49er

I'm not familiar with how many flights a gate can handle per day. Does Delta taking most of the new Concourse A expansion allow for them to significantly expand their Charlotte operation from 34 flights daily? I'd love for them to compete with AA on some Caribbean and Mexico destinations.

This feels kind of hasty like they're scrambling to meet demand for something specific. The concrete work and that refueling area or whatever it is was just built.

At what point do city leaders decide that a quarter century has been long enough and we need a plan b? At least 30 years of planning will have elapsed before a building is operational there. An air rights deal where the city/state build the station and then sell the tower rights down the road would be just fine. Just picture epicentre but a train station. All of the momentum for new office is in south end. The market may be telling the master developer than there's not much demand for the foreseeable future.

I appreciate the sub $100 flights to Florida and other places on Spirit. Frontier or Spirit are often less than $200 to vegas. The last time I flew there AA was $600. It's great when you are paying for 4 or 5 tickets for a family as the savings add up fast. AA will just further price gouge locals at CLT if they go away.

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/article282794798.html Well, the airport is making some changes to address the recent traffic issues. Maybe someone there reads UP!

I'm guessing the airport doesn't want to give up parking revenue or they would have already pursued something like this. Moving rideshare to the deck would make even better use of the pedestrian tunnels and bridges that are being installed.

Flip flop and put Greyhound at the existing Amtrak Station for the time being.

Won't we gain one or two more lanes when construction is finished? It looks like staging for the terminal expansion and canopy is taking up the lanes closest to the terminal.

How do you all feel the terminal lobby expansion turned out? I am torn between cold and sterile and sleek and modern. Ultimately, it's a place you typically pass through pretty quickly and I appreciate nice concourses and atriums more as you end up spending many hours there sometimes.

Does the old tower have to be officially decommissioned by the FAA before it can be demolished? I've always liked the idea of a hotel there. Better than another parking deck.

The current terminal expansion plans all wrap in 2025 with the runway in 2027? The airport is likely already doing planning work around the next major projects and what to prioritize in the next multibillion dollar investment plan. The midfield expansion also looks like it could be done in phases as needed.

The very dated destination CLT webpage indicates over $400 million each for B and C. The firm is likely telling CLT that it is madness to dump nearly a billion into scabbed on extensions and that much money would be a great head start on the midfield terminal expansion.

I agree that adding on to 1980's vintage B and C doesn't solve the congestion problems. It would be nearly impossible to make those piers more modern/taller/wider without a total tear down. Other airports come to the conclusion that it's best to start from scratch sometimes so lets hope CLT does the same. This would allow the replacement to be build while keeping B and C operational - something that would seem to appeal to AA. Just hopeful thinking. I just noticed that this would also allow a phased expansion of the atrium. It looks like they would tack on that huge linear concourse adjacent to it while keeping it operational during construction.

The Charlotte Ledger had a good article yesterday about the future of the airport. People movers between concourses and the midfield concourse are discussed as 10-15 year down the road items. I don't think it's paywalled: https://charlotteledger.substack.com/p/the-future-of-charlottes-airport#details

Looks like a separate office tower.