Charlotte-Douglas Airport (CLT) Expansion

[rockhilljames]

I want to second Meisan's comments. I fly out of the Charlotte airport on average 2 to 3 times a month. While the concourses are fine, and the new decks are nice, the roadways for arrival and departure, baggage claim, and ticketing area are simply too small, ill organized, and overwhelmed. If I were planning it, I'd move forward with the car rental facility, knock down the existing rental structures, re-route arrival and departure traffics through new roads through this space and expand the baggage area/ticketing concourse outward at an angle. You attach the terminal to the first parking deck and create service roads for shuttle's/taxis/buses where the parking exit is now. That would separate the public traffic from the service traffic and help immensily.

[Miesian Corners]

the observer picked up the story about bmi giving clt a flight to heathrow - bring it on. with that said i flew usair to gatwick 2 weeks ago and while it was full on the outbound, the return was 50% empty. the flight attendant said next month it would be high season and it would be a full flight. nonetheless, i dont know if we could handle a second daily flight even with our hub status

Charlotte had two daily non-stops to London for three years. British Airways and US Airways. BA dropped service because US suspended the code share and the drop in flying after 9/11. BMI has a hub at Heathrow, US has a hub here. Star Alliance magic. It should work beautifully.

[Batou]

Which parking decks are you referring to? Charlotte's or Newark's? I like both, well, the new ones at each anyway.

Charlotte's I totally think those new ones look space age

[Richhamleigh, DC]

How's Lufthansa's flight working out these days?

[uptownliving]

How's Lufthansa's flight working out these days?

Bookings are going well. Daily service resumed this week and they changed from a A340 to an A330 (20 less seats) which I think is a good move. The A340 always seemed to be a little too much plane for this route.

[redjeep77]

http://charlotte.com/109/story/89528.html

No surprise here. Didn't know they were thinking about buidling another concourse!

[atlrvr]

This is the master plan from a few years ago. I'm sure things have been tweaked slightly, but this shows the location of the new international terminal where the rental cars are.

[DigitalSky]

Oh wow that's very interesting. Yes, it isn't surprising that Douglas is the fastest growing. Greensboro's airport is even losing some of those customers who used to drive up to avoid the higher fares

[tiblerbrit]

Would building a terminal like that attract more internatinoal flights? It looks like a big terminal for the few flights they have now.

[kickazzz2000]

Would building a terminal like that attract more internatinoal flights? It looks like a big terminal for the few flights they have now.

Not necessarily. For an excellent example, use DFW's new international terminal. They built a gorgeous new Int'l terminal, and foreign carriers have been slow to come, opting for Houston instead.

If there is any growth, it would likely be expanded options to the Caribbean, interior Mexico and Central America, and a dabbling of South American flights.

Building a new international terminal could also open the door for Southwest to infect terminal D.

[rockhilljames]

I'd love for them to infect at least one of our terminals!

[Delta_USAir]

I like the expansion on Terminal B. And is that terminal on the right going to collide with the Regional terminal?

I also like the idea of a new international terminal seeing how DoUgIe and the guys at the "sandcastle" {Tempe} got a hold of some A-340 500's and we got 10+ 330-200 Buses comeing in 2008-2010 { Has alot more range than the current A330-300 LCC has right now}, and 20 A-350 {WXB Versions} metal comeing in 2012

I would not mind seeing some{more} BMI,Air France, British Airways, and USAirways international operations out of Charlotte.

I'm assuming the new terminal on the left is International, and probably F9,and B6 Services.

And the Extension for Terminal B will HOPEFULLY only be for LCC

And hopefully that other terminal to the right is the current Regional terminal {which I think is already having a really good number of gates added on}

WN is already getting there butt kicked on LCC turf system-wide {east coast}.So I don't see WN comeing in on the LCC "Fortress" hub. WN does not "infest" "fortress" hubs, do they?

Let the "Flag" fly ~ LCC

Edited April 18, 2007 by Delta_USAir

[Mobuchu]

Soooo, what is LCC???

[Delta_USAir]

LCC= USAirways

WN= Southwest

B6=jet blue

UAL=United Airlines

F9= Frontier

Edited April 18, 2007 by Delta_USAir

[Mobuchu]

Ok, might be easier for the rest of us if you just say US/USAir........

[Delta_USAir]

On a side note

http://charlotte.com/122/story/89528.html

Edited April 18, 2007 by Delta_USAir

[kickazzz2000]

On a side note, CLT is the fastest growing airport in the nation handling about 9,300 more passengers daily from last year. "booming is a understatement" ~ Jerry orr

LCC is also bringing 49 more ticket/gate agents {THANK THE LORD!!!}

LCC also plans to have 48,000 more seats which means more daily flights

we should have a 20+ gate expansion by the end of this year on concourse E {USAIRWAYS terminal}

{I am to Aviation, As Ya'll are to Skyscrapers }

While you certainly would enjoy LCC taking over all of that extra terminal space, the greater benefit would be to give a certain allotment to Southwest (or whoever). Southwest has held its own against AW for years in Phoenix and Las Vegas. Some benefit would come from stimulation of the O/D market by Southwest, akin to WN and LCC's relationship in Philadelphia. I dont see LCC losing money in PHL, and if they were to be, I would implicate a horrible union situation before I went blaming WN and their flights to such exotic destinations as PVD, MDW, and MCO. I feel that with the proper balance of WN and a hub carrier, both can benefit, and the true winner is the city and its travelers.

In response to your earlier comment about international services. AF - not likely (SkyTeam vs Star Alliance). BA - long term maybe, but not if.. BMI - possible.

Question to the board...if all this Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank stuff comes to be true...could we see a second FRA frequency, perhaps LH to complement US' daily flight?

[atlrvr]

I dunno....isn't LH near full capacity at Frankfurt? I would imagine a 2nd US flight, though I'm not sure how well the timing would work.

[Delta_USAir]

I just don't see WN coming to Charlotte unless it plans on using Charlotte as a international focus city to London.

CLT does not really have the O&D to have Southwest as a focus city.

USAirways can match and go lower than Southwest fares, and USAirways has a better product, USAirways has a dividend card, USAirways has clubs,USAirways has regional jets, USAirways code-shares with Luftansa,ETC.

Edited April 18, 2007 by Delta_USAir

[uptownliving]

I just don't see WN coming to Charlotte unless it plans on using Charlotte as a international focus city to London.

CLT does not really have the O&D to have Southwest as a focus city.

USAirways can match and go lower than Southwest fares, and USAirways has a better product, USAirways has a dividend card, USAirways has clubs,USAirways has regional jets, USAirways code-shares with Luftansa,ETC.

None of this makes sense to me. Southwest doesn't fly outside of the USA, and if they decide to do that one day I can gurantee you they will not be flying CLT-London anytime soon.

With regards to CLT's O&D we are very close to RDU now and Southwest has been flying there for a number of years. If RDU has the O&D to make Southwest work then so does CLT.

The inflight Coach USAirways product is inferior to Southwest...however I am hopeful their new airplane orders and upcoming inflight entertainment system will change that.

[Delta_USAir]

None of this makes sense to me. Southwest doesn't fly outside of the USA, and if they decide to do that one day I can gurantee you they will not be flying CLT-London anytime soon.

With regards to CLT's O&D we are very close to RDU now and Southwest has been flying there for a number of years. If RDU has the O&D to make Southwest work then so does CLT.

The inflight Coach USAirways product is inferior to Southwest...however I am hopeful their new airplane orders and upcoming inflight entertainment system will change that.

Southwest does plan on flying to London, and trying to decide what city they would fly from. They plan on using some of America Trans air aircraft.

Also CLT has a USAirways hub, unlike RDU.

Edited April 18, 2007 by Delta_USAir

[uptownliving]

Southwest does plan on flying to London, and trying to decide what city they would fly from. They plan on using some of America Trans air aircraft.

I have heard a rumor on Internet chat boards that SWA might codeshare on a flight from BWI operated by ATA. Is that what you are talking about? At this point it is nothing more than a rumor... and I know for sure that they are not looking at operating a CLT-London flight.

[kickazzz2000]

Also CLT has a USAirways hub, unlike RDU.

Which has nothing to do with O/D traffic. Except for the fact that your fortress artificially suppresses O/D traffic. Google or wiki the "Southwest Effect" for more information.

And your opinion that US' in-flight product is superior to WN is simply that. Perhaps the old U had a shot at that distinction, but we are talking about cactus here.

[Delta_USAir]

I have heard a rumor on Internet chat boards that SWA might codeshare on a flight from BWI operated by ATA. Is that what you are talking about? At this point it is nothing more than a rumor... and I know for sure that they are not looking at operating a CLT-London flight.

I did Not hear a rumor but I did see a press release where a executive was quoted about WN interest of going to London.

I never said WN would be interested in doing CLT-London *unless* they "infest" Charlotte terminals.

[Delta_USAir]

Which has nothing to do with O/D traffic. Except for the fact that your fortress artificially suppresses O/D traffic. Google or wiki the "Southwest Effect" for more information.

And your opinion that US' in-flight product is superior to WN is simply that. Perhaps the old U had a shot at that distinction, but we are talking about cactus here.

LCC would stomp WN to the ground in fares,loyalist, dividend miles program,Star alliance, ETC. before southwest could ever get at least 15 flights.

WN will not be in CLT {in regards of a focus city} for a while unless we get a new terminal.

That master plan is crap.Read the Observer about CLT being the fastest growing airport. unless we move continental Express to terminal E, where would WN go?