Hey ya'll! long time no see. I have a cool pic of a Korean Air Cargo plane that diverted to Will yesterday if any of you airplane/airline enthusiasts would like to see it. I have posted it on flyokc.com.

That is a cool pic. Diverted from DFW I assume?

Thanks Jen. I had a question since I'm ignorant when it comes to aviation knowledge. Do all these diverted flights from Dallas to OKC help with our numbers or income to the airport?

I wonder if this helps or hurts OKC's perception? I would think it would help since there are a lot of people there that wouldn't usually be there, but some might see it as small. Anyone know?

I think that would be up to the individual. They are in Oklahoma City pretty much against their will but at least we have a nice, new airport for them to sleep on a cot while they wait. Or maybe some of them made their way to downtown for a hotel. I think it's a neutral issue for them.

I'd still like to see what Jen's feedback is. I did hear on the news last night that all or almost all of the Meridian Ave. hotels were booked to capacity because of all the re-routed flights.

There is an article about yesterday's diversions in today's Oklahoman. Seven AA flights were diverted, and also that Korean Air 777-200ER which is a regularly scheduled flight from Seoul to Dallas-Ft. Worth. I didn't know about the 744 being diverted as well though, thanks for posting that photo!

Must've turned some eyes for sure seeing those two "heavies" at OKC.

I think anyone that comes through that airport would be impressed.

I was there just a couple of weeks ago and even though I've seen it several times since the remodel, I was still taken by the place.

The high ceilings, quality materials and especially the outdoor gardens make a great impression.


In fact, I had just flown in from the relatively new and similarly-sized Ontario airport in the Los Angeles area, and WRWA is a much better facility in my opinion.

600 passengers were diverted and all left OKC yesterday, though some news reports got that wrong. American was still dealing with cancellations today.

Diverts, cancellations -- these spell problems for airlines more than cities. (Isn't entirely fair since we can't control the weather over D/FW or anywhere else for that matter.) But, we're all human. So, hopefully, despite the inconvenience of being re-routed/diverted, they were impressed with our airport. I must say (I know I am biased) we have such friendly people who work our concessions. The company, Delaware North, does a great job hiring good people and training them. (Shameless plug.) Their concession sales doubled yesterday over the same day last year. Of course, their costs doubled including staffing costs. The entire morning shift stayed on all day.

When a new airline flies into Will that none of us have ever seen before, we get very giddy about it. Even me. Who knew I'd like planes so much? The coolest planes fly into AAR for maintenance. I just loved that Korean Air Cargo plane. I'm glad you all enjoyed the photo! On the ramp at the same time yesterday was a 741, 742, 743, 744, 745 and 747. I hope I got that right. Our OPs manager told me.

Here's a smaller version of the pic Jen referenced ...

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/DisneyPlaneatAAR.jpg

Very nice, Jen!

Doug, that's the wrong pic, she's referencing the Korean Air Jet, although the Disney Jet was a nice surprise too I'm sure. This is the Korean Air jet in reference:

Will Rogers World Airport (http://www.flyokc.com/index.aspx?page=update&id=801)

As far as diversions. The impact will come from any landing fees and fuel sold. As far as passenger numbers...only if they are deplaned. Typically airlines will just keep people on the aircraft if delays will only be an hour or two, or if the flight requires to go through customs.

Great pics Jen.

I'll try to compile the list of what came through yesterday...but a lot of flight plans didn't get posted right on Flight Aware.

DL MD-88 ATL-DFW: FlightAware > Live Flight Tracker > Delta Air Lines, Inc. #1295 (http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL1295)
WN 737-700 MSY-DAL: FlightAware > Live Flight Tracker > Southwest Airlines Co. #1396 (http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA1396)
AA 757-200 JAC-DFW: FlightAware > Live Flight Tracker > American Airlines Inc. #2242 (http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL2242)
AA MD-80 ORD-DFW: FlightAware > Live Flight Tracker > American Airlines Inc. #2309 (http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL2309)
AA 757-200 BWI-DFW: FlightAware > Live Flight Tracker > American Airlines Inc. #1625 (http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL1625)
AA MD-82 DEN-DFW: FlightAware > Live Flight Tracker > American Airlines Inc. #1515 (http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL1515)
WN 737-700 SAT-DAL: FlightAware > Live Flight Tracker > Southwest Airlines Co. #991 (http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA991)

That's all that are actually recorded...obviously there were more but some reason their flight plans weren't transmitted.

On the ramp at the same time yesterday was a 741, 742, 743, 744, 745 and 747. I hope I got that right. Our OPs manager told me.

That doesn't make sense, does it? Six 747s and only 800 passengers? Plus, I know of the 741-744, but i didnt think they ever bult the 747-500.

Anyway, its cool to have people see the airport.

FLY MORE! As venture says, its use it or lose it time, especially as summer approaches

Also, flightaware only tracks domestic traffic, so that could be why not all the flights show up.

Not true. Flight Aware will track international traffic as well. Now a lot aren't on there, but a good number. I think it just comes down to how the flight plans are handled.

There isn't a 747-500, there is the 747-8 coming out, but its not even in the building stage yet. :) The Ops Manager was obviously a little over excited. Looks like just the one 744F frieghter.

Also remember, any widebodies coming in here are likely international - those passengers will remain on board and not be counted in any local passenger counts.

Oh...and to the use it or lose it thing...so far, we haven't lost anything that I could find when it comes to Delta. A TON of cities and markets are being chopped. Schedules won't be loaded for about another week, but I would expect OKC is most at risk of losing SLC service all together, a flight to CVG, and maybe 1 or 2 flights to ATL.

Gotta love $110/barrel oil and a country full of people refusing to pay more to cover the increased fuel costs.

Here's a smaller version of the pic Jen referenced ...

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/misc/DisneyPlaneatAAR.jpg

Very nice, Jen!

Actually Alaska routinely flies its 737s (-400s and -700s) and MD 80s to OKC for heavy maintainence. AAR Corp. handles half of the maintainence for AS, the other half is handled by Goodrich aircraft services in Everett, Washington.

Not true. Flight Aware will track international traffic as well. Now a lot aren't on there, but a good number. I think it just comes down to how the flight plans are handled.


You are right. I just checked. I've never been able to check any of my intl flights, or even my trips to puerto rico. But I went up and found like fifty KJFK->EGLL routes, (thats the LHR ICAO, right?). Who knows! Either way, I stand corrected. I'll go search Flyertalk and see if anyone has figured out when it appears on FlightAware.


By the way, as an aside, I'm curious to know if you have the load factors on WN's OKC-BWI flight. I don't know how that could survive when CO can't fill an RJ to EWR, and no one is interested in an OKC-JFK flight. I just figure the BWI flight has to be all OD traffic. For months I've been trying to figure this airport out, and where people are actually ending up when they fly legacy carriers, because it seems everyone who puts in a non-hub N/S fails except WN. And its not like they are really cheaper, and they certainly aren't winning customers with service.

I'll try to dig the last quarter's numbers up tomorrow and post them. It has been awhile since I've done it anyways. :)

The airlines deboarded all 600 passengers. This worked out very well. All 600 passengers save for three young ladies reboarded after the diverts. (Those ladies probably decide to explore our great city.) :dizzy:

Thanks for posting the pic of the Disney plane, Doug. I love that pic as well. I am hoping many of the cool planes that have landed here this past year will make it into our 2007 annual report. Wouldn't it be cool if planes were painted like race cars? We could have a plane featuring a cereal box like Trix. I'm thinking of Red Bull's private plane that landed here - Nike's plane. (I thought the swoosh needed to be bigger and vintage AQUA.)

In fact, I had just flown in from the relatively new and similarly-sized Ontario airport in the Los Angeles area, and WRWA is a much better facility in my opinion.

I agree. I just got back late last night from my trip to LA on XJet. The Ontario Airport is not nearly as good or attractive a facility.

I'm still bothered by the dust-bunnies in the light fixtures above security and in other places. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about Jen. There must be something that can be done about that. It looks bad in what is otherwise a very impressive, modern design that doesn't look like every other airport.

Update from Express Jet on the future of their branded flying - IOW, what they operate in OKC that is not part of Continental Express or Delta Connection.

----

ExpressJetBrand. We have not yet been profitable in our Branded Flying operation and do not anticipate that we will be profitable in 2008 as we continue to establish our ExpressJet brand. We continue to evaluate and modify our schedules, promotions and marketing programs to establish our brand and shift our traffic mix from heavily leisure to more business/corporate travel and minimize our exposure during seasonal peaks and valleys.

We believe that the flexibility of our business platforms will enable us to sustain our liquidity and meet our financial obligations through 2008. However, if sufficient losses occurred in the Branded Flying segment we could remove from service a portion or all of the aircraft employed in this segment in 2008.

Delta has most of the schedule cuts posted, OKC escaped any major cut backs. We'll see how long it lasts.

Northwest is going all Embraer 175 jets to Detroit, also one will go to MSP (other flight CRJ) and one to Memphis as well (other 2 CRJs). I would imagine we'll see OKC transition to an all E175 station eventually like we were when they had the Avros.

American - Dallas, STL, and Chicago unchanged.

United - Denver, Chicago, Washington and Los Angeles all unchanged.

Frontier - All mainline to Denver, which took effect this month.

Continental - Newark, Cleveland, and Houston all unchanged.

US Airways - unchanged to Vegas and Phoenix.

Express Jet - some changes new schedule is... San Diego x1, Albuquerque x1, Ontario x1, Sacremento x1.

Nothing really big on the horizon. US Airways finally connected central Texas to Charlotte, hopefully we'll finally be in like this year (more likely 2009 from the sounds of it). AirTran is another possiblity. They have a ton of planes coming in with no where to fly them yet. As far as the charter world. Champion is expected to fold operations this year as Northwest is taking them off of the MLT WorryFree charters. These should be replaced by Northwest or another airline.

^Umm, Frontier actually has four roundtrips operated by Lynx with Dash 8-Q400s, in fact last year when I saw the schedules for the first three months of this year it was listed as all mainline (4X daily 319s/318s) but of course that didn't materialize. I think OKC-DEN is a bit over-saturated, but, if DL Conn eliminates SLC altogether (it already is down capacity-wise with two ERJ 145s for the summer schedule) that may help boost passenger figures to/from Denver.

Hopefully Air Tran will start nonstops between here and either Atlanta (would be good since DL/DL Conn have had a monopoly since ATL became DL's super-hub) or Orlando, which is less likely. I'm also wondering what plans Jetblue has, if any for Oklahoma City. Probably nothing in the near-term.

Will we be losing the seasonal nonstops to Cancun and Puerto Vallarta with Champion stopping operations? I hope the Las Vegas runs aren't affected though.

Don't know where to post this, so I'll do it here.

Have any of you checked out Virgin America (http://www.virginamerica.com)? I really, really want this airline to grow fast-- very fast-- so they can expand to this part of the country. This is flying!

Venture, OUMan --- any chance of JetBlue flights? I see they fly in and out of Austin and Houston, but not Dallas. I doubt it, but thought I would ask. Despite the "snow incident" in early '07, Jetblue was again named Best Domestic Airline in the Conde Nast Traveler's Readers' Choice Awards for the sixth consecutive year. I wish they were here.

Brian, as for Virgin America, I wouldn't hold my breath. They are a long haul carrier that flies to major coastal cities and Vegas. Their sister airline, Virgin Atlantic, also flies mostly major cities. But with growth - who knows?

I cant see JetBlue working here. They're businesses is point to point with the Northeast and Florida as their Focus, and we haven't shown much in terms of either. I guess my hopes would be for a CLT flight from USAir and hopefully a PHL someday. Airtran would be nice to ATL I guess, since the whole Orlando horse has been beaten to death.

Happy flying.

Sorry about that OUman. Knew Froniter/Lynx had the frequency boosted to 4x daily flights, but guess I was just use to it always being 3x daily - which it is/will be now.

JetBlue...eh, they are hurting a bit right now. OKC isn't as high of a yeilding city for them to come in to just yet. Austin is just because of all the high tech jobs there.

About the charters...one would assume the seasonal Mexican flights would remain, but we'll see.

Sorry about that OUman. Knew Froniter/Lynx had the frequency boosted to 4x daily flights, but guess I was just use to it always being 3x daily - which it is/will be now.

JetBlue...eh, they are hurting a bit right now. OKC isn't as high of a yeilding city for them to come in to just yet. Austin is just because of all the high tech jobs there.

About the charters...one would assume the seasonal Mexican flights would remain, but we'll see.

Venture, Aha! Now I know what my friend in Austin means when he says he takes one of the "Dell Express" flights. I asked him once and he said that they are flights everyone knows is scheduled to accomodate Dell executives, so when people take them they say they're taking the "Dell Express." He said, 'local joke'.