TravisNC

We just moved to Burlington from Rocky Mount about a month ago and went to Greensboro today to visit Edward McKay's bookstore (sorry the Raleigh location closed). We found some great books and movies and then drove through downtown. I was really impressed with all the shops, restaurants, and bars on Elm Street! We'll definitely have to make another trip over there soon! I'm also excited to explore the rest of the Triad...Winston-Salem, High Point, Pilot Mountain, Thomasville, etc.

Man that's too bad. I wonder how long before AA drops SDF. I wonder what they'll do with those planes if they do stop. Will they use them on other RDU routes or move them somewhere else?

I'm sceptical that Virgin America would ever fly to RDU. And like you said if they do it won't be for several more years. They'll probably fly the same overserved routes everyone else flies (SFO-JFK, EWR, IAD, BOS, PHL, MIA, MCO, ORD, etc.) As far as United goes... RDU's three biggest unserved markets are LAX, SFO, and DEN (though Delta's is starting LAX). LAX, SFO, and DEN happen to be three of United's hubs. Wouldn't it make sense to bring mainline back to RDU and fly to all of these cities once daily (maybe twice for DEN or LAX). After reading a.net for a few years I've decided that I'll never understand airlines.

You're welcome. Yes, that's me. I don't post a lot at on any of the boards (SSP, Skyscraper City, airliners.net, or here), but I read them all daily to keep up with what's going on. Who are you over at a.net?

Here's the old proposal for Terminal A. Even though Terminal A needs to be remodeled more than C, I'm glad they're going ahead with C. Terminal C's design is so much more dramatic and interesting than what they were planning for A.

It's less than daily during the winter (slow season). I think it was 5x weekly this past winter. Lufthansa also decreases Los Angeles, Boston, and San Francisco during the same time.

Now that's a good idea. I hadn't thought of that. I forgot about that. It wouldn't be so bad if they chose a brand Charlotte doesn't have like Radisson, Conrad, Loews, or Intercontinental.

I really wish they wouldn't convert the Hyatt into condos! It's the only Hyatt in all of North Carolina. If they want condos why can't they build a new building. That way we could have the Hyatt and still have condos.

Actually Mexicana left/was thrown out of the Star Alliance before they applied for CLT service. Mexicana left on March 31, 2004. They didn't apply for CLT-MEX until November 30, 2004 (and Guadalajara on 1/3/05). But, I don't think they're coming anytime soon either. They were approved for service to both cities less than a month after they applied and they're still not flying to CLT. However in Nov & Dec of last year they applied to have their exemptions to fly the routes extended, so maybe CLT is still in the cards. It would be cool to have another International airline at CLT. Let's bring back British Airways while we're at it. Here's where I got the dates/info if anyone's interested: Mexico City http://dms.dot.gov/search/searchResultsAdv...chType=document Guadalajara http://dms.dot.gov/search/searchResultsAdv...chType=document

They've announced plans for four new Bloomingdale's so far, though you may not have included them because they might open before the SF Bloomingdale's is finished. I don't really know the exact dates. Robinsons-May, South Coast Plaza Robinsons-May, Fashion Valley Center (San Diego) Filene's, Chestnut Hill (Boston) Hecht's, Chevy Chase (under construction, will open as Bloomingdales instead) Source: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?...8787&highlight= (about 3/4 down the page) However, having said all that, I don't think Charlotte will get a Bloomingdale's anytime soon. I would be great if they did, but there are several larger metros without Bloomingdale's that would probably get them before Charlotte (Detroit, Dallas, Houston, Seattle, Phoenix, etc.)

Thank's guys! San Francisco, Union Square - 250,000 (expanding from 195,000) Houston, Galleria - 224,000 Dallas, Northpark - 218,000 Chicago, Michigan Avenue - 188,000 Beverly Hills, Wilshire Blvd - 185,000 Honolulu, Ala Moana Center - 181,000 Las Vegas, Fashion Show - 174,000 Troy (Detroit), Somerset Collection - 157,000 Plano (Dallas), Willow Bend - 156,000 Atlanta, Lenox Square - 154,000 Here are the links to the PDFs where I go this information: Neiman-Marcus (page 16/18): http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/...NMG_2004_AR.pdf Federated (Macy's, Bloomingdale's) (starting page 41): http://www.federated-fds.com/ir/vote/2005_fact_book.pdf May (starting page 7): http://www2.mayco.com/common/2004arp/2005_fb_full.pdf Nordstrom (starting page 28/52): http://library.corporate-ir.net/library/93...662/2004_AR.pdf I've never been able to find a list like this for Saks, Belk, or Dillards. If anyone knows where to find them let us know. Charlotte's Nordstrom isn't really that small. 65 Nordstroms are larger, 38 are smaller, and 3 are the same size.

There's some interesting information in that post, but the Belk at SouthPark is larger than the Bloomingdale's in Boca Raton. Belk-SP is 329,000 sq. ft. and Bloomingdale's-BR is 270,000 sq. ft. Also, the Charlotte NM will be the second/third smallest store (tied with Austin's opening 2007), but it's not much smaller than most of the NM stores in Florida. Of course the Miami area has 5 stores that make up for their smaller size. 10 Smallest Neiman-Marcus stores: San Diego, Fashion Valley Center - 106,000 Boston, Natick Mall - 100,000 Miami, Bal Harbour Shops - 97,000 Tampa, International Plaza - 96,000 Orlando, Mall at Millenia - 95,000 Ft. Lauderdale, Galleria Mall - 94,000 Denver, Cherry Creek Mall - 90,000 Austin, The Domain - 80,000 Charlotte, South Park Mall - 80,000 Palm Beach, Worth Avenue - 53,000

Here are some numbers. I got them from the Federated and May Fact Books: http://www.federated-fds.com/ir/vote/2005_fact_book.pdf http://www2.mayco.com/common/2004arp/2005_fb_full.pdf Full line Bloomingdale's range from 122,000 sq. ft. to 935,000 sq. ft. The average is 233,472 sq. ft. Macy's range from 2,000 sq. ft.(Honolulu Jewel Gallery) to 2,168,000 sq. ft. The average is 177,890 sq. ft. Both averages include some specialty Macy's/Bloomingdale's that sell furniture only, jewelry only, etc. I didn't include the overlapping stores that Federated is closing. Here are the NC stores in question. Hecht's: Southpark (Charlotte) - 200,000 Streets at Southpoint (Durham) - 180,000 Triangle Town Center (Raleigh)- 180,000 Crabtree (Raleigh) - 175,000 Northlake (Charlotte) - 165,000 Hanes (Winston-Salem)- 154,000 Northgate (Durham) - 152,000 Carolina Place (Charlotte) - 150,000 Friendly Center (Greensboro) - 148,000 Wendover Place (Greensboro) - 140,000 Mayfaire Town Center (Wilmington) - 140,000 Cross Creek Mall (Fayetteville) - 133,000 Cary Towne Center (Cary) - 105,000 Lord & Taylor: Crabtree - 98,000

They're leaving Miami, Des Moines, Madison, & Springfield, IL too. I think I read at airliners.net that the judge in charge of the bankrupcy will decide on Thursday whether Southwest or AirTran will get to buy part of the company.

Right. I would have put the NC at the end, but I didn't since this is in the Charlotte section and I didn't think about it.

I think I'm more worried about Greenville, Jacksonville, and New Bern than Charlotte if US Airways liqudates. They'll loose all their air service if US Airways stops flying since US is the only airline at those airports. They may have a chance at getting Delta, but as we know Delta's not doing well either. US is the only airline at several other airports along the East Coast. Sure Charlotte will loose nonstop flights to dozens of cities, but other airlines will come in to fill the void by flying to the top destinations out of CLT.

It also gives people from Charlotte the ability to connect to the 13 European destinations that Delta serves from JFK and to Delta's Skyteam partners Air France, Alitalia, Czech Airlines, Korean Air, and others.

You heard correctly. Delta's going from 254 flights/day to 69 destinations at Dallas to 21 flights/day to 3 destinations (Atlanta, Cincinnati, Salt Lake City, all Delta hubs). However, in that announcement was news that they're starting several new flights including many to NC: Asheville - Orlando --- 1 additional Flight/Day --- Total of 1 F/D on Delta (not flown by any other airline) Charlotte - New York (JFK) --- 2 additional F/D --- Total of 2 F/D on Delta (not flown by any other airline) Greensboro - Fort Lauderdale --- 2 additional F/D --- Total of 2 F/D on Delta (not flown by any other airline) Greensboro - New York (JFK) --- 1 additional F/D --- Total of 3 F/D on Delta (not flown by any other airline) Greensboro - Tampa --- 2 additional F/D --- Total of 2 F/D on Delta (not flown by any other airline) Raleigh - Boston --- 1 additional F/D --- Total of 4 F/D on Delta (also flown by American) Raleigh - Ft. Lauderdale --- 3 additional F/D --- Total of 5 F/D on Delta (also flown by American and US Airways) Raleigh - Orlando --- 1 additional F/D --- Total of 6 F/D on Delta (also flown by American, Southwest, and US Airways) Raleigh - Tampa --- 2 additional F/D --- Total of 2 F/D on Delta (also flown by Southwest) I hope they'll be around long enough to actually run these flights.

US Airways does fly from CLT to Washington Dulles. They have 6 daily flights (4 on Sat). Also, United flies the route 4 times daily. It's still good news for Charlotte though. Finally there's another LCC airline in town. The only other one is ATA with 4 flights to Chicago-Midway. Hopefully this can help lower fares some and increase local traffic (O&D). In other CLT aviation news, US Airways is going to start flying to Barbados and Liberia, Costa Rica from CLT in February 2005. Once those flights start CLT will have nonstop flights to 27 international destinations (124 destinations total).

It's a tiny picture, but I think this is it. I have a feeling the new proposal won't be nearly as impressive as the old one.

They're from the Department of Transportation: Office of Aviation Analysis from the 3rd Quarter of 2003. They're the latest numbers I know of. http://ostpxweb.dot.gov/aviation/X-50%20Ro...rfarereport.htm If you click on "Table 6" it will show a list of all the city pairs with at least 10 passengers/day. It's really hard to read unless you import it in to a spreadsheet program like Excel. If you don't see a particular city pair then look in the section for the other city. For instance Charlotte-Boston is listed under Boston only. These numbers won't give the total O&D since they don't include city pairs with less than 10 passengers/day (both ways), but at least they're fairly close and each airport is proportional to the others. I don't think that could account for the 6,600+ difference in our numbers. It's also important to remember that the numbers change each quarter. Here are the numbers for the past 6 quarters: Q2 2002 12,531 Q3 2002 12,424 Q4 2002 11,813 Q1 2003 10,144 Q2 2003 12,180 Q3 2003 11,324 Where did you find the 18,000 number? I'm always interested in finding more info on O&D statistics.

I think Charlotte's O&D would be a lot higher if US Airways didn't have a strangle hold on CLT. Take Raleigh/Durham for example it has higher O&D than the following cities, even though it's smaller than they are, because it has 4 low cost carriers (LCCs) flying to 10 airports to keep the majors in check and no one carrier completely dominates the airport. [B]Airport O&D passengers per day[/B] Raleigh/Durham 17,336 Pittsburgh 15,723 (dominated by US Airways) Cleveland 15,596 (dominated by Continental) Charlotte 11,324 (dominated by US Airways) Cincinnati 9,205 (dominated by Delta) Memphis 7,498 (dominated by Northwest) Richmond 4,597 (no LCC presence, big 6 airlines only) Note: I just choose some cities that had unusually low O&D for their size. Charlotte, Cincinnati, and Richmond are always among the most expensive airports to fly from.

The only airline I know of that has higher costs than US Airways is the new Independence Air/ACA whose CASM (cost per available seat mile) is around $.22. That's about twice US Airways' costs ($.10). It's very true that they may not make it, but at least, as things stand now, they don't have any plans to reduce flights at CLT. Even if US Airways does stop operating given CLT's extremely low cost for airlines to operate there I can't help but think that some airline would make at least a focus operation. Here are the costs for some random airports from Leigh Fisher Associates, an aviation consulting firm, via the Pittsburgh Business Times: Cost per boarding passenger: DEN - ~$10.00 PHL - $7.55 PIT - $7.26 (~$9 according to US Airways) STL - $4.06 CVG - $3.53 CLT - $1.30 Charlotte's costs will get a little cheaper too since the airport is starting a Passenger Facilities Charge of $3 to pay for the expansion and to reduce airline costs. I'm trying to be an optimist about the whole situation, but US Airways is making it hard.

This is a quote from the US Airways Update, an employee newsletter, that was posted at airliners.net. I seems the plan is to keep CLT a hub and possibly increase domestic and international flights. Charlotte:

You're so right! I don't mind Skylinesbest, but the Miami-airport-enthusiast-guy is constantly boosting the Miami airport and trashing Charlotte and Charlotte-Douglas airport. He's on just about every forum I read ssp.com, airliners.net, usaviation.com. At least he sometimes comes to the defense of Raleigh's airport. You guys are right, A&F is listed on the web sites for SouthPark mall and Carolina Place mall. I don't know why they don't list them on the A&F web site. They could loose sales like that.