Charlotte-Douglas Airport (CLT) Expansion

[Vitamin_N]

Quote

Charlotte Douglas, or CLT, already ranks among the world’s 10 busiest airports

It's good to be clear on what is meant by "busiest". You can define it by number of flights or number of passengers. Charlotte is #7 by the former metric and #23 by the latter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_busiest_airports_by_aircraft_movements

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_busiest_airports_by_passenger_traffic#2023_statistics

 

[Professor]

On 4/12/2024 at 6:31 PM, Vitamin_N said:

It's good to be clear on what is meant by "busiest". You can define it by number of flights or number of passengers. Charlotte is #7 by the former metric and #23 by the latter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_busiest_airports_by_aircraft_movements

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_busiest_airports_by_passenger_traffic#2023_statistics

 

Charlotte and frankfurt have been running nose to nose. Since covid, Frankfurt is now ahead in regard to passengers. However, Charlotte is projected to have a very huge year this year and we will move up the list. The projection is for well over 60 million passengers. I just used Frankfurt for comparison as it has been the airport I 've been using the most lately. 

 

Edited April 20 by Professor

[KJHburg]

CLT wins  green certification.

CLT Receives Green Globes Certification | Aviation Pros

[tozmervo]

I mean, I am glad it's on their mind, but One Green Globe is a very low bar to achieve.

[LKN704]

3 hours ago, tozmervo said:

I mean, I am glad it's on their mind, but One Green Globe is a very low bar to achieve.

Lol, right. If CLT actually cared about this sort of thing they would have built the recent extensions according to LEED certification standards and would undergo LEED's existing buildings O&M program.

[joshuavmc]

Construction update as of 4.20.24

 

[csweet]

Frontier adding CLT-MIA starting 7/5

[LKN704]

AA has loaded CLT-DUB to resume next year in mid-February - the earliest it has ever resumed. 

Definitely a route that will likely go year-round once the A321XLRs arrive. 

[Miesian Corners]

Fresh renderings: 10 proposals envision new "front door" for Charlotte's airport

Maybe I was expecting too much? Not one of these proposals sounds all that exciting. And still CLT remains one of the largest airports in the country without a sizable on-property hotel .

[videtur quam contuor]

How is it determined that hotel capacity at airport area is insufficient today? Are all hotels filled with any regularity? is there a capacity need survey online?

[KJHburg]

Nashville with 1/3 of the traffic as CLT has an on site hotel  and we still need one maybe behind the hourly deck.  I don't know why this has never been a priority even Greensboro PTI airport has an on site Marriott hotel.

That is the Hilton at the Nashville airport my photos from a couple weeks ago.  Midrise next to the parking decks. 

 

Edited May 1 by KJHburg

[Temeteron]

1 hour ago, KJHburg said:

Nashville with 1/3 of the traffic as CLT has an on site hotel  and we still need one maybe behind the hourly deck.  I don't know why this has never been a priority even Greensboro PTI airport has an on site Marriott hotel.

That is the Hilton at the Nashville airport my photos from a couple weeks ago.  Midrise next to the parking decks. 

 

ADVERTISEMENT

Nashville’s airport renovation is much nicer and bigger than ours.  Interior and exterior.  Not sure why the cheaped out on ours  they even have a voodoo doughnuts!

[KJHburg]

I thought I just saw this list but in case I did not post it here is a list of the nonstop flights from CLT compiled by Charlotte Magazine.

UPDATED: All Nonstop Flights from Charlotte Douglas International Airport - Charlotte Magazine

[Norm2]

50 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

I thought I just saw this list but in case I did not post it here is a list of the nonstop flights from CLT compiled by Charlotte Magazine.

UPDATED: All Nonstop Flights from Charlotte Douglas International Airport - Charlotte Magazine

That article says Charlotte had a direct flight to Puerto Vallarta, but that flight was discontinued if I'm not mistaken. 

[allthingsplanes]

Question for you all (without us being able to do anything about it).  I had to take my mother to the airport the other day, and the drop off area was terrible.  Cars were stopped at least 2 deep, and cars that were along the curb were trapped there trying to get out for several minutes.  One car was diagonal across both lanes, just stopped and not doing anything.   People kept pulling up and stopping in the 2nd lane, blocking others in.  So my question is, why, with all of the rework to the drop-off and pick-up areas, did they not do a center island with curb access from 2 sides?  Or at least do like some airports and clearly mark off 2 lanes for stopping?  And why don't they have traffic control people out there getting cars out of the way?  It's such a cluster for an airport that has made so many worthwhile improvements...

[LKN704]

14 hours ago, Norm2 said:

That article says Charlotte had a direct flight to Puerto Vallarta, but that flight was discontinued if I'm not mistaken. 

Yes, PV is gone. It was actually flown twice - once within the past few years as a pandemic add and then once in the late 2000s/early 2010s. 

PV isn't that popular on the East Coast. I've been twice and loved it, but it's much more of a "vibey, let's stroll and go to hipster coffee shops and art galleries and stay in an Airbnb" type of city. Most folks from the East Coast want an all inclusive, all you can drink margarita experience when it comes to Mexico. 

Edit: Also, it looks like AA route planning had a change of heart. Next year's mid February relaunch of CLT-DUB has been pushed back to the last week of March. I'm guessing the 772 was likely needed elsewhere. 

Edited May 7 by LKN704

[KJHburg]

CLT is on its way to a new record year in passenger travel this year.

from the Biz Journal

""So far this year, passenger traffic has been on the rise at CLT. More than 13.7 million passengers have boarded or departed a plane at Charlotte Douglas during the first three months of the year, according to airport statistics. That's up 16.2% from the 11.8 million passengers in the first quarter of 2023.

It keeps Charlotte Douglas on pace for another record-breaking year in 2024. CLT most recently set its highest-ever count for passenger traffic last year, breaking its 2019 record with 53.4 million passengers. That broke its 2019 record of 50.2 million passengers.""

Check out CLT's most popular US flight destinations - Charlotte Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

[KJHburg]

well not completely CLT related but which airports do we have nonstop flights to in the Bay Area?    Do we have a nonstop flight to the newly renamed San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport or just to San Francisco International Airport?

out in the Bay area there is a legal fight over the name and that being San Francisco!  So it OAK or SFO? 

Oakland airport officials reaffirm "San Francisco Bay" name change, countersues San Francisco (msn.com)

Oakland International Airport to go forward with name change (eastbaytimes.com)

[CLT2014]

11 hours ago, KJHburg said:

well not completely CLT related but which airports do we have nonstop flights to in the Bay Area?    Do we have a nonstop flight to the newly renamed San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport or just to San Francisco International Airport?

out in the Bay area there is a legal fight over the name and that being San Francisco!  So it OAK or SFO? 

Oakland airport officials reaffirm "San Francisco Bay" name change, countersues San Francisco (msn.com)

Oakland International Airport to go forward with name change (eastbaytimes.com)

This summer we have 4 - 5 nonstops per day to SFO on AA. (For reference, Atlanta has about 10 nonstops, Dulles has 10 (hub to hub for United), Miami has 4, Orlando has 3, RDU has 2, Nashville has 2, Tampa has 1, Richmond has 1). 

American, United,  Jet Blue, and Frontier don't  fly to Oakland, which has lost a lot of service over the years and OAK only has three destinations in Eastern Time (Baltimore, Atlanta, and less than daily Newark). 
San Jose service is heavily concentrated on Western destinations. The only destinations in Eastern Time are Atlanta and seasonal service to Boston.  

I think Oakland's rebrand is too long of a name, but I get they are going for broader awareness that they are a viable airport for servicing the San Francisco Bay Area. OAK is only 19 miles from Fisherman's Warf. SFO is 15 miles. They are both competitive / comparable for many destinations in San Francisco.

Edited May 10 by CLT2014

[tozmervo]

Looks like OAK has a tram connection to the BART system, too. Huh, I'll have to keep that in mind next time I fly out there. Do the flight search engines lump SFO and OAK together like "NYC" covers multiple airports?

[LKN704]

2 hours ago, tozmervo said:

Looks like OAK has a tram connection to the BART system, too. Huh, I'll have to keep that in mind next time I fly out there. Do the flight search engines lump SFO and OAK together like "NYC" covers multiple airports?

There technically is a code that lumps SFO/OAK/SJC together - ZOA - but I've never seen any booking interface accept it. Google Flights used to accept it but it look like they don't anymore. I believe ZOA is also the code for the Oakland Center Tower. Google Flights also used to accept ZLA, which is the code for the LA Air Traffic Control center. ZOA and ZLA weren't official IATA codes, so that's probably why they aren't recognized. 

The only IATA codes in the United States that recognize airport systems in a city and are in regular use are NYC (JFK, LGA, EWR) and WAS (IAD, DCA, BWI). CHI exists for ORD/MDW in Chicago but some interfaces don't accept it and just show ORD. 

My guess is that NYC/WAS are the only ones in regular use because each city has several major airports. NYC/LAX/EWR are all of relatively equal size as are DCA/BWI/IAD. Whereas in San Francisco, SFO is significantly larger than OAK/SJC. The same goes with LAX and BUR/SNA/LGB/ONT. 

[kermit]

Had to pick up my daughter today and found landside to be a serious cluster this afternoon.  Both hourly and daily decks were shut down and signed as 'reservation only' and the cell phone lot was literally full on my first pass through. Also more traffic chaos in both departures and arrivals. Something going on today (a Tuesday)? 

I really hope they are not making hourly parking reservation only all of the time.

[Eastern]

On 5/7/2024 at 9:44 AM, allthingsplanes said:

Question for you all (without us being able to do anything about it).  I had to take my mother to the airport the other day, and the drop off area was terrible.  Cars were stopped at least 2 deep, and cars that were along the curb were trapped there trying to get out for several minutes.  One car was diagonal across both lanes, just stopped and not doing anything.   People kept pulling up and stopping in the 2nd lane, blocking others in.  So my question is, why, with all of the rework to the drop-off and pick-up areas, did they not do a center island with curb access from 2 sides?  Or at least do like some airports and clearly mark off 2 lanes for stopping?  And why don't they have traffic control people out there getting cars out of the way?  It's such a cluster for an airport that has made so many worthwhile improvements...

A solution I saw at a couple of international airports is the use of diagonal parking at drop off, like we see used in the downtowns of some old towns here in NC. There were no cars being blocked in and cars could ease in and out quickly. There wasn't any need for traffic control personnel unless someone overstayed the time limit.  CLT would have benefited too from having multiple   drive-up terminals instead of trying to cram all the arrivals in at only one.

[AP3]

12 hours ago, kermit said:

Had to pick up my daughter today and found landside to be a serious cluster this afternoon.  Both hourly and daily decks were shut down and signed as 'reservation only' and the cell phone lot was literally full on my first pass through. Also more traffic chaos in both departures and arrivals. Something going on today (a Tuesday)? 

I really hope they are not making hourly parking reservation only all of the time.

I know the daily deck has been reservation only for quite some time now - probably close to two years at this point.

[DavieNative]

11 hours ago, Eastern said:

A solution I saw at a couple of international airports is the use of diagonal parking at drop off, like we see used in the downtowns of some old towns here in NC. There were no cars being blocked in and cars could ease in and out quickly. There wasn't any need for traffic control personnel unless someone overstayed the time limit.  CLT would have benefited too from having multiple   drive-up terminals instead of trying to cram all the arrivals in at only one.

Seems like it would be easy enough to add a second arrivals and departures to terminal A as it continues to expand. Would alleviate a fair amount of traffic from the main one.