheduled to stop their LR to Destin service this month for the season and reopen it next spring. But doing LR to Orlando for a couple of weeks this winter. However, they have not paid the airport their collected fees and the airport won't let them fly in December unless they pay up.

[Arkanzin]

Today's D-G says that Vision is scheduled to stop their LR to Destin service this month for the season and reopen it next spring. But doing LR to Orlando for a couple of weeks this winter. However, they have not paid the airport their collected fees and the airport won't let them fly in December unless they pay up.

Vision's website doesn't list Little Rock as an origin city or a destination city.

[LRguy21]

According to airliners.net, US air is planning on adding 2x daily to Washington DC at the end of March. Its going to be flown on E-170, which is similar in size to a regional jet, but with a comfort level of a mainline jet.

Also, dude to AA's bankruptcy and the removal of turbo props from DFW, AA is moving to 5 daily all mainline until the end of march.