DFW | Passenger 747s returning to Dallas/Fort Worth...

Andrea Ahles of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram posted this to the Sky Talk blog this morning:

Jumbo jets return to D/FW

For the first time in several years, plane spotters will be able to watch passenger Boeing 747s land at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.

British Airways announced that it will use the 747 on its daily London Heathrow-DFW route starting on December 1. Coupled with Korean Air's decision to switch from a 777 to 747 in the fall on its Seoul-DFW route, plane spotters will have fun looking for the sky blue Korean Air and white BA jumbo jets on their arrival.

According to Greg Gayden, who runs DFWTower.com, BA used the 747 on its DFW route for about 10 days in January. Prior to that, the last time D/FW airport had 747 passenger service was when Korean Air had the jumbo jet on its Seoul route for six weeks in 2005.

NTx airNEWS: AirTran to add D/FW-Milwaukee flights

AirTran to add D/FW-Milwaukee nonstop flights
Wednesday, Nov. 04, 2009
By SCOTT NISHIMURA

snishimura@star-telegram.com

AirTran Airways, the low-fare Atlanta-based airline, said it will add nonstop flights between Dallas/Fort Worth Airport and its growing Milwaukee hub, expanding connections to the Midwest and Northeast, and heightening what one fare watcher dubbed "the battle of Milwaukee."

AirTran said it will launch two daily nonstops starting April 6, joining American Eagle and Midwest Airlines on the route. Southwest Airlines also launched service at Milwaukee this week but cannot offer nonstops to Dallas Love Field because of federal Wright Amendment restrictions.

The additions come as AirTran expands at the Milwaukee airport, drawing traffic from Wisconsin and the Chicago area.

AirTran also announced Wednesday that it’s adding SkyWest Airlines as a marketing partner. SkyWest will offer regional jet flights starting next month between Milwaukee and Pittsburgh; St. Louis; Akron/Canton, Ohio; Indianapolis; Des Moines, Iowa; and Omaha, Neb.

Fliers on AirTran can also take advantage of the airline’s nonstops between Milwaukee and northeastern cities such as Boston and Baltimore/Washington. AirTran currently offers nonstops between D/FW and Atlanta, Baltimore and Orlando, Fla. AirTran will serve the D/FW-Milwaukee route using its Boeing 717 twin-jet aircraft, successor to the workhorse McDonnell Douglas MD-80.

Christopher White, an AirTran spokesman, said the SkyWest partnership is important because AirTran isn’t scheduled to take another new aircraft delivery until 2011. "This frees our aircraft to serve other destinations, such as Dallas/Fort Worth," he said.

AirTran now serves Indianapolis, Pittsburgh and St. Louis from Milwaukee, and will switch that service to SkyWest, White said.

White said Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International Airport is one of AirTran’s top four hubs and will make up 11 percent of the airline’s traffic next year, up from 8 to 9 percent now.

"In addition to Milwaukee itself, there’s connectivity around the Midwest," he said.

Mike Boyd, a Colorado aviation analyst, said Milwaukee "is going to be a serious connecting hub."

There’s also local business that "you draw from Milwaukee and the northern collar counties of Chicago as well."

Tom Parsons, CEO of Arlington-based Bestfares.com, said the D/FW route is a logical extension of AirTran’s Milwaukee hub.

AirTran tried to buy Midwest Airlines, he noted, and, when that failed, AirTran "just went into Milwaukee and started matching them flight for flight." Midwest is now owned by Republic Airways.

The D/FW route is also a shot at Southwest, Parsons said, because "Southwest can’t do anything about it" until all Wright Amendment restrictions on flights from Love Field expire in 2014. To fly Southwest to Milwaukee, Dallas travelers must stop or connect at cities such as Kansas City, Mo.

Beyond Milwaukee’s value as a connecting hub, Parsons said the airport has become a viable secondary airport to the Chicago market.

"For years, people from Wisconsin had to go to Chicago" to fly inexpensively, he said. "Now, because of the battle of Milwaukee, it’s sometimes $70 to $100 cheaper to fly out of Milwaukee. And I suspect the people of Chicago are finding that out."

Joe Lopano, D/FW’s executive vice president of marketing and terminal management, said in a statement that "AirTran’s new flight to Milwaukee is an outstanding new addition to the service D/FW is able to offer the North Texas traveler. AirTran has a proven track record of success, serving more than 600,000 passengers a year at D/FW."

AirTran is one of the few airlines that’s enjoying profitability, and it has been touting services such as on-board WiFi on all its planes — prices range up to $9.95 — and free onboard XM satellite radio.

SCOTT NISHIMURA, 817-390-7808

NTx airNEWS: Arlington airport lands fans on Cowboys game days

Arlington airport lands fans on Cowboys game days

12:00 AM CST on Monday, November 2, 2009

By JEFF MOSIER / The Dallas Morning News
jmosier@dallasnews.com
  ARLINGTON – Dallas Cowboys fans are filling the Arlington skies just as predictably as their cars are crowding the streets around the team's new stadium.

Arlington Municipal Airport is pushing capacity as dozens of planes filled with fans arrive before every football game and concert. The city's airport usually has a dozen landings in an average four-hour period. A week ago, 80 planes arrived for the game against the Atlanta Falcons.
"In some circumstances, it's almost double what I expected," said Robert Porter, Arlington's airport manager. "That's a good problem to have."
City officials said the boost in activity at the airport is one of the tangible – but little known – signs of the stadium's economic impact.
Porter said about one-quarter of people arriving by private plane for stadium events stay overnight. He said they usually rent a car at the airport and frequently stay in an Arlington hotel. They often shop and eat at the nearby Arlington Highlands center.
And if they are happy with the service, they'll possibly return instead of flying into a comparable airport, said Nathan Mikula, general manager of Harrison Aviation in Arlington.
Mikula said Arlington's airport has suffered from a lack of reputation. Many pilots, he said, knew little about the airport, and those who knew it existed didn't know what was there.
"A lot of those people thought we were just a small little airport," Mikula said.
Actually, Arlington ranks among North Texas' three busiest general aviation airports each year. That excludes the commercial airports: Dallas/Fort Worth International and Love Field.
In 2005, a study commissioned by the Texas Department of Transportation estimated the Arlington airport's economic impact was about $93.3 million, including 786 jobs. Porter said he thinks that number could be closer to $100 million now.
Construction of a tower and a new instrumentation landing system recently has made the airport more appealing to corporate fliers. However, the ailing economy has hurt flight schools and recreational pilots, which has pushed flight operations down about 30 percent compared with last year, Porter said.
Still, Mikula said he's already seeing repeat customers who learned about the airport by flying there for a football game or concert.
Sean Fortenbaugh said he probably will be one of them. The Lawton, Okla., business executive flew to Arlington to attend the Cowboys' August preseason game against the Tennessee Titans.
He said he'd never been to Arlington's airport and knew little about it but was impressed. Even with the large number of planes arriving, he said, rental cars and limousines were lined up and waiting.
"They met me at the plane, got my bags, put them in the car, and I was probably gone in two minutes," Fortenbaugh said.
  
Boost to business

The stakes are higher, though, than just repeat customers.
Porter said he knew of at least one tenant who moved to the airport after learning about it through stadium publicity. He said another business at the airport is considering expanding operations because of the increased traffic.
City Council member Robert Rivera said that Cowboys Stadium is a destination for business executives and owners and that Arlington's airport can be an important gateway. He said he'd like for city officials to figure out ways to identify corporate decision makers who fly into the airport, and then make a pitch for Arlington.
"It could potentially be a business incubator," he said.
To make the airport even more appealing, work will start soon on an expansion that includes a new $4.9 million terminal and $1 million parking apron for planes.
Although those were planned before the stadium was announced, Porter said the upgrades take on greater importance now that the stadium has landed some of the nation's biggest sporting events.
The work is scheduled for completion just weeks before the 2011 Super Bowl. By then, the airport will be able to accommodate an additional six to 20 planes, depending on their sizes.
Until then, airport management is looking for creative ways to handle the traffic.
"Once we start getting over 80 aircraft, we really don't have the infrastructure to park aircraft without blocking something," Porter said.
He said he could close some airplane taxi lanes and ask businesses about using their property to park planes. Some planes could also be allowed to block access to a hangar if it wasn't in use that day.

 

Pool and PS3

 

Harrison Aviation, which sells fuel, provides maintenance and has concierge services at the airport, has doubled the size of its lobby and pilot lounge. Still, they're packed on game days. Harrison has added amenities, including a pool table and Wii and PlayStation 3 video game systems, to give pilots something do while the Cowboys play.
The big increases at Arlington's airport possibly mean decreases at Dallas County airports that handled more of the private plane traffic bound for Texas Stadium. Mikula said Love Field was the airport of choice for private planes heading to Irving.
Jose Torres, a spokesman for the Dallas aviation department, said data at Love Field were inconclusive. However, he said that Dallas Executive Airport, near Interstate 20, has seen increases in traffic during games, and its numbers are down at other times.
Officials with Grand Prairie's airport weren't available for comment Friday. Although some other airports might get a slight boost, the air traffic will tend toward Arlington, where the stadium is a straight shot north on Collins Street about six miles.
"It's giving the airport a lot more exposure than it's had," Mikula said. "A lot of people flying to the Dallas-Fort Worth area thought they had to fly to Dallas or Fort Worth."

NTx airNEWS: Denton Municipal Airport Master Plan (2003)

I just stumbled across Denton Airport's 2003 Master Plan (KDTO) and while it's a weighty 270 pages, there are some nice historical overviews of KDTO and the analysis of future expansion alternatives makes for interesting browsing- all of which involve adding a second parallel runway- two of the three plans involve a shorter parallel runway and the third alternative had two similarly sized parallel runways.

In 2001-2003 I took flying lessons at KDTO and back then, there wasn't a control tower and on Saturday and Sunday mornings, the traffic pattern could get quite busy! I'm not sure what the current economic climate's effects will be on the Master Plan, but it's a great little airport that I hope does well in the future.

NTx airNEWS: Dallas/Fort Worth Airport hopes to make millions by developing land around it

From the 9/5 edition of the Dallas Morning News:

With 18,000 acres, D/FW wants to turn its wealth of land into much more wealth. That includes increasing air service to bring money-spending passengers here and more commercial development to create jobs and sales tax revenue.


To that end, airport officials envision:

•More development parks such as the International Commerce Park, which the airport estimates has created 3,000 jobs.
•More entertainment and hospitality businesses, along with corporate headquarters for companies that are dependent on air travel.
•More corporate jets, drawn by $3 million worth of improved general aviation facilities.
•More airlines – especially international carriers – to be lured by bigger incentive programs that give carriers free rent for a year or more.

 I've noted the items that should be of interest to local spotters. Click the Dallas Morning News link above for the whole article.