urbanSTL

Someone said they saw Richard Branson here recently? Could this Love Field gate issue be related to that? Considering a couple other moves it makes me wonder if part of this is he is looking here as an alternate location for whatever plan he has at Love Field. And this makes me wonder too if Southwest adding SFO and one more LAX flight is connected as well to prevent a move by Virgin America on the route.

As for the SFO service on Southwest, it was stated the reason they added is due to limited service at this time there. But I wonder why didn't they jump on this route a few years ago at the time American closed the hub or sometime since? They added a few other ones then but not this one.

I actually wrote to Spirit about a year ago trying to persuade them to come to BLV - MidAmerica. I flew them multiple times out of Niagara Falls when I lived there, I went to South America for $150 1 way, and returned from Central America once for $77, AFTER tax and bags etc.

They usually search out a smaller non-hub airport such as BLV to run their operations. Free parking, already an establish airport, not much traffic. Get a route into LAS and FLL and I think you'd be doing great. We'd be using them for sure for our Central and South America budget trips.

imperialmog wrote:Someone said they saw Richard Branson here recently? Could this Love Field gate issue be related to that? Considering a couple other moves it makes me wonder if part of this is he is looking here as an alternate location for whatever plan he has at Love Field. And this makes me wonder too if Southwest adding SFO and one more LAX flight is connected as well to prevent a move by Virgin America on the route.

Let me start by saying there is no confirmed proof Richard Branson was in St. Louis.. I consider it rumor, at best.

There is nothing stopping Virgin America from serving STL today, so even if he was in town, it is not because STL is an "alternative" to DAL. The service Virgin America is planning out of DAL is mostly point-to-point -- service from DAL to LGA, DCA, ORD, LAX and SFO. The Dallas area has far higher demand for air travel than St. Louis does... so there is (in my mind) little chance to see Virgin operate something similar out of STL.

Greg

Getting away from rumor and innuendo, here's some positive news:

I travel weekly. I have friends who travel weekly. The common sentiment amongst us regular travels is we haven't seen the business, the crowds, the people, stirring around Lambert like this in 8 years.
I don't care if it's a Tuesday night or Thursday afternoon, it really is neat to see how busy Lambert has become in the last few months....

cteclipse wrote:I actually wrote to Spirit about a year ago trying to persuade them to come to BLV - MidAmerica. I flew them multiple times out of Niagara Falls when I lived there, I went to South America for $150 1 way, and returned from Central America once for $77, AFTER tax and bags etc.

They usually search out a smaller non-hub airport such as BLV to run their operations. Free parking, already an establish airport, not much traffic. Get a route into LAS and FLL and I think you'd be doing great. We'd be using them for sure for our Central and South America budget trips.

Spirit will also screw you over at any opportunity they get. I flew with them once and it was an awful experience. You get what you pay for.

Spirit entering the STL market would not notably reduce fares on other airlines. Major airlines just don't match the fares of ULCCs in the vast majority of cases.

As an example, Spirit offers a fare (not including all fees and taxes -- I'm not talking baggage fees, etc.. just one ones included in ANY airline's ticket price) DFW-LAX of $166. DL's cheapest fare on the route is $238. UA & AA are at $266.

Frontier is another ULCC that major airlines also don't price match. STL-DEN is as low as $116 roundtrip on Frontier. AA, DL & UA have fares which start at $200 r/t.

Greg

I think we all can rule out Sir Richard being in St Louis, as I am sure we all would know. The STL media would be all over it.

A coworker noticed this and not sure if anyone has more info on it. Is in booking some flights for upcoming business and personal travel on Southwest they noticed around Thanksgiving they added a non-stop flight to Austin for a few days around then. Is this normal for them to do that? Or is this a precursor to a new non-stop announcement down the road? It would make sense, though right now Southwest has a lot on their plate later this year relative to network redoing.

They have added nonstop STL - Austin flights (both ways) throughout the end of November. This may be a precursor but is now listed as a seasonal nonstop destination for both airports. Great news.

Qyotyq

matguy70 wrote:Just flew Alaska Airlines to/from STL - SEA, both flights were sold out and both were on the new Boeing 737-800 series - love those planes. SWA is using a lot of them in/out of STL now too.

Alaska Airlines is now in/out of the new Concourse C in Terminal 1 - moving from the crowded Concourse A.

and lastly, damn does STL International Airport look good or what? I usually fly Southwest out of Terminal 2 - which is great... but Terminal 1 and the concourses look frickin amazing. What an incredible transformation!

I am wondering if Alaska will add another flight to Seattle from here at some point, with a similar timing to what United is adding out of SFO where it arrives here late evening and leaves early morning. I would think this would be really helpful for Boeing among others and would likely do well.

I am curious as to what routes of the here that Southwest is using the 800 series since those are larger capacity. And from what I have seen and coworkers commented, they are about at the point they need to consider starting to go down Concourse D for more gates since if there is any delays or early arrivals there seems to be an issue of gate availability at times. (and would be great to start seeing that Concourse reopen gradually)

The listing of Austin nonstop flights seem limited to a few days around Thanksgiving which is an odd thing. But you are right in thinking its very likely a precursor of what may come in terms of future routes. If I had to guess for their next new regular non-stop Austin would be the most likely but the issue is most likely at this point having the planes to do it with so many changes going on with Southwest later this year.

^matguy70: I agree completely. I flew in from Atlanta on Delta, last night. I was very happy to walk off of the plane at 7 PM, only to see a very busy airport, with a ton of foot traffic. It is great to see all of the improvements to the older concourses. I also noticed the new retail company has added an Eddie Bauer store. It looks great. I hope it does well. I'd love to see more national retailers at the airport. That is one thing I've never understood. Smaller cities with less busy airports, have way more national retailers. I'd like to see more variety in that regard. Hopefully, that comes with more traffic and increased flights and connections. I noticed a lot of Delta planes boarding last night. Have they increased their presence at Lambert? There were at least 6 or so planes loading last night. Last thing, love the new lighting and gate signs in C. Looks so much better.

DogtownBnR wrote:I noticed a lot of Delta planes boarding last night. Have they increased their presence at Lambert? There were at least 6 or so planes loading last night.

Delta has actually cut back on the number of routes and number of flights they have at Lambert over the past two years:

They used to serve Memphis, Washington DC and Raleigh-Durham but all of those flights have been eliminated.

They have also cut back on the number of flights this year while upgrading from regional jets to mainline on many of the remaining flights.

Currently DL serves the following cities from STL: Atlanta, Detroit, New York (JFK & LGA), Cincinnati, Minneapolis and Salt Lake City.

Greg

Just came in from a layover in Minneapolis's airport. They have freaking iPads and stuff at their awesome, non-depressing airport.



Why can't we have awesome stuff like this?

Did Minneapolis even have rocking chairs?

Watch out for those ipads - they may give you a rash!

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/h ... -1.1865942

I was in the Minneapolis airport in September 2014 and saw neither rocking chairs nor ipads. I best I could say was that my terminal was clean.

Greatest St. Louis wrote:Just came in from a layover in Minneapolis's airport. They have freaking iPads and stuff at their awesome, non-depressing airport.



Why can't we have awesome stuff like this?

Is this some kind of backhanded jab about Lambert being depressing?

jambo wrote: I was in the Minneapolis airport in September 2014

I don't suppose you saw any stock prices, sports scores or winning lotto numbers while you were there?

moorlander wrote:

Greatest St. Louis wrote:Just came in from a layover in Minneapolis's airport. They have freaking iPads and stuff at their awesome, non-depressing airport.


Why can't we have awesome stuff like this?

Is this some kind of backhanded jab about Lambert being depressing?

From what I have observed and others told me, they noted Lambert seems a lot less depressing now than it did some years ago. If I'm not mistaken the airport is in a lot better financial shape with the airport runway loans being paid off more and it seems traffic is increasing at least among destinations that are outside 300 miles away. Most of the cuts in the past year or so seem to be short range destinations that don't make as much sense anymore due to driving being more practical (most of Southwest's cuts from here were that and is a systemwide issue) and the closure of Delta's Memphis hub (which also is in the short range area). Makes me curious as to what improvements and new and/or expanded service will happen in the future.

With the ipad images, that reminds me. Has there been work in the airport in having more outlets and USB ports for people to charge their phones and electronics while waiting for a flight?