OKC/Will Rogers Air Service Discussion 2011

[SkyWestOKC]

The thread started by venture79 is getting pretty long, and hard to follow. Thought I'd start a new thread. Thanks venture for keeping that other thread going.

Changes this year to note:

• American's OKC-LAX [Los Angeles] begins 4/5/11
  Once daily service on Canadar Regional Jet CRJ-700
  
• Delta's OKC-MSP [Minneapolis/St. Paul] increases to 4x daily flights in early-mid June
  All 4 flights scheduled on Canadair Regional Jet CRJ-200
• Delta's OKC-ATL [Atlanta] goes to 2x mainline flights per day, and 3x regional jet
  2 mainline flights will be McDonnell Douglas MD-88, the 3 regional flights are scheduled with Canadair Regional Jet CRJ-900.
• New flyokc.com website went live in early March
• Airport Trust planning Commercial East Side Development Program
  Mix of aviation, retail, and offices on the east side of the airport property near I-44/I-240 interchange.
• Atlantic Aviation building hangar/FBO for Spring 2011 opening
  New FBO [Fixed Base Operation -- providing services for general aviation and business aircraft] scheduled to open on the east side of the airport in late Spring 2011.
• ARINC building new add-on hangar
  Large hangar to compliment their existing hangar on the east side of the airport. Scheduled to open in June or July of 2011
• United's OKC-LAX [Los Angeles] due to go to 1x flight daily in the fall
  Most likely in response to American's add of OKC-LAX driving down passenger numbers on United. Good to see United keep the route. It was a strong performer last year. Also on Canadair Regional Jet CRJ-700.

Feel free to add things I may have forgotten. 2011 is likely to be a good year for OKC [Airport]. We are getting more attention than we have had in a while.

[Jesseda]

Its no biggy, but the airport shuttlles will be getting a new paint job soon

[SkyWestOKC]

Thanks for the info, didn't know that. Are they going to a different logo or just going plain white?

[Jesseda]

Im not sure yet what it they will look like... So do you know when they will add more gates? the rumor run crazy here in the parking lot on when that will happen.. we hear that will be ina couple years blah blah blah, then in 4 years...

[OUman]

^Highly unlikely in the next two years, unless the passenger traffic increases at a high rate (as in going above 4 million/yr). The thing is, to begin with, there are four empty gates-1, 8, 11 and 12. And chances are once the UA and CO merger is fully completed, the new UA will likely consolidate operations to three gates from the current four (2 CO and 2 UA-> 3 UA). So that will leave one more gate open. Frontier's not doing too well at OKC, if it goes... you get the idea.

[venture]

Hopefully any terminal expansion includes the ability for a business/frequent flyer lounge (or club) - but non-exclusive to an airline, and also at least 1 gate with the ability of handling international arrivals.

[SkyWestOKC]

Not sure about any airline club, but I know for sure they plan it to have immigration.

[LakeEffect]

Interesting analysis of ticket pricing and the most expensive (and inexpensive) airports. We make the list in the most-expensive list for mid-sized airports, paying about $57 more per flight than we should.

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes...-unfair-fares/

[okclee]

Ah,.. but the cost of living is so much less expensive in Oklahoma,....haven't you heard?

[venture]

This was a good quote from that story...

Prices are higher the more the legacy airlines dominate an airport, but they also tend to be a bit higher where Southwest has a large share as opposed to other low-cost carriers like AirTran and JetBlue. (Southwest is cheap, but it isn’t quite as cheap as some of these up-and-coming airlines and now represents something of a middle ground.) Also, prices tend to be higher when any one airline dominates an airport, regardless of whether it is a legacy carrier or a low-cost one.

I'm sure this has a part to play here. Southwest is rarely the lowest on a route unless they are trying to force competition out. They are fairly dominant here, though the others do keep up. Unfortunately Frontier is pretty weak here, so they aren't able to force Southwest to stay low. AirTran would have been our best shot, but that's gone now. JetBlue is about all that is left since Allegiant won't touch us again.

[SkyWestOKC]

http://www.flyokc.com/statistics/Mar...planementl.pdf

Not quite as good of percentage gain as the previous months, but the initial recovery spike occurred March 2010, so we are trying to beat numbers that skyrocketed, so a huge gain on top of a gain probably isn't going to happen. This is modest growth on top of good growth. This is good. Hopefully we can keep this trend going. Frontier's numbers look bad. But remember they aren't offering as many flights as they did last year, with Orlando and Tampa service. So they may still be filling the seats they are offering into OKC, but there's not as many offered seats as March 2010. So the numbers do look bad, but they probably aren't as bad as they appear.

[venture]

http://www.flyokc.com/statistics/Mar...planementl.pdf

Not quite as good of percentage gain as the previous months, but the initial recovery spike occurred March 2010, so we are trying to beat numbers that skyrocketed, so a huge gain on top of a gain probably isn't going to happen. This is modest growth on top of good growth. This is good. Hopefully we can keep this trend going. Frontier's numbers look bad. But remember they aren't offering as many flights as they did last year, with Orlando and Tampa service. So they may still be filling the seats they are offering into OKC, but there's not as many offered seats as March 2010. So the numbers do look bad, but they probably aren't as bad as they appear.

Horribly simplistic math would put it around 48 passengers per flight based on those numbers. That is if they were doing 3 flights a day...noticed this week they are only doing 2 it seems. Is that what they had going in March?

[SkyWestOKC]

Depends on the day. Sundays they have 2 ERJ170's and a Dash 8, Mon-Friday they had 2x flights through some of march, peak days with 3. So there's too many variables to put on that. April will be a little easier because right now it's 3x daily and a sub Dash 8 on Sundays.

[ljbab728]

Frontier Airlines has just come out with some new fee policies. I'm not sure if this is a desperation move or a good marketing strategy to try to compete more with Southwest.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20...educing_fees_1

[venture]

Southwest is definitely out to kill them after they rejected the merger. Not sure what will happen though. They seem to be hanging in there except in markets extremely loyal to Southwest (OKC being one). Either way, Southwest is about to get extreme distracted folding in AirTran to really care much.

[SkyWestOKC]

Okay, it is close enough to summer to say that the summer schedule uploads that occurred in March and April have stuck and are "firm" schedules. So, I'd like to take this opportunity to post what the air service will look like for Oklahoma this summer.

The reference date is July 20, 2011.

Codes are at the bottom of the file.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?...thkey=CKnco9gK

[OUman]

I would like to see OKC go above 100 permanently at some point. We'll have to wait till passenger numbers inrcrease though.

[woodyrr]

I am going to be making my first ever flight in late June.

I have booked a trip that starts with an early morning UA flight to ORD on an ERJ-145. I plan to make an appointment with one of the shuttle services to pick me up at home and take me to the airport.

I'm wondering what to expect.

Do UA ERJs load using a jetway or do you go down stairs and walk across the tarmac.

If this thread is not for specific questions and discussions about service details, just toss me off of the bus.

[SkyWestOKC]

They load from a jetway at OKC. Depending on where you part at O'hare you'll either load from the ramp (the tarmac) or a jetbridge. Enjoy your flight, what's your final destination?

[woodyrr]

If everything goes according to plan: After a layover at O'Hare, I will be boarding another UA ERJ-145 for an early afternoon arrival at CAK (Akron-Canton Regional).

My recollections of Will Rogers World Airport date from when most carriers that had gates at the airport flew 727s: Braniff, American, Continental, and TWA. Central, which became Frontier, flew turboprop Convair 580s, if I recall correctly. Braniff flew my favorites, The Boeing 727-100 and the Lockheed L-188 Electra.


1:200 Braniff International Boeing 727-100 by woodyrr, on Flickr


1-200 Braniff International L-188 Electra by woodyrr, on Flickr

[SkyWestOKC]

Beginning July 14, Frontier will add a mainline flight into OKC from Denver, an Airbus A319.

With this, we can now say every airline in OKC has a mainline presence.

[GoThunder]

Beginning July 14, Frontier will add a mainline flight into OKC from Denver, an Airbus A319.

With this, we can now say every airline in OKC has a mainline presence.

Wow, surprising. Even with their decreasing numbers, they still add a flight. Very encouraging!

[mugofbeer]

I live in Denver and SW is killling Frontier. What time of day?

[OUman]

Isn't Concourse C at DEN basically Delta/DL Conxn and Southwest now? I was out there last year in August, great airport.

[GoThunder]

I know it's fairly far off, but I just wanted some other opinions... How long do you think it will be before an airline adds an international route out of Will Rogers? Say maybe a tourist spot like Cancun. Or simply a route to Canada?