urbanSTL

did you notice the comment below the article? a guy proposing to offer TIF dollars to Southwest to move their HQ from Dallas to STL. I thought it made a lot of sense to me.

^ Yeah, but then Maryland Heights would offer TIF and build an airport for Southwest, only be trumped by O'Fallon (the MO one) and leave an empty runway and gleaming terminal!

Gary Kreie wrote:I think I see why AA is going out of business. Its kind of like -- we knew we were taking a loss on every unit, but we thought the volume would take care of it.



Anyone see a problem with this business model?

I bet routes like the Vegas one were running full, but full of the price-sensitive type of tourist passenger who would've decided to stay home had you charged any more.



With corporate travel departments clenching up all over the place and less folks paying beaucoup dollars for premium seats, I'm sure there's less opportunity to use those high margin products to offset their losing routes elsewhere.

courtland wrote:did you notice the comment below the article? a guy proposing to offer TIF dollars to Southwest to move their HQ from Dallas to STL. I thought it made a lot of sense to me.

That would be the ELITE StL moral boost.

I say American fed us a song-and-dance as to their intentions! I would wager that the cutbacks would've occured whether those events had happened or NOT!



That LOAD OF HOOHA that Robert Mann spewed just CONFIRMS it to ME! I could be WRONG, but REALLY...WHO SAYS that????

I think they moved the St. Louis hub to the new terminal D in Dallas. I just wonder if this was the secret plan all along when they acquired TWA, and they are slowly implementing it. I try to fly AA whenever I can and I have a ton of FF miles, but I don't think AA can continue to count on St. Louisan loyalty. The big planes of SW Airlines that skip big Dallas and Chicago hubs, which always seem to have delay problems, are looking more and more attractive.

Agree with above. I've racked up 150k miles already this year, roughly 20% southwest, 50% United, 30% AA. I'm probably sticking with SW for my domestic flights and UA for my international flights. AA cancelling more of their direct flights just bothers me. There are too many places they make me connect through DFW to get to now.

Yesterday I was at the airport on 2 separate occasions. Each time, there was a plane taking off from the "new" runway. I thought this to be unusual because a) everyone says it never gets used & b) it was a Sunday morning & mid-afternoon. Also, one was an AA and one was Continental. Is this normal?

ricke002 wrote:Yesterday I was at the airport on 2 separate occasions. Each time, there was a plane taking off from the "new" runway. I thought this to be unusual because a) everyone says it never gets used & b) it was a Sunday morning & mid-afternoon. Also, one was an AA and one was Continental. Is this normal?

Two weeks ago flying back from Toronto, the Air Canada Jazz CRJ-200 I was on landed on the new runway. I was rather surprised they're using this now.



Then last Friday (July 3rd) I see a Northwest DC-9 and AA MD-80 use that runway for takeoff.

10-intuition wrote:

ricke002 wrote:Yesterday I was at the airport on 2 separate occasions. Each time, there was a plane taking off from the "new" runway. I thought this to be unusual because a) everyone says it never gets used & b) it was a Sunday morning & mid-afternoon. Also, one was an AA and one was Continental. Is this normal?

Two weeks ago flying back from Toronto, the Air Canada Jazz CRJ-200 I was on landed on the new runway. I was rather surprised they're using this now.



Then last Friday (July 3rd) I see a Northwest DC-9 and AA MD-80 use that runway for takeoff.

Just because the airport has a runway that it doesn't need doesn't mean it can't use it. I'm sure the air traffic controllers use the runway most that is the most convenient for each plane.



Put in another way, just because a politician has a wife doesn't mean he can't have a mistress, too. Sure, he doesn't need a mistress, but as long as he has her...

Mill204 wrote:

10-intuition wrote:

ricke002 wrote:Yesterday I was at the airport on 2 separate occasions. Each time, there was a plane taking off from the "new" runway. I thought this to be unusual because a) everyone says it never gets used & b) it was a Sunday morning & mid-afternoon. Also, one was an AA and one was Continental. Is this normal?

Two weeks ago flying back from Toronto, the Air Canada Jazz CRJ-200 I was on landed on the new runway. I was rather surprised they're using this now.



Then last Friday (July 3rd) I see a Northwest DC-9 and AA MD-80 use that runway for takeoff.

Just because the airport has a runway that it doesn't need doesn't mean it can't use it. I'm sure the air traffic controllers use the runway most that is the most convenient for each plane.



Put in another way, just because a politician has a wife doesn't mean he can't have a mistress, too. Sure, he doesn't need a mistress, but as long as he has her...

Agreed, but it just seemed to be implied that the runway was "never" used because it was too far away versus the other available runways. Is there construction or disrepair on one of the more frequently used runways?

The new runway 11-29 has been used from the day it opened. Airlines at A, B, and the Western side of C terminal use it for take-offs to, or landings from the West. It reduces the taxi time.



Also, in bad weather, the new runway is used for parallel instrument approaches (PRM ILS), which couldn't be done before. Because of its lateral distance from 30L-12R no reduction in capacity is incurred.

Although the volume of traffic has diminished significantly, this new runway has proven to be a very useful and safety-enhancing asset to Lambert Airport.



If and when air travel bounces back in the (maybe long-term) future, Lambert is well positioned as far as air side operations go. Now we just need a total make-over of the land side part, i.e the terminals.

Agree with Count, Lambert with the new runway and the developable land now surrounding it (in part due to noise mitigation program & new runway) is a great long term infrastructure asset for the region. Unfortunatley, it has also made the committment to other desires a much longer endeavor, ie new terminal, better access roads, etc. without some major funding from the state or feds.



In the meantime, if they could just get the new Starbucks open in Concourse A. Anybody have an idea? Walked past the temporary wall again this monring on my way to a UA Chicago flight.



Another thought, I wish they could find a way to get the TSA baggage screens out of the Main Ticketing area.

What move? In or out?

how do we push through a change of hands from the city controlling the airport to having a regional governing board? or at LEAST st louis city/county control it. The city clearly can barely afford to run it correctly. new paint and carpet...great...

^The Mayor made mention of regional governance a couple months back in either his state of the city or swearing in.

JuiceInDogtown wrote:

zink wrote:What move? In or out?

Lambert becoming the hub for Southwest. What's the odds?

I hope this is true, though Southwest already has quite a big presence at Chicago's Midway. With this proximity I hope they move some MDW flights down to STL. Unlike AA moved much of STL's capacity to ORD and DFW, and makes us fly to ORD or DFW to connect.



Though I'd like to see other carriers come here, such as JetBlue or Virgin America.

JuiceInDogtown wrote:I saw in the print version of the STLBJ today that Southwest is considering the move. Thoughts?

What page did you see this story? I looked this morning in anticipation after reading your comment but I suppose I missed it.

it's the cover story in the BJ from 2 weeks ago...



Friday, June 26, 2009

Lambert hopes to be gateway to Southwest

St. Louis Business Journal - by Kelsey Volkmann



When Richard Hrabko learned last week that American Airlines was cutting another 18 flights from St. Louis, the first call he made was to Southwest Airlines.



“It’s not a secret that with some of these routes, Southwest may very well be interested in picking them up,” said Hrabko, director of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.



He said the airport is spending more on marketing and may expand incentives to lure carriers to gates American leaves.





http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/ ... tory1.html





It goes one to say this...





Jeff Lea, a spokesman for Lambert, said that if the American flights are restored through other airlines, it would most likely be through a patchwork of carriers instead of just one.



“I don’t think it’s realistic to say that one airline is going to gobble up and backfill what is expected to be lost from the American cutbacks,” he said. “It might be US Airways for a couple flights and Southwest for a couple flights. We have become more diversified.... You don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket.”

JuiceInDogtown wrote:

zink wrote:What move? In or out?

Lambert becoming the hub for Southwest. What's the odds?

Highly unlikely. Southwest's model does not use hubs.

Southwest does, however, use focus cities, that route a lot of point to point traffic together. I think LAS is one, and I think BWI is another. I'm not too up on Southwest, but I do know a lot of flights go through a small number of cities.

In his commentary on KWMU this morning, Tom Schlafly mentioned that when Lambert was first built, it featured a critically-acclaimed sculpture by a well-known artist. The sculpture was removed four years later to make way for expansion. Does anyone know where it is now?