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Orbitz Reveals the Busiest Airports for Thanksgiving
November 11, 2009

Orbitz Insider Tells Travelers How to Navigate Airports over the Holiday Season

Orbitz.com (www.orbitz.com) today released the Insider Index of the busiest airports for Thanksgiving, as well as time-saving tips on navigating bustling airports during the holiday season. The Index also reveals the least busy airports, helping travelers who have not yet booked their airline tickets make an informed decision when choosing their airports.

Orbitz Index most/least busy Thanksgiving Airports

The Insider Index reviewed the top 50 U.S. airports based on flight bookings, identifying which will be the most and least busy the week of Thanksgiving.

Chicago O'Hare International takes the honor of the busiest airport this Thanksgiving. Rounding out the top three are Los Angeles and Denver international airports. New York-area airports occupy three of the 10 spots on the list, making the Big Apple a hot spot for Thanksgiving travelers. 

                  Thanksgiving Orbitz Insider Index
                         Busiest Airports(1)
                          -----------------
     Rank   City - Airport
     ----   --------------
       1    Chicago, IL - Chicago O'Hare International (ORD)
       -    ------------------------------------------------
       2    Los Angeles, CA - Los Angeles International(LAX)
       -    ------------------------------------------------
       3    Denver, CO - Denver International (DEN)
       -    ---------------------------------------
       4    San Francisco, CA - San Francisco International (SFO)
       -    -----------------------------------------------------
       5    Atlanta, GA - Atlanta Hartsfield International (ATL)
       -    ----------------------------------------------------
       6    Boston, MA - Boston Logan International (BOS)
       -    ---------------------------------------------
       7    New York, NY - New York LaGuardia (LGA)
       -    --------------------------------------
       8    New York - New York John F. Kennedy International (JFK)
       -    -------------------------------------------------------
       9    Newark, NJ - Newark Liberty International (EWR)
       -    -----------------------------------------------
      10    Seattle, WA - Seattle Tacoma International (SEA)
      --    ------------------------------------------------

For the first time, Orbitz also is revealing the least busy airports over the Thanksgiving holiday. While these airports will see a lift in traffic, overall they should be a lot easier for travelers to steer. Those traveling to San Jose can look forward to breezing in and out this Thanksgiving, as SJC will be the least busy domestic airport. 

                Thanksgiving Orbitz Insider Index
                      Least Busy Airports(2)
                       --------------------
     Rank   City-Airport
     ----   ------------
       1    San Jose, CA - San Jose International (SJC)
       -    -------------------------------------------
       2    Nashville, TN - Nashville International (BNA)
       -    ---------------------------------------------
       3    Richmond, VA - Richmond International (RIC)
       -    -------------------------------------------
       4    Sacramento, CA - Sacramento International (SMF)
       -    -----------------------------------------------
       5    Jacksonville, FL - Jacksonville International (JAX)
       -    ---------------------------------------------------
       6    West Palm Beach, FL - Palm Beach International (PBI)
       -    ----------------------------------------------------
       7    Hartford, CT - Bradley International (BDL)
       -    ------------------------------------------
       8    Orange County, CA - John Wayne International(SNA)
       -    -------------------------------------------------
       9    Cincinnati, OH - Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International (CVG)
       -    -----------------------------------------------------------------
      10    Fort Myers, FL - Southwest Florida Regional(RSW)
      --    ------------------------------------------------

Orbitz Insider's Top Five Tips to Save You Time at the Airport this Holiday

Choose alternate airports: If you haven't booked your Thanksgiving travel -- or if you're looking ahead to Christmas or New Year's -- consider using alternative smaller airports. These are often much easier to navigate and less crowded. For example, if you're traveling to Chicago, consider Chicago Midway (MDW); New York-bound travelers may have better luck with crowds at the White Plains Westchester County Airport (HPN); and those heading into or out of Los Angeles may save time by going through Burbank (BUR) or Orange County (SNA).

Flexibility is key: If your travel plans are flexible, investigate flying on days that Orbitz predicts will be less busy during the Thanksgiving period. The best bet would be to depart on Nov. 23, 2009 and return on Nov. 30, 2009.

Online check-in is your friend: Where possible take advantage of online check-in and print boarding passes before arriving at the airport.

Know your flight status: Always check the status of your flight before leaving for the airport. Orbitz bookers can choose to get flight status updates sent to their PDAs or mobile phones, while they're on the go. Plus, they can choose to send their alerts to 6 others, including those picking them up at the airport.

Security smarts: Keep anything you need to show airport security such as ID, boarding passes, liquids in a zip-top bag, or medication, in a separate compartment of your carry-on bag. Digging for these items once you get to the front of the security line will cause delays and certainly not make you any friends.

To see a complete list of the Orbitz Insiders' Top 50 Busiest Airports for Thanksgiving, visit: blog.orbitz.com.

(1) Busiest airport data based on air ticket bookings of the top 50 domestic airports on Orbitz.com with arrivals and departures between 11/21/09 and 11/29/09.

(2) Least busy airport data based on air ticket bookings of the top 50 domestic airports on Orbitz.com with arrivals and departures between 11/21/09 and 11/29/09.

SOURCE Orbitz.com

November 11, 2009 / category: Airports / link / comments (0)

New runway at O'Hare improves airports stats
July 28, 2009

Chicago's O'Hare International Airport is no longer the tar pit of the nation's air-transportation system.

In the eight months since a new runway opened at the U.S.'s second-busiest airport, plagued for decades with lengthy flight delays, O'Hare has operated with above-average on-time arrivals--better than Dallas, Atlanta and Denver in 2009, according to FlightStats.com. O'Hare's on-time arrival rate improved by 27% so far this year compared with the same period of 2008. That was twice the improvement of any other big U.S. airport.

The new runway, opened last Nov. 21, gets much of the credit. While airline reductions in flight schedules have eased congestion and reduced flight delays, the ability to now land three planes simultaneously in most weather conditions instead of two jets at a time has turned O'Hare from a choke point into a reliable airport.

Over the past year, the FAA has also been redesigning routes for planes departing and arriving in the Chicago area. Both O'Hare and Chicago Midway Airport used to share just three departure routes for southbound jets; now each airport has five different departure routes of their own.

NEW CONCRETE: The airport's first new runway in 37 years cost $457 million and reduced travel congestion.

Because of the enormous cost and heated legal battles with neighbors and environmentalists, building runways at big airports is a rarity--and a major reason air travel has been bogged down in the past 10 years. Last fall, three major runways opened with much fanfare on the same day in Chicago, Seattle and Washington, D.C. Seattle's new runway took two decades of planning, approval, court fights and construction. O'Hare's new runway was the first at that airport in 37 years.

And yet the changes at O'Hare show just how important new concrete is to improving air travel. Reducing delays at a major hub helps unclog air travel nationwide. "Any improvement we can get at O'Hare has impact all over the country," says Christina Drouet, manager of the FAA's Chicago-area modernization program office.

Improved Outcomes

Passengers have detected a difference. Tim Snyder, a Chicago-based sales and consulting executive for a software company, began noticing that his flights in and out of Chicago were more frequently on time, and arrivals frequently used the new runway. He started keeping track and had a streak of 26 consecutive on-time flights before bad weather in Chicago delayed his flight for two hours. But the streak resumed, and now he's been on time for 36 of his past 37 flights.

"Those are tax dollars I like to spend," says Mr. Snyder.

The new runway is on the north end of the airport, so far from the rest of the airport that a new control tower had to be built with it. The runway and tower cost $457 million and took about three years to construct, including demolition of property on 126 acres of land in Des Plaines, Ill., the airport acquired. A creek was rerouted and terrain raised for the expansion.

It's the first phase of a major modernization program at O'Hare; more runways are planned. By 2014, if the project stays on schedule, the airport will have six parallel east-west runways, up from three today. (O'Hare has a total of seven runways, some of which are used primarily for takeoffs and others are used mostly when winds shift directions.) Dallas-Fort Worth and Atlanta, two of the nation's three biggest airports, already have five parallel runways each.

Chicago Airport System Commissioner Rosemarie Andolino says the new runway reduced O'Hare's average delay to 16 minutes from 24, and when the entire modernization program is completed, "it will take the delay factor down to six minutes."

The FAA says O'Hare's maximum capacity before the new runway was 96 arrivals per hour in good weather; that's now up to 112 per hour with the new runway. Within a month of opening the new runway, "they were consistently hitting that," says Joseph Kolshak, senior vice president of operations at UAL Corp.'s United Airlines. "We saw improvement right away in our operation."

In bad weather, controllers dropped the arrival rate into the mid-70s per hour, according to the FAA's Ms. Drouet. But now even in bad weather about 85 planes are landing per hour.

That's where the big impact is felt--when low clouds, rain or snow reduce visibility and force airlines to hold planes on the ground all across the country because of a slowdown at O'Hare.

According to the FAA, 30,000 flights at O'Hare were delayed because of weather in the first five months of 2008. This year through May, only 8,800 weather-delayed flights were recorded "and we had a crazy winter this year with all kinds of snow," says Ms. Drouet.

One example: During snowstorms, O'Hare often would shut off landings on one of two arrival runways while trucks plowed snow. With the new runway, landings can continue on two runways constantly while plows do their work.

"I was skeptical, but a combination of factors have really improved things in Chicago," says Robert Cordes, vice president of operations planning at AMR Corp.'s American Airlines.

Mr. Cordes believes flight-schedule reductions because of the recession have been the biggest factor reducing delays, but says the new runway has helped as well. O'Hare went from being scheduled to 100.8% of its capacity at the beginning of 2008 to now being scheduled to 80% of capacity--the combination of fewer flights and higher capacity.

New York airports, by comparison, have seen only slight schedule reductions. Newark Liberty International Airport is currently scheduled to 99% of its capacity, he says. New York's La Guardia Airport is scheduled to 97% of capacity and Kennedy International Airport is at 89% of capacity.

"Eighty percent is the sweet spot. Get above that and things worsen," Mr. Cordes says.

Seattle's Story

At Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, delays typically stacked up in the frequent fog and rain because the two existing runways were too close together to have planes landing side-by-side in poor visibility. So the airport wanted a third runway far enough from the existing runways so planes could land two at a time in any weather.

The project took more than 20 years and cost more than $1 billion. Heavy construction started in 2004. One mile of public road had to be relocated, office buildings and warehouses were torn down, a creek had to be rerouted and 14 million cubic yards of fill had to be brought in from 25 different sources to build up the embankment of the hill where the airport sits. Six massive retaining walls were constructed to hold it all together. One rises 130 feet high and extends 20 feet below ground and is said to be the largest retaining wall in the Western Hemisphere.

"This is a serious engineering feat," says Scott Kyles, a project manager at Sea-Tac.

Once opened, Sea-Tac promptly closed its oldest runway for repaving--something it had put off for many years to avoid massive flight disruptions. Then the middle runway will be rebuilt and the airport will finally expand capacity.

"We couldn't survive long-term with just two runways," said Mark Reis, Sea-Tac's managing director.

Source: Wall Street Journal, article by SCOTT MCCARTNEY

July 28, 2009 / category: Airports / link / comments (0)

As Passengers Disappear, Airports Scale Back Projects (NYT)
June 23, 2009

At the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport, passengers are so scarce that a long-term parking lot will soon be turned into temporary housing for 900 horses attending equestrian games in the nearby bluegrass countryside.

It is an apt image -- going from air power to horse power -- for the troubles that airports are face these days: too few passengers, too few flights, too little revenue. And to deal with these setbacks they have come up with a solution: cut every capital project they can.

Terminals that were on the drawing boards are now off. Ditto for new gates, taxiways, roads and lights, as airport executives put a stop to billions of dollars in modernization projects that are now seen as unneeded and unaffordable.

"It's a matter of waiting until passenger levels kick up again," said Sean Broderick, a spokesman for the American Association of Airport Executives. "Airports are really stuck. They are cutting back like any other business. They are in survival mode while still trying to keep an eye on the future."

That future may not be pretty. With passenger traffic down as much as 20 percent at some airports, the effects of these cuts are not expected to be felt immediately. But once the economy and air travel rebound, passengers may well go back to feeling miserable about the crowded terminals, outdated parking lots and far-away rental car sites.

Making matters worse is the reality that airport projects need a long lead time. It typically takes three to five years to build a new terminal, and 10 or more for a new runway. Projects shelved today probably cannot be built quickly when they're needed in the future.

"There is a cost of doing nothing," said Deborah McElroy, executive vice president for policy at the Airports Council International-North America. "It is in potential delays and inconvenience for passengers later on, and in increases in future operating costs."

Many of the projects being cut, airport executives say, seemed feasible -- and desirable -- as recently as last year.

At Oakland International Airport in California, for example, a $1 billion plan to build a third terminal was shelved last summer after ExpressJet withdrew from the market, Aloha Airlines went out of business and other carriers, especially Southwest Airlines, cut back on flights. Passenger traffic fell by 30 percent, creating a ripple effect at the airport's restaurants and car rental operations, which also generate cash. Food and beverage revenue dropped by 25 percent; car rental revenue by 20 percent.

Instead of building a new terminal, Oakland is doing a $200 million facelift of an existing terminal. Fewer passengers, officials say, makes it easier for workers to do the rehabilitation.

"One has to look ahead 10 to 20 years," said Steve Grossman, the Oakland aviation director. "But you have to be realistic about the short run. We could not afford to build the terminal and cover the carrying costs in the short run. We told that to the airlines and they thanked me. We've never seen anything like this decrease in traffic. Never."

Had Oakland gone ahead with the new terminal, Mr. Grossman said, "our cost per passenger to the airlines would have been the highest in the country."

Air carriers, when hit with a drop in demand, can quickly adjust by reducing flights and cutting routes. But airports are different. Given their high fixed costs, any reduction in flight traffic can have a drastic effect.

Two-thirds of all airport revenue comes from nonairline sources: rental payments from retail concessionaires, parking fees, car rental surcharges and facilities charges that are included in the ticket fees. All of these are falling.

For instance, for the first time since it was enacted in 1991, a federal program that charges passengers up to $4.50 to pay for airport capital projects has collected less money than the year before. Collections generally come to around $3 billion a year, but they fell by $150 million in 2008, and further drops are expected.

Also declining are airline landing fees, which represent the other third of airport revenue and are based on the number of landings and aircraft weight.

A May 28 credit analysis of airports by Standard & Poor's said that "airports have not experienced such bleak economic conditions in decades."

Even more, the S.& P. analysis points out, it is also difficult in this economy for airports to raise fees or issue new bonds.

"Airport operators typically can adjust over time," said Kurt Forsgren, author of the S.& P. report. "But what's new and different is that this may be a prolonged decline. There's a natural tension at airports between scaling back now because tomorrow is not good and planning for infrastructure for 10 to 15 years out."

Mr. Forsgren said that rescheduled projects would probably rise in cost. "A terminal that may have cost $300 million today, might cost $550 million two years from now," he said.

That may turn out to be the case at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, where a $2 billion terminal replacement program was halted, as was a new $400 million car rental center.

"As I look to the future, projects that were unscheduled will be rescheduled," said James E. Bennett, chief executive of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. "Once a project gets back, it might get rescoped or re-engineered and be different. Once we see demand back, we will see many of these projects come back into play."

Dulles was one of a dozen case studies in a Government Accountability Office report in April on commercial aviation. Of the dozen airports studied, 10 reported delaying or canceling capital projects. And many, the report said, "remain airport priorities but cannot be completed for lack of available funding."

Tucson International Airport just refurbished its existing terminal but dropped a gate expansion program. Air traffic, which rose by more than 25 percent in the last four years, has "plummeted," said Bonnie Allin, chief executive of the airport. Tucson will continue with some smaller projects, however.

Ms. Allin considers Tucson lucky -- the airport was not caught midproject when the downturn occurred. "We're fortunate in terms of timing," said Ms. Allin. "We're in a position of being able to put these projects on hold and, when the growth starts, we can act quickly."

About $300 million, including money for a ticket lobby overhaul, was cut from a $1 billion expansion at Orlando International Airport. Orlando traffic is down 10 percent, but Steve Gardner, the airport's executive director, is not worried: "I'm cautiously optimistic it will turn around to whatever normal is."

One airport is moving differently. Kansas City International Airport has $161 million in new projects, taking advantage of a drop in construction costs.

"We were getting fantastic bids," said Mark VanLoh, director of aviation. "Prices were just getting better, so we decided to pull the trigger."

Mr. VanLoh added: "We like to call it our Midwest mentality. We're practical and frugal. We see opportunity and we jump on it."

Source: New York Times, by Leslie Wayne

June 23, 2009 / category: News / link / comments (0)

Houston Welcomes Qatar Airways to Bush Intercontinental Airport
April 1, 2009

Houston gave Qatar Airways a big Texas welcome as the inaugural flight of the Boeing 777-200 Long Range aircraft touched down at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH). The special airport celebration began with a classic water cannon salute as the jet pulled up to the terminal.

A crowd of Houston business professionals, government officials, city employees and economic development leaders gathered in a lounge at Houston's hub airport as Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker addressed everyone who gathered for the festive celebration of the new international air service.

"Passenger demand prompted this new route and I am absolutely thrilled we are able to bring our award-winning Five Star service to this wonderful gateway," says Al Baker. "Houston is the first new route for Qatar Airways in a robust year of growth."

To celebrate the occasion, Houston City Controller Annise Parker presented Al Baker with an official proclamation declaring it as "Qatar Airways Day."

Air passengers who travel frequently between the United States and the Middle East will benefit from the new route. The catalyst for the new international air service is the connection of two important energy capitals. As Houston's sixth largest trading partner in the Middle East, Qatar was considered one of the top underserved international markets.

"Houston is honored to become the newest U.S. destination for Qatar Airways," says Rob Wigington, Houston Airport System deputy director of Marketing, Communications and Community Affairs. "This new route is not only great for business and leisure travel between Houston and Doha, but it is going to generate more traffic for our global gateway."

Qatar Airways serves more than 80 destinations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, the Far East and North America. Besides Houston, Qatar Airways also serves New York (JFK) and Washington, D.C. (Dulles) in the U.S.

The flight schedule for the Houston to Doha route is below:

  • Depart Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport -- QR078 daily at 20:30 hrs, arrive Doha at 19:40 hrs the following day
  • Depart Doha International Airport -- QR077 daily at 09:50 hrs, arrive Houston at 18:10 hrs.

For more information on Qatar Airways, go to www.qatarairways.com. For more information on Houston Airports, go to www.fly2houston.com.

Source: Houston Airport System

April 1, 2009 / category: Airports / link / comments (0)
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