CltFlyer

Breaking news from the official CLT twitter account!!! https://twitter.com/CLTAirport/status/1509901292172361734?s=20&t=qtfuiXZ3HDiBl-kaW1z_lg "BREAKING NEWS: Chief Operating Officer Jack Christine announces all construction at the Airport has been completed." Happy April Fools Day!

Several new local establishments are coming to CLT. https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2022/03/31/clt-adding-sycamore-brewing-new-dining-choices.html Sycamore Brewing has already been announced with the new E extension. "That location will allow travelers to grab a bite to eat and enjoy Sycamore favorites such as Mountain Candy IPA or Southern Girl Blonde Ale as well as seasonal offerings. The food menu will feature appetizers, salads, burgers, pizzas and entrees. Full-service breakfast will also be served there. The space features a dine-in area that accommodates 53 customers, as well as a horseshoe bar with 20 seats." Also, Commonspace at the D/E connector (former Star Bucks) will feature Durham based "Counter Culture Coffee" "The Durham coffee roaster has been a pioneer around coffee quality and sustainability for more than 25 years. Plans call for that 1,049-square-foot space to be in the airport's Concourse D/E connector area. It will serve as a coffee shop during the day, with a variety of specialty coffee beverages. It will transition to a bar in the afternoon and evening with draft cocktails and local brews — though alcoholic options are available throughout all hours of operation." Not locally based. PDQ chicken will open space in the new E extension and 2 Dunkin Doughnuts will be opening soon. One in the atrium and one near gate E28.

It's a welcome surprise to see this lounge also has a shower room. This may have been influenced by Lufthansa since they will be using it as their business class lounge. It does appear to be on the small side, but time will tell if this will be an issue in the future. I do like the several subtle local touches.

With the Intercontinental now apparently "officially back on track". This means all of the proposed uptown hotel projects that were "on hold" or "stalled due to covid are officially back on track! Element by Westin (formerly Even Hotel) Homewood Suites Moxy Hotel Intercontinental I'm sure there may have been some behind the scenes hotels that were near being announced, but it's exciting to see that none of the announced uptown hotels put on hold by covid stalled out completely.

Airlines are masters at blaming service reductions/route cuts due to things that aren't the actual reason. Examples being AA 787 shortage excuse. If the routes were profitable enough for them to fly. They would be flying it. "Fake" excuses have only been amplified during covid. The poor excuse for service during covid was more for cost cutting than for the "safety precaution/reducing touch point" reasons they stated. Example being AA cut live tv during covid due to "safety precautions." United has also eliminated service to some 20 cities in the past 3 months due to "labor shortages". The point is, if the cities were profitable to fly to, they wouldn't be cut. A closer to home example is WN cutting DEN from CLT (and several other cities) due to plane shortage, but they are all due to come back once MAX7s start arriving. While that has something to do with the cuts, if the routes were actually high performers, they would still be here. Edit: I apologize. My last statement was likely out of place. I have deleted it.

This essentially hits the nail on the head on why we don't have more international carriers. You could even stretch this farther to say this same scenario is why we don't have Alaska Airlines, etc.... Despite AA having the route largely covered. I do think we should have seen British Airways back on London by now. They serve every other major AA hub, but I understand the argument for why they aren't here yet. As for other One World airlines go I think Finnair to Helsinki and (10 years down the road or so) Qatar to DOH are our best bets for new other One World International carriers. The Charlotte area has sizeable business ties to the region (Sweden in particular) and Finnair could offer better connections to this region. Additionally, the exploding Indian subcontinent population in North Carolina will eventually reach the point to where we can support a Qatar flight. A crucial factor that will help us support more flights going forward is that Charlotte itself is rapidly expanding from an economic stand point as well. Having said that, our local demand does have quite a bit of growing to do to meet up with the local supply of international flights. This also means that due to our already extensive European coverage for a city our size. The likelihood of an Icelandair type airline starting service is slim. This last part is purely speculation, but I do wonder if our relative shortage of ticket counter space available in the terminal lobby has also led to airlines like British Airways and Alaska holding onto starting service. As an airport we only have 2 or 3 counter spaces open. If that. The terminal lobby expansion should help this.

As we speak. Gates on concourse D are having their stands re-done to allow for more space on the taxiway as part of the two-way taxiway project. Gates D6, D8, and D10 have already been re-done and they are working on D12 and D13 right now. Lufthansa has been using D10 instead of D12 for several weeks now. While AA will be getting 8 new gates on A once part 2 is done. Keep in mind that several of these will simply be replacing the gates they will have to block off as they begin the B or C expansion project next. On another note. Beginning in June (through July for now). Asheville (AVL) will be seeing mainline! There is one daily Airbus 319 currently in the schedule. It's been a long time since mainline has been flown on this route. Burlington, VT is also seeing a daily 319 as well.

As seen commented on CLTs Facebook post on the incident.

CLT will see several Transatlantic changes over the next 2 weeks. On this Sunday 3/27. London goes back to 2 daily and Madrid returns 1 daily. On Tuesday 4/5. Rome comes back 1 daily. Later on Thursday 5/5. DUB comes back 1 daily All flights on Boeing 777-200ER

I can't see any of the routes that currently have the 772 losing it. The 321XLR could accelerate the return of Paris (CDG), but I see that coming back in Summer 2023 with a 772 regardless. As you allude to. I do think it will allow them to try the likes of MAD, DUB, and or CDG in the winter. I also wouldn't count out a 2nd daily Frankfurt flight in the summer on the 321XLR (US did this for a period of time in the summer when they were still in Star Alliance). As for new routes. I think DUS is a very possible add at some point. It could even debatably work year round given the amount of German demand to Florida in the winter.

Supposedly CLT-DEN is a temporary suspension and will come back once they have a healthy amount of 737 MAX-7s. HOU likely comes back at some point too, but it will likely be once WNs Latin American portfolio is fully back. Their next schedule extension (September through November) will be on March 30th, so we should know more then... It would be nice to PHX back at some point, but I'd say that's a wild card at best. Spirit must be putting an absolute beating on Frontier at CLT. Given that they are at 2x daily on MCO to Frontier's 2 weekly and now have seemed to run them off of LAS. At least if the merger goes through, it won't make much a difference anyways.

Several actually. Arrival ( A UK based commercial electric vehicle manufacturer) has it's North American HQ in Charlotte and recently announced a battery plant. They have already secured a contract with UPS. https://arrival.com/us/en/news/Arrival-establishes-its-North-American-Headquarters-in-Charlotte-NC https://arrival.com/us/en/news/arrival-announces-high-voltage-battery-module-assembly-plant-in-charlotte-nc Toyota announced their first electric vehicle battery plant in Greensboro/Randolph county. https://pressroom.toyota.com/toyota-selects-north-carolina-greensboro-randolph-site-for-new-u-s-automotive-battery-plant/ Piedmont Lithium (mine) in Gaston county has secured a contract with Tesla to be the first lithium supplier for Tesla in the US. (There has been a good amount of local backlash on this though. It could be up in the air.) https://www.wfae.org/energy-environment/2020-10-02/gaston-lithium-mines-first-customer-is-a-big-one-tesla https://www.carolinajournal.com/news-article/n-c-lithium-mine-proposal-draws-fire-despite-tesla-contract-job-projections/ Rivian would certainly have been/be nice, but North Carolina is still very well positioned for the future of electric vehicles.

On the topic of stalled hotels. Is their any sort of update on the Moxy Hotel? Is it officially canceled or still technically stalled?

That reasoning isn't entirely true. When they expand C. The new FIS corridor will be going right through the area of the C/D Admirals Club. Therefore they aren't going to do a complete overhaul now, and will instead wait until they have to revamp it for FIS expansion.

An update on the concourse E expansion. #DestinationCLT Update: Concourse E Expansion will welcome passengers this spring. It will contain holdroom space for 10 gates, a Pet Relief Area, Mother’s Room, restrooms, terrazzo flooring in the walkways, new concessions and new artwork – hence the green lights. #CLTairport The hallways seem a little tight, but hopefully the removal of the temporary walls will get it a more sense of openness. I'm intrigued to see what the artwork will be, but I like the green lighting.

This would be an awesome win. As noted above I'm not sure what the likelihood is, but it is certainly nice to be in the conversation with the likes of Orlando, Dallas, Chicago, and Boston. These are the cities you want to be competing with and seen as equals to when it comes to these caliber of events. NC's military background and history should help, but will it be enough? You can hate on Tepper with the way he has managed the on field and off field performance of the team so far, but his vision (and success) in turning Bank of America Stadium into a year round events venue is impossible to deny.

While the rapid development of South End is creating a feeling of a long and skinny skyline similar to Atlanta. I feel this is not going to be the case in the 2035-2040 time frame. Most of the uptown projects that will have a major impact on density are either in progress, development, or have future plans. While inevitably, not all of these will come to fruition as planned. Several will, and they will both add density to our skyline and increase walkability up town. The 2020s may be about the metaphoric and literal rising of South End, but I predict the 2030s will see a return of focus to uptown. By 2040 our Uptown/South End combination will be on par with any major downtown area outside of NYC, Chicago, and Miami. We will have density from the Gateway district all the way to the Spectrum Center/CTC and from Tepper's district to McDowell St. This isn't even including the Atrium health district. Which will practically connect to uptown by that point. 3rd Ward/4th Ward Legacy Union: 4th tower to break ground by the end of 2022. Full build out by 2025 to 2028? Gateway Station: First phase nearing completion. Should start going vertical with phase 2. Full build out by 2035? Tepper Entertainment District: No Formal plans yet, but should go into motion with the hypothetical new stadium build out? Possibly in coordination with Gateway Station. Full build out by 2035? Existing Duke Energy Re-Development: Currently waiting on the completion of the Duke Energy plaza, but will be sold for redevelopment (including the deck next to it and the BOA Stadium. No publicly released plans, but will likely be built out to complement the Gateway Station and Tepper Entertainment District. Full Build out by 2040? SkyHouse Office Building/Publix: Still in the design stage. Won't do much for density but every little bit helps, Helps stretch Uptown from one side of 277 to the other down Tyron. Completed by 2025? 1st Ward: Spirit Square and Library Remodel: Main tenant confirmed (Truist): Library nearing end of design phase? Full build out by 2030? 2nd Ward: CTC Redevelopment: Contingent on completion of Gateway Station/District and a tear down of the current CTC. Will also include complicated underground facility. Despite the complications, the transportation aspect of this one should ensure it happens at some point. Full build out by 2040? Epicenter Re-Development: Admittedly a bit wishful thinking here, but hopefully the CTC re-development helps brings back life to this once thriving area. Re-developed by 2040? Brooklyn Village: Assuming this comes to fruition at some point. While this won't do much for our skyline. It will add much needed mid level and ground level density. Build out by 2040? Convention Center Expansion/Hotel: Another one that may be wishful thinking thanks to Covid. This will add more ground level and mid level density. Could also add to the skyline with a hotel. Completion by 2040? *TL:DR. The future is very bright for both Uptown AND South End. We are very fortunate that as a city almost all of our available land is under development/design. Note that none of the above is including anything related to Levineland in 1st ward.

I imagine this will also be the new business class lounge option for Lufthansa passengers. Lufthansa, along with several other carriers, use The CLUB ATL as their business class lounge in Atlanta.

Very sad indeed for the aviation community. The plane was/is a source of great pride for Ukraine. It has come through CLT several times throughout the years.

I actually don't hate the interior design of D and E. I like the open feeling you get with the steel truss design. Having said that. It would not look good with the renovations they did for A, B, and C, and would much prefer the open design they went with for A North. I'm really hoping that is how the B and C extensions turn out. During the initial design phase of the terminal lobby expansion. They were going to go with the steel truss design. Very glad that didn't come to fruition. I much prefer the design they went with. So much more natural light. Even with the canopy. On another note. Does anyone know the story/reason behind of why all of the expansions since D concourse have had blue roofs? We seem to be the only airport in America to opt for a "non traditional" blue roofing as a opposed to the grey, beige, or brown roofing found on seemingly every other airport terminal new or old. Edit- I know the final design of the terminal expansion doesn't have a blue roof, but the A North Expansion does as well as the E expansions.

Here's a top down diagram of the area. Good to see multiple hotels in the plan. This should give AA much better options for passenger accommodations during IROPs I assure you none of these will be a Red Roof Inn!

Back in August I got very fortunate and AA put me and my fiancee up at the newly re-branded Hilton Charlotte Airport. It was recently re-branded from the Renaissance Charlotte Suites. It was still under heavy renovation, and the room they put us in wasn't renovated yet, but all in all it was a lot more than what I was expecting. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210602005309/en/Atrium-Hospitality-Debuts-Newly-Branded-Hilton-Charlotte-Airport-Featuring-Multimillion-Dollar-Hotel-Renovation

It's part of bigger project with new deicing pads, taxiway extension, and a new south field taxiway between runways 36C and 36R

Pics from the new control tower. *Not my photography. Please visit the photographers website. https://www.moose135photography.com/browse for more great CLT and Charlotte pics! In the last pic you can really get a perspective of how much the new tower dwarfs the old one.

That would be on par for Charlotte though. In all seriousness. This is a very common thing with airport hotels, even nice ones. See the Grand Hyatt at DFW concourse D as an example. It's literally surround by the terminal on 3 sides.