urbanSTL

Beginning May 26, Allegiant, which is the only passenger airline serving MidAmerica, will add direct flights to Myrtle Beach, S.C., on a seasonal basis, as well as year-round service to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Its flights to Destin/Fort Walton, Florida, will increase to five days a week.


http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news ... ights.html

I'm flying out of Mid-America for the first time on Thursday.

Can anyone who has used it before give me an idea of what to expect in terms of security, parking, etc.? I really don't know anything about it.

Much appreciated.

debaliviere wrote: ↑

Mar 14, 2017

I'm flying out of Mid-America for the first time on Thursday.

Can anyone who has used it before give me an idea of what to expect in terms of security, parking, etc.? I really don't know anything about it.

Much appreciated.

I know parking is free and it is just a normal lot. That is about all I know though, so I am also curious. Let us know how it goes for you.

In case anyone is curious, our experience at BLV was a breeze. Free parking, quick security check-in. There's a small bar/restaurant serving the four gates, and a few vending machines. The lack of hassles probably made up for the amount of time it took us to drive to Belleville.

Out of curiosity, how was Allegiants service? I've heard horror stories of planes filling with smoke/emergency landings. Also, when you return to BLV, do they say welcome to Belleville or welcome to St Louis? I'm interested because I do know that in Jacksonville they market the route as a flight to St Louis.


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Chalupas54 wrote: ↑

Apr 04, 2017

Out of curiosity, how was Allegiants service? I've heard horror stories of planes filling with smoke/emergency landings. Also, when you return to BLV, do they say welcome to Belleville or welcome to St Louis? I'm interested because I do know that in Jacksonville they market the route as a flight to St Louis.


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It was perfectly fine. Felt comparable to flying on Southwest or other carriers. They did say "Welcome to Belleville," and it was a little different to see Belleville listed on the departures/arrival schedule.

The airport might start charging for parking. I think $3 a day isn't crazy and worth trying out.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/traffic/al ... 80a18.html

Your skepticism seems reasonable. They're claiming to operate Avro RJ-100s and talking about just over a hundred "business" class seats on "efficient" aircraft. The RJ-100 is a twenty year old regional quad-jet. I believe it can, as claimed, operate off shorter airfields. Belleveille is not a shorter airfield. They have enough runway to handle Air Force 1 or an A 380. Almost both on simultaneous departures. The RJ-100 seats around a hundred people people in one class. You can brand it business, but that means economy, does it not? They say the pitch is 31, which is pretty consistent with cattle class on a typical long haul. And is . . . about straight up stock standard. It's not business class. They're just calling it that. Maybe they have nicer than usual amenities, but the aircraft only has a practical range of about four hours give or take. (Four and a half, you take their max stated speed and their max stated range from Wiki, but after you factor in diversions and a margin of error and such like . . .) All that said, it's a darn short flight. Short haul. Small cabin. It sounds like a cramped and noisy MD-80. (Those extra engines come at a cost.) Eh . . . I wish them luck. But their branding won't survive the first reviews.

There corporate address comes up in Google Maps as "mail store" sandwiched between the Star Brite Dental and the Sign-a-rama.


https://www.google.com/maps/@36.1617616 ... 312!8i6656

http://www.bnd.com/news/local/article156293494.html

Midamerica installing more TSA equipment.

TSA plans to go to a semi-automatic bag screening process from a manual screening process. They can go from 26 bags an hour per person to 140 bags an hour, Hursey said.

Anyways, that is good they need more I guess. Also would be able to have TSA Pre, although I am not sure that is needed. I don't know if Allegiant even supports it anyways.

MidAmerica Airport Looks at “Aggressive Expansion”

http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2017/07/10/ ... expansion/


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How much would it cost to extend Metrolink from Shiloh-Scott to MidAmerica?

RuskiSTL wrote: ↑

Jul 10, 2017

How much would it cost to extend Metrolink from Shiloh-Scott to MidAmerica?

A lot more than the passenger traffic from this flight schedule would justify:

ALLEGIANT AIRLINES OFFERS NON-STOP FLIGHTS FROM MIDAMERICA ST. LOUIS AIRPORT TO

SANFORD/ORLANDO (SFB) -
THURSDAYS & SUNDAYS

TAMPA BAY/ST. PETE (PIE) -
MONDAYS & FRIDAYS

LAS VEGAS (LAS) - MONDAYS & FRIDAYS

FT. MYERS/PUNTA GORDA (PGD) -
THURSDAYS & SUNDAYS

DESTIN/FT. WALTON BEACH (VPS) -
THURSDAYS & SUNDAYS

JACKSONVILLE (JAX) -
MONDAYS & FRIDAYS

MYRTLE BEACH, SC (MYR) -
MONDAYS & FRIDAYS

FT. LAUDERDALE, FL (FLL) -
SATURDAYS & WEDNESDAYS

PHOENIX/MESA, AZ (AZA) -
MONDAYS & FRIDAYS (STARTING NOVEMBER 2017)

robertn42 wrote: ↑

Jul 10, 2017

RuskiSTL wrote: ↑

Jul 10, 2017

How much would it cost to extend Metrolink from Shiloh-Scott to MidAmerica?

A lot more than the passenger traffic from this flight schedule would justify:

ALLEGIANT AIRLINES OFFERS NON-STOP FLIGHTS FROM MIDAMERICA ST. LOUIS AIRPORT TO

SANFORD/ORLANDO (SFB) -
THURSDAYS & SUNDAYS

TAMPA BAY/ST. PETE (PIE) -
MONDAYS & FRIDAYS

LAS VEGAS (LAS) - MONDAYS & FRIDAYS

FT. MYERS/PUNTA GORDA (PGD) -
THURSDAYS & SUNDAYS

DESTIN/FT. WALTON BEACH (VPS) -
THURSDAYS & SUNDAYS

JACKSONVILLE (JAX) -
MONDAYS & FRIDAYS

MYRTLE BEACH, SC (MYR) -
MONDAYS & FRIDAYS

FT. LAUDERDALE, FL (FLL) -
SATURDAYS & WEDNESDAYS

PHOENIX/MESA, AZ (AZA) -
MONDAYS & FRIDAYS (STARTING NOVEMBER 2017)

Found this on Metro's website. The College to Shiloh-Scott extension seems really dumb without connecting all the way to the airport.

In June 2003, a 3.5-mile extension from Southwestern Illinois College to Shiloh-Scott station opened. Construction funding is being sought for an additional 5.3-mile extension from Shiloh-Scott to MidAmerica Airport, which would complete a system-wide airport-to-airport connection.

Funding for the $75 million extension of MetroLink to Shiloh-Scott is provided by a $60 million grant from the Illinois FIRST (Fund for Infrastructure, Roads, Schools, and Transit) Program and $15 million from the St. Clair County Transit District.

I agree it wouldn't be worth the money. They would be better off setting up a shuttle service or something. Just say it will run at these set times before and after flights. I guess Uber is basically the same thing though.

Why government agencies should move from DC to the Midwest

Numbers for MidAmerica are up 40% through April. They should get over 200,000 this year. They should have passed their entire 2015 numbers in May. Impressive. I am glad to see it doing better.

2011 0
2012 3,830
2013 25,550 567.10%
2014 31,340 18.47%
2015 62,730 100.16%
2016 157,000 151.77%
2017 51,024 Jan-April 40.77%

jshank83 wrote: ↑

Jul 14, 2017

Numbers for MidAmerica are up 40% through April. They should get over 200,000 this year. They should have passed their entire 2015 numbers in May. Impressive. I am glad to see it doing better.

2011 0
2012 3,830
2013 25,550 567.10%
2014 31,340 18.47%
2015 62,730 100.16%
2016 157,000 151.77%
2017 51,024 Jan-April 40.77%

At 200,000/year you could finance a Metrolink extension through a ticket fee in the $15/$20 range over 20/25 years.

If I could ride Metrolink to the airport I would actually use it, bet alot of cost conscious flyers are in the same boat.

chaifetz10 wrote: ↑

Jul 14, 2017

Agreed 100%. I really tried to fly home from Fort Lauderdale this past week into BLV via Allegiant (was literally about to click "purchase" on the check out page) before I decided to double check the Metro access. Since they don't even offer a shuttle to the Metro station I had to go with Southwest into Lambert instead.

Side note, MidAmerica's website is soooo bad. It's in desperate need of a major overhaul.

You can take the metro bus from the station but it isn't direct and adds a lot of time. Which isn't worth it. I agree about a shuttle.

The worst part is the website is better than it was a couple years ago and is still horrible. The flight schedule says all the flights only run twice a week but Orlando and Destin are 5x weekly, Tampa and Punta Gorda are 4x weekly right now. It isn't hard to update that stuff.