Delta's Slash And Burn, Dfw To Close.
- Thread starter AAquila
- Start date
jimntx
Veteran
AirLUVer said:
AA has only 12 of the B terminal gates, and right now every airline that is not AA, DL, NW, or CO uses B. You are assuming that any of those airlines would be willing to go to the expense to move to another terminal just because AA wants their gates.
Granted some of those airlines are International, but do we know for a fact that both International arrivals and departures are going to operate out of Terminal D?
At more than one airport around the country, International departures operate out of just about any open gate. It's only the arrivals that need to come into a Customs equipped terminal.
Delta served 15 exclusive routes out of DFW:
Alexandria, Louisiana
Beaumont/Port Arthur, Texas
Charleston, South Carolina
Columbia, South Carolina
Columbus, Mississippi
Lexington, Kentucky
Lafayette, Louisiana
Montgomery, Alabama
Monroe, Louisiana
Mobile, Alabama
Savannah, Georgia
Tallahassee, Florida
Fort Walton Beach, Florida
Melbounre, Florida (seasonal)
Daytona Beach, Florida (seasonal)
American/American Eagle has served some of those markets in the past, and there is some oppurtunity to some again. The biggest oppurtunity, IMO, lies in Tallahasse service. Three daily RJs from DFW, and add three daily RJs from MIA, and you have some strong yielding RJ routes in a strong yielding, Delta-dominated market.
Alexandria, Louisiana
Beaumont/Port Arthur, Texas
Charleston, South Carolina
Columbia, South Carolina
Columbus, Mississippi
Lexington, Kentucky
Lafayette, Louisiana
Montgomery, Alabama
Monroe, Louisiana
Mobile, Alabama
Savannah, Georgia
Tallahassee, Florida
Fort Walton Beach, Florida
Melbounre, Florida (seasonal)
Daytona Beach, Florida (seasonal)
American/American Eagle has served some of those markets in the past, and there is some oppurtunity to some again. The biggest oppurtunity, IMO, lies in Tallahasse service. Three daily RJs from DFW, and add three daily RJs from MIA, and you have some strong yielding RJ routes in a strong yielding, Delta-dominated market.
lpbrian
Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2004
- Messages
- 687
- Reaction score
- 105
Huh? That makes no sense. All mainline flights depart A and C terminals. Eagle has about 12 gates, all configured for RJ's in terminal B. AA will have about 15 gates at the new D terminal, but those are mostly for international flights. What I think will happen is AE will pick up Airtran's 4 gates in Terminal B (they are adjacent) and Airtran will move to E (Delta's) were they can add more gates if they want.
jimntx said:
Jim, AA has said several times they are moving to the new terminal when it opens. I don't know how many gates were planned to open there. But if you have flown out of DFW lately or driven through the airport, you can see that there will be a easy connection from B to D, not even a moving walk way is neccessary cause of the gates along the connecting building. There are some carriers that will move from B to D. With the ease of connection from B to D I can't see AA not moving some of their operations out of C or A and bumping all the Eagle flights to A.
The gates at B were originally built and utilized for mainline jets and were not modified significantly if at all for Eagle jet operations. The only mods have been to adjust for the sky train.
AirLUVer said:
I beleive AA has confirmed the lease of (18 of 24) or (24 of 29) gates. I do not recall the exact no but it is @ 75% of the new gates in Term D. Much of Term E (DL) is under utilized now. I don't expect AA to move into Term E for 2 reasons A} current expansion -70 flights- can be handled with the opening of Term D and B} AA doesn't have the money to go into and redo Term E to an AA clone. Baggage, counter, sabre wirinng etc would be very costly in a major move.
I also think AA will add more than the announced 70 after it anylizes DL's drawback.
In addition I think AA still has metal in the dessert waiting for the possible bk of US or downsizing of UA.
I would look for Spirit Air to announce something including DFW soon. They could snag a few table scraps in the DFW-Florida market. If Indy air is struggling at IAD,
they could move in with their new "busses" and maybe a few select RJ routes. Jetblue
shouldn't be overlooked either, they could hit the DFW-Florida market hard before Airtran and or Spirit can build a customer base. Only time will tell, but it will be very interesting none the less.
they could move in with their new "busses" and maybe a few select RJ routes. Jetblue
shouldn't be overlooked either, they could hit the DFW-Florida market hard before Airtran and or Spirit can build a customer base. Only time will tell, but it will be very interesting none the less.
jimntx
Veteran
I think I agree with AirLuver. IF AMR takes over all of Terminal B, then
1. All International Arrivals and Departures will move to D.
2. AA will abandon Terminal C.
3. AE will move back to A and the satellite.
4. Terminal B will replace Terminal C as primary domestic terminal.
Reasons:
1. As stated by AirLuver, the connection between B and D will be relatively easy. (Is changing terminals at DFW ever truly easy? 😛 I know, I know. The new tram is going to make everything better. But, then didn't we hear that when the TrAAin started up?)
2. There will be a lot more passengers connecting to/from International and mainline on a daily basis than to/from AE.
Caveats:
1. I was in C last week on my way to BHM. Is AA having to pay for any of the remodeling--carpet, other flooring, relocation of podiums, etc--connected to the new tram system? If so, I would guess that the company will want to get some benefit from that cost before abandoning that terminal.
2. Is the TrAAin to be abandoned completely when the new system starts up? If not, I have a problem with the fact that there is only the one stop for B and it is near the Gate 1 end of the building. As long as we only had the first 12 gates, I never thought of this as a problem. But, I have a friend who flies for ATA now. He mentioned recently how far the walk is from Upper B to the TrAAin.
1. All International Arrivals and Departures will move to D.
2. AA will abandon Terminal C.
3. AE will move back to A and the satellite.
4. Terminal B will replace Terminal C as primary domestic terminal.
Reasons:
1. As stated by AirLuver, the connection between B and D will be relatively easy. (Is changing terminals at DFW ever truly easy? 😛 I know, I know. The new tram is going to make everything better. But, then didn't we hear that when the TrAAin started up?)
2. There will be a lot more passengers connecting to/from International and mainline on a daily basis than to/from AE.
Caveats:
1. I was in C last week on my way to BHM. Is AA having to pay for any of the remodeling--carpet, other flooring, relocation of podiums, etc--connected to the new tram system? If so, I would guess that the company will want to get some benefit from that cost before abandoning that terminal.
2. Is the TrAAin to be abandoned completely when the new system starts up? If not, I have a problem with the fact that there is only the one stop for B and it is near the Gate 1 end of the building. As long as we only had the first 12 gates, I never thought of this as a problem. But, I have a friend who flies for ATA now. He mentioned recently how far the walk is from Upper B to the TrAAin.
jimntx said:
I can't see AA leaving "C" and moving ops over to "B". First off, B doesn't have as many gates or jetbridges as does C, plus once the new D opens up, the B extension gates housing gates B2-B5 will be torn down allowing widebody flights to park at that end of D. It would cost AA way too much money to modify some of the B gates for double parking.,etc...I doubt the DFW Airport Board would pay for such a move. My guess is that AA will wait and evaluate any such moves after the new "D" has been up and running for a year or so.
jimntx
Veteran
DFWFSC said:
As a Belgian co-worker of mine at Texaco used to say, "I didn't knew that." Even with freeing up gates in A by moving all Int'l ops to D, I don't think you could replace C with B in that case.
I guess we'll all have to wait and see.
DFWFSC said:
DFWFSC, AA not leaving "C"
I concur as you well know the incredible infra-structure below the gates would be very costly. AA has invested million$ in a baggage system that doesn't work when more than 50,000 pax are going thru DFW. As is typical with AA mgt they will not admit it doesn't work (we told them so in advance) they balme it on labor and will spend more money trying to get it right.
Also add in the million$ plus being spent for the XRAY and bomb sniffers in the bagroom areas. Changing all this would be expensive and time comsuming.
Leave "C" not for the forseeable future.
jimntx
Veteran
FA Mikey said:
Mikey, I have asked that question 2 or 3 times already with no answer. I think some people are assuming that all Int'l ops--arrivals and departures--will be moving to D. However, I don't think anyone actually knows at this point. For departures, there is no reason they HAVE to depart from D. Outbound activities--such as making sure that every passenger has a passport or proof of citizenship--can be done at any gate as is done today.
And, you mix in the fact that at DFW, flights to Canada and Mexico are considered domestic flights for staffing and scheduling purposes, it gets complicated quickly. Again, I guess we will all have to wait and see.
