clt29301

Awesome, does someone expect folks to believe that executives of a large company are going to share secrets with a stranger at a hotel? Charlotte's airport will be fine, AA is expanding and construction will not stop at CLT for a long time. And, metro Charlotte should be over 3m residents within 10 years. The economics, location and cost structure of the airport are too good to ignore for AA.

You're fine. There are a few who would cite a new door in PHL as evidence that it is more important to AA than CLT.....even though CLT is expanding by over $1b. As for international, the SA flights surprised me when they were initiated so I was not surprised to see them go and Miami makes sense in this respect. A lot of the European flights make sense with the large concentration of Euro businesses in the Carolinas. And, I am not sold that an airline would run 700 flights into an airport and not offer some international service, that logically makes as much sense as a Miami southeast hub. Besides, new aircraft products make the smaller large cities more profitable as an international gateway as shown by The BA flight between London and Austin. Anyway, the folks who are making the decisions are not talking and certainly not telling strangers in hotels proprietary information as some have suggested.

The top employers in Miami are government related, the finance sector is very small at less than 10% of total employment. The largest sector is trade & transit related to the port. Miami is a large metro but not a business center with a lot of Fortune 500 HQ (4). This thread is interesting to read, PHL makes improvements to the airport and this is a barometer of future air service.........couple of thoughts, what condition was the cargo facility, who paid for the improvements, and how was financing arranged. Some on here use the most minute details to argue that Charlotte is on the brink of collapse but completely ignore basic demographics and the changes in aircraft.

Retail follows rooftops.......as strange as it may sound for SouthPark, the infusion of apartments into the district will change some of the retail/restaurant offerings. In turn, the proximity to jobs in the office towers and new/existing retail makes this an appealing place for more than just the younger crowd. Sharon Square is 33% leased with construction still ongoing. SouthPark will not be a hip/cool area to live, not all desirable areas are hip/cool, but it has been a success and still remains one of the most desirable areas to live in Charlotte. That is why apartments are being developed in the district and up Park Road all of which list proximity to Southapark as the reason to live there. I am only surprised at how long it took AAC to better utilize the land......could have been the bankruptcy. Will be interesting to see what is developed behind Sharon Towers and how some older properties are redeveloped.

I agree that we need to discuss matters in a respectful way. But, instead of making veiled implications based on one flight and talking to an employee.....I talk to them a lot......I think we need to understand broader business/ economic realities which I have stated before. For me, that takes precedence over station manager, others may disagree. I think it is disrespectful when poster stake a position and then refuse to listen to anyone else.

The point of the 787 is that the efficiency allows airlines to serve additional markets like London-Austin. With that in mind, markets that don't work for Charlotte today may work with the 787, that is an easy concept to understand. As for the new terminal, unfit costs for the building a few years out are a lot cheaper than building it out today. Since bonds and inflation are inversely related, a rise in inflation should reduce the airport interest. So, I don't see a lot of negatives to waiting or would read into it anything more than timing and US demand. Are you really posting on the John Loke sites? If so, that would explain you incredibly negative and dismal views of Charlotte. The positive, John Locke is rarely right about Charlotte......this is the same group who said light rail would not be used. Not sure about your flight but based on what I see and know, Charlotte-Paris load factors are good, a lot better than you imply. And, by looking at the future, if your flight was that light, it was an aberration.

Will this park be completed in less time than Bearden Park?

Interesting that only 55 people were on board when a quick look at next week's flights carry a high price and 40 seats are sold(all of 1st class) for Paris in the first 8 -10 rows. If you were that lucky, buy lottery tickets. As for the terminal, as long as the infrastructure is in place, moving this to an international terminal at some point is not terribly hard to do. Besides, the cost CLT saves up front will more than pay for the cost later, especially considering the money factor. No big deal. That being said, I do think we are a few years out from needing a dedicated international terminal. But, with aircraft like the787 coming online more, linking Charlotte to more places is economical.

I agree with you Airnos, I have not seen anything that would suggest shifting a lot of traffic to DFW, ORD, and PHL makes a ton of sense. And, as a result, Charlotte's traffic will remain at or near current levels. In investor presentations, AA talks about increasing revenue in large part be adding seats to current aircraft. In addition, they are taking delivery of new aircraft which produce higher margins, 42 787's by 2018, A350's thereafter. Of course network rationalization will occur but it will also occur in Chicago. Miami makes little sense as a domestic hub (i agree that it is a SA gateway), and PHL just is not a growth market overall and makes little sense to route southern traffic there to locations outside of the northeast. Charlotte benefits are low cost, above averge growth, strong business service, over 7m residents within 100 miles and the only viable alternative in the south to ATL......one of the largest and fastest growing regions of the country. I understand the routing but ignoring the demographics just because it is easy to connect traffic through ORD is a poor business decision. There are a lot of hubs that have survived with less favorable demographics than Charlotte. In the short term, I think it is easy for CLT to keep London, Frankfurt, Munich, Paris......long term, I could see us adding Rome and maybe a couple of other cities. Why, newer aircraft make smaller markets more viable And Charlotte/the Carolina's are just growing rapidly in population and business. And, does it really make sense to route the southern market to PHL for European service? If that is the only option, most in the south would opt for connecting in a more familiar airport, ATL (and Delta), not sure AA wants to give up a market of over 70m residents ( not including Texas) to Delta for international service.

Lloyd, help me a little, are you now suggesting that AA is going to cut Charlotte's hub by using the tax excuse? And, I have asked before but you constantly use one metric as a basis for cutting service, O&D. Using one metric to base decisions is a terrible business plan, AA could raise the O&D factor by reducing prices. Atlanta has a low O&D factor, there is more to life than one metric. AA will not be a success by cutting their flights especially leaving the fast growing southeastern market to Delta. How would this merger be a success by leaving a fast growing region with a large population to Delta while building up a slow growth market like Phil? you may respond by saying this is not what you are saying which is part of the point, your posts are slanted towards trashing Charlotte without substantiative facts, not sure what you think. Working at Loyds is nice but it does not make me believe someone who is posting newspaper materials as reference. In the short term, Charlotte should retain London, Frankfurt, Munich and Paris. Longer term, especially with planes like the 787, other European markets are more viable.

First Loyd, I am not believing chamber hype, I am using business logic, something you have not done. Second , you misread my list about Philly, you said they are down to 25 - 30 flights per day, that is completely wrong. Third, Atlanta O&D, you misread the post, Atlanta has a low O&D percentage wise ...not 4x CLT. You have posted forever about CLT O&D as being the main reason why international will not work, well, that is one metric in a sea of many that AA will review when planning routes so, you are being way too simplistic, almost like buying a stock and only looking at stock price. Asia, Atlanta has Asian flights so the backtracking theory is not relevant. As I said, Charlotte is a good hub for AA and will have more international service than the small number you suggest. If you are going to hijack a thread, please do more than read headlines to us.

MC....is AA getting the 787 as well as the A350? If so, how will those planes be incorporated into the schedule? Will Paris go year round?

I think using only the O&D numbers as support for arguing that Charlotte will be stripped to a domestic hub is way too simplistic. For one, Atlanta's O&D is not as high as much smaller cities like Las Vegas, they have a lot of international flights so there is more to it than that. However, you need to understand the market and growth to get a feel for what may happen. Charlotte is growing rapidly, it is above average in wealth, it has a lot of international companies within 100 miles and the list can go on, 7m residents within 100 miles, 16m residents in the Carolinas, fortune 500 company HQs, etc..... Does that mean we will be a large international gateway, not in the near future. But, based on the international business in the Carolinas, I would expect to see non stops to London, Frankfurt, Munich (for BMW, Siemens, Bosch etc.), Paris (even Cincinnati has non stop to Paris), and possibly Rome in the next few years. After 2020, who knows, the 4th parallel runway will be in and if cities like Denver & Minneapolis can support Asian flights, Charlotte is not out of the question. As for SWA in Philadelphia, if you look, they have about 25-30 arrivals scheduled in a short block on a Sunday night, not sure I see them at 25 daily flights from Philly. When I read your posts, the only thing I see is you cheerfully reading the headlines to us about international flights being cancelled in Charlotte. Not sure if that is your intent but if you said why other than using one metric and business logic, I think your story may be better received.

It is interesting to read the posts in this thread concerning international air service from CLT. It is clear that some think service will be contained to a handful of cities and nothing more, almost cheering the loss of air service. Honestly, I have not seen a lot of factual information which would suggest this to be the direction of airlines or good business long term. Brazil does not surprise me and I would expect to see AA run S American flights from Miami. But, Europe and Mexico.....not sure I buy it. For one, there is a lot of international business within the 16m Carolina residents. But, more importantly, as I read more about the 787, a common theme I see is that it allows airlines to service smaller metros (not small metros) but smaller ones like British Airways is doing with London-Austin or Air Canada is doing with their new 787 planes. American has a number of 787s on order and may take some A350 planes. CLT is pushing ahead with the 4th parallel runway which will be long enough to serve Asian flights. Now, if you can take the new terminal being mostly domestic as a sign of declining international flights, you could just as easily see the new runway as a sign of long term growth in international service. There is a lot of international air service in metro's which are materially the same size as Charlotte absent the growth rates. From a business perspective, there is a disconnection is saying Charlotte is destined to lose service while other metros won't be affected. One question I have is whether Philadelphia makes sense as a hub long term. It is close to NYC and SWA has made strong inroads into the market, it is a question worth asking. Lufthansa has said numerous times that they are here to stay with a very profitable flight. One thing about German business, they generally don't talk for the fun of it. If they say it is staying, I believe them.....it is was a US airline, that's another story.

When is construction starting on the hotel/apartment tower?

Lloyd......I understand economics, you don't seem to understand my questions. And, that is ok. You have written nothing more than your speculation based on the limited logic you want to employ. You said Paris was not profitable because they tried it in 2000 and 2010. Well, as I said, they are not relevant benchmarks for today. If you think so, sorry. As for crowded airports......you missed my point. Bottom line is this, I doubt anyone on here knows the margins by route and are just speculating. Mergers are about gaining efficiencies but they are also about increasing revenue, leveraging assets, and expanding markets. Equity analysts don't just look at merger savings, they look at increased revenue, margins, opportunity costs, and many more metrics that would only bore you..... Seems as though you are only interested in trying to explain why Charlotte should fail instead of logically talking through the points. You have said that AA could shift these routes to larger hubs but failed to explain why United has not done this with Denver....only marginally larger than Charlotte. Only time will tell where this thing is headed and by the way, Charlotte is a crowded airport which makes a ton of money for AA.

And, Colorado as a state only has 5.2m residents. Charlotte has over 7m residents within a 100 mile radius. I know there are smaller airports like GSP but they have a small number of flights..even SWA is struggling to make it at GSP. So, I don't see this as a big issue when looking at Denver. Lloyd.....you are right, if the Lufthansa flight becomes unprofitable, it will go away. That is not the point, BMW likes having the flight because they use it therefore helps make it profitable. The issue with US/AA was addressed earlier this year when Lufthansa said they would keep the flight and would work with US/AA to have feeder traffic to the flight at Charlotte. Any opinion about the merger results are pure speculation at this point. For years, people suggested that the next bank merger would result in BofA moving the HQ to Boston, NYC, SF, St Louis or name the city. In the end, it did not happen. With the US/AA merger, whether you are in the industry or not, unless you are in the strategy rooms with Parker, you may as well be guessing the ceiling of Tesla's stock price. I just don't buy the gloom and doom about Charlotte's international traffic. As I said earlier, Charlotte is not much smaller than Denver on a metro basis and much larger when you go out 100 miles. Denver seems to be sustaining a lot of service which makes it unrealistic to suggest Charlotte's traffic will be routed through JFK, PHL, and what ever else airport you can name. You could easily argue that United could use SFO, ORD, Houston and others instead of Denver which is not the case. The metrics that come into play when deciding routes are airport slots, expense, available aircraft (and optional routes), load factors, freight etc.....to simply say that because now PHL, JFK, DFW and Miami are now in with US Airways so Charlotte's international service must be cut as a result is not sound logic, especially considering Charlotte is the 2nd largest hub in the new airline. To say these things is not claiming the world revolves around Charlotte. But, to say that flights must leave Charlotte because of PHL, JFK, etc....is not a sound argument against leaving these flights in Charlotte. For instance (and only an example for illustrative purposes), if PHL has too many flights per day to Rome, why move the Charlotte flight to compete in a overcrowded market. If you do, you are only going to sell the seats at a discount which reduces the margin. At those levels, the flight at 70% capacity may be better out of Charlotte. With regards to Paris, 2000 was a long time ago to base current opinions and 2010 was not far from the great recession, again, not a good basis to make a call on whether the flight is sustainable.

Not sure I like this sculpture, looks like something from a transformer movie.

There is a perception that Charlotte is driven by banking which is good and bad. I like to see our city listed as a large finance center but I would also like to see it expanding the employment base as it currently is doing. I agree that our start up culture could be better but the tech sector is stronger than it appears. The problem that I see is that our city does not try to brand the tech sector. Charleston has a very small tech sector but has branded the city as Silicon Harbor in an attempt to make the city sound much better than reality. For Charlotte, we need to be more aggressive in promoting this sector of the economy. We are not the Triangle but the sector that is her is much larger than perception, especially if you start looking at the development work that happens at WFC, BA and others.

When I read these threads, some posters make Charlotte out to be an airport that is lucky to have service at all. I am not in the airline industry and don't read the aviation websites. But, from a comparative perspective, Charlotte is not materially smaller than Denver Colorado (who has a lot more airlines) and is much larger when you draw a 100 mile circle around the airport. Charlotte has a large business sector and is growing at rates that put us in the top ranks of American cities. So, based on this and the increased orders for large aircraft, I am not convinced that Charlotte's international services will be reduced to a handful of European Capitals. I understand the local traffic numbers but that only tells me there is a market that is not being served properly. Lufthansa should do well in spite of the One World Alliance change. They are working with US/AA to feed traffic to the flight in Charlotte. And, I am sure the BMW folks like the flight from their hometown to an airport within 100 miles of their largest assembly plant. The biggest surprise to me is that Paris not a year round flight.

I agree with you. Reading these posts makes SP sound like a mall barely hanging on to stay open.

Kind of sad that reputation makes up so much of these rankings which is why I think they are garbage. Unfortunately, you can't ignore them unless you are an Ivey League School, Sanford etc.... On the bright side, I saw some of the Moore School peer reviews and they were much better than I thought. Most businees leaders and business school deans listed Carolina as a peer of schools like UNC, UVA, UGA, UF, UT and others.

I agree, our endowment should be at least $1b. We have a lot of work to do in order to move that forward. But, I like the direction. The capital campaign is a start, I am sure it won't stop at $1b. Does anyone know the results of the board meeting today. On the agenda, the new law school was up for discussion/vote (not sure for what...construction I hope,), the new indoor/outdoor practice facility, the Williams Brice Plaza and other projects. The last time I spoke with someone at the law school, they expected construction to start this year.

It looks like this thread has both new restaurants and reviews of existing restaurants. Personally, Motor Supply is one of my favorite restaurants in SC, including Charleston. I would have no trouble eating there 7 days a week (with the occasional visit to Pawleys). And, to add, Basil will be a terrific addtion to Columbia. The ones in Charleston and Charlotte are outstanding.

What are the plans for Russell House? I read that with the student population growth, Russell House will need to be enlarged by about 160k sq feet. Is that even on the drawing board at this point? When will the new student health center begin construction?