urbanSTL

Thata great sight but nothing quite sexier than TWA fins:

gregl wrote: ↑

Mar 06, 2018

ricke002 wrote: ↑

Mar 06, 2018

positron wrote: ↑

Mar 06, 2018

I went through not too long ago. About to go through again at the end of the month. They made me open every single kinder surprise eggs I bought for my niece at Cancun airport and take out all the little toys. Luckily I was able to put them all together once I passed the check.

Maybe they were looking for a specific toy?

No, Kinder Eggs are banned in the United States under a law not allowing food products which contain non-food products.

http://metro.co.uk/2017/10/04/why-are-k ... a-6976543/

News to me, Hy-Vee and Target...

https://www.hy-vee.com/grocery/PD454558 ... -Joy-Candy
https://www.target.com/p/kinder-joy-eas ... A-52946420

RuskiSTL wrote: ↑

Mar 07, 2018

matguy70 wrote: ↑

Mar 07, 2018

Flying yesterday to LAX, tails and more tails in Terminal 2.

Thata great sight but nothing quite sexier than TWA fins:

I'm sorry for off topic... Kinder joy is fake stuff..lol...They have two separate compartments, one with chocolate, the other with toy. Kinder egg is chocolate shell with yolk being casing with small pieces toy that you put together.

Kinder Joy


Kinder Surprise Egg



I was however aware that they are off limits, but figure out that people bring them over all the time.

framer wrote: ↑

Mar 07, 2018

RuskiSTL wrote: ↑

Mar 07, 2018

matguy70 wrote: ↑

Mar 07, 2018

Flying yesterday to LAX, tails and more tails in Terminal 2.

Thata great sight but nothing quite sexier than TWA fins:

I think TWA with the golden globe wins. Ozark tail fin looks like a big scratch and sniff sticker.

^Bunch of dang show offs with your TWA and Ozark pics.

Gorgeous all. I must confess. I wish I'd shot more TWA back in the day, but I just didn't really get serious about photography until I'd moved to Columbia. And by the time I came back the airport was gutted. Getting better now. Even if the Southwest fins are . . . sort of orange . . . I'll take them.

You pulled out from a better gate than me to get a picture of the whole shebang, but . . .



(That and I was probably trying to get too arty.)

And I do have a bit of TWA. Not as many tails, but you can't beat a 1011 headed to Frankfurt (via JFK.)



Anyway, hope you had a great flight.

As much as I am happy Southwest is here, I miss seeing all the different types of planes from the old TWA days.

Another note Southwest extended their schedule today through October. Nothing new, which isn't surprising since it was only a month extension and Hartford just got added. I did notice Panama City is still on the schedule (Saturday only). It is usually cut by now so this may end up being a year round route now on Saturdays. Daily during the summer. I'll post a frequency update later on.

Sadly, it seems that the era of distinctive aircraft is quickly slipping away at nearly every airport. I'm not sure why T-tails and fuselage mounted engines are so out of fashion. I get why third and fourth engines are something of a liability. Sure, there are stall characteristics peculiar to T-tails. But there are advantages too. And we've managed to work around them safely for fifty years now, more or less. And engines not under the wings have some real advantages. Probably also costs. Still . . . it is sad making. Sure. Aerodynamics are universal physical law. And that moves things in tandem. But man, one little sidestep would be nice. The world's very most special paint tends to get stale after a while. It is just paint, after all. But a different configuration? Always fresh. I digress. But it's great to see the pictures and thanks for the updates.

^Love your late night rantings, SP.

2000

framer wrote: ↑

Mar 09, 2018

^Love your late night rantings, SP.

Sorry. Yes. I get a little off topic as the hour grows later. Jshank made me do it. Him or Billy Busch. Or both.

Anyone here make it to STL for the PBI inaugural yesterday?

Not sure how many of you have flown AA long haul recently, but in their boarding sequence on the in-flight monitors on the 777-300 they display a series of global cities and skylines. Yesterday flew LHR-JFK and they displayed St. Louis in the sequence. Also, in the in-flight display, they have a visitors guide for St. Louis accessible via the route map.

Cool to see.

Chalupas54 wrote: ↑

Mar 12, 2018

Not sure how many of you have flown AA long haul recently, but in their boarding sequence on the in-flight monitors on the 777-300 they display a series of global cities and skylines. Yesterday flew LHR-JFK and they displayed St. Louis in the sequence. Also, in the in-flight display, they have a visitors guide for St. Louis accessible via the route map.

Cool to see.

Isn't this doubly odd since there is no STL-JFK offered so you wouldn't be using JFK as a connecting point to here.

Added note: Curious if Southwest going 4x daily to Boston in the fall a permanent add or not? they only had it in peak summer before. Is this a preemptive defense move in case someone else jumps in? Though it could be either demand growing fast, lack of competition compared to most other routes from Boston, and/or increase in feed here requires more flights. The last might be since a number of the largest unserved routes from Boston by anyone is some of the shorthaul places that would connect here. Also there seems to be possibly building up flight banks for cross country travel with increases in frequency to ease and west coast places.

Air Force One will be in town Wednesday for those of you who like plane spotting. Doing a speech at Boeing.

imperialmog wrote: ↑

Mar 12, 2018

Chalupas54 wrote: ↑

Mar 12, 2018

Not sure how many of you have flown AA long haul recently, but in their boarding sequence on the in-flight monitors on the 777-300 they display a series of global cities and skylines. Yesterday flew LHR-JFK and they displayed St. Louis in the sequence. Also, in the in-flight display, they have a visitors guide for St. Louis accessible via the route map.

Cool to see.

Isn't this doubly odd since there is no STL-JFK offered so you wouldn't be using JFK as a connecting point to here.

Added note: Curious if Southwest going 4x daily to Boston in the fall a permanent add or not? they only had it in peak summer before. Is this a preemptive defense move in case someone else jumps in? Though it could be either demand growing fast, lack of competition compared to most other routes from Boston, and/or increase in feed here requires more flights. The last might be since a number of the largest unserved routes from Boston by anyone is some of the shorthaul places that would connect here. Also there seems to be possibly building up flight banks for cross country travel with increases in frequency to ease and west coast places.

Been on there for a little bit, the last cycle had Boston, Los Angeles and of course several of the hubs (including Charlotte )

AA's IFE content is licensed and provided by a company called Spafax and then loaded onto the system onboard the aircraft (in this case on the 777 fleet it's a Panasonic system)

The 77W/777-300ER moves across the LAA system and touches several hubs with direct service to STL:

DFW (GRU, HKG, LHR [x2])
LAX (HKG, LHR)
MIA (EZE, GRU, LHR)

I noticed that Delta has been using gate A9, to offload, for at least the last week for their flight from SLC that gets in around midnight. Good to see that gate getting some use, even if it is once a day. It means every gate in A that has a jetway is getting some regular use now.

A bit of an in the right place at the right time thing- The full reopening of Concourse D to reconnect things is being strongly considered and planned for right now. That's not just a rumor. It's from a primary source.

I complied the PDEW numbers for the 3rd qtr of 2017 into a database. These are one way numbers.

These seem to be a pretty good indicator of what nonstops we have been getting. Sacramento (79 per day) was the highest without a nonstop when it was added and Hartford (61 per day) was the 2nd highest when it was added.

Highest PDEW without a nonstop
Jacksonville, FL 63 passengers per day (Allegiant runs this round to BLV but its numbers are not included)
Norfolk, VA 56 passengers per day
Richmond, VA 45 passengers per day

Destinations with a 20+ passenger increase from STL (3rd qtr 2016 vs 3rd qtr 2017)

Atlanta, GA +46 10.17%
San Diego, CA +36 16.70%
Miami, FL +35 15.99%
Austin, TX +32 23.53%
Denver, CO +24 3.89%
Boston, MA +22 6.08%
Charleston, SC +20 37.61%
Tampa, FL +20 10.91%
Phoenix, AZ +20 7.11%

Destinations with a 20+ passenger decrease from STL (3rd qtr 2016 vs 3rd qtr 2017)

Houston, TX -27 -9.37%
Dallas/Fort Worth, TX -28 -4.95%
Chicago, IL -35 -6.01%
Las Vegas, NV -37 -7.78%
Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN -38 -10.71%
Los Angeles, CA -46 -7.14%



Qtr3-2017 tab has the years worth of numbers listed then averaged
2016-2017 3rd qtr comparison compares the 3rd qtr of 2016 to 3rd of 2017.



I also am working on adding the December 2016 Load Factors to finalize my 2016 spreadsheet. Might be a couple more days, I got a new puppy which has been taking up a lot of my free time at night.

jshank83 wrote: ↑

Mar 27, 2018

Good to hear! I had heard rumors but nothing substantial on it. Glad to have someone else hear it from a source they trust. I would think if Southwest wants anymore gates that it would put them far enough down D to really consider it opening it all back up.

Sorry for the naive question here, I hardly fly Southwest, much less fly at all. But can Terminal 2 TSA handle that much expansion? I realize they're already halfway there but I've heard T2 TSA can get bad at times. I know that T2 vehicular traffic is already a disaster at times.

Side note: I've only flown Southwest once, my plane landed in STL at 8:00 am on a Monday morning. It was crowded but in a good way. A great sight to see.

aprice wrote: ↑

Mar 28, 2018

jshank83 wrote: ↑

Mar 27, 2018

Good to hear! I had heard rumors but nothing substantial on it. Glad to have someone else hear it from a source they trust. I would think if Southwest wants anymore gates that it would put them far enough down D to really consider it opening it all back up.

Sorry for the naive question here, I hardly fly Southwest, much less fly at all. But can Terminal 2 TSA handle that much expansion? I realize they're already halfway there but I've heard T2 TSA can get bad at times. I know that T2 vehicular traffic is already a disaster at times.

Side note: I've only flown Southwest once, my plane landed in STL at 8:00 am on a Monday morning. It was crowded but in a good way. A great sight to see.

If D were fully opened again, wouldn't flyers be able to use the T1 TSA check?