LiveTV Tries to Solve the Onboard Internet Business Case Problem
Everyone wants to have internet onboard aircraft, but not everyone is convinced the business model works. Some problems still need to be solved.

Can the New Indianapolis Airport Terminal be Justified?
Indianapolis opens a brand new airport terminal tonight, but should they have built this facility or will it cause more harm than good in the long run?

Southwest’s Latest Codeshare Amplifies Labor Problems
Southwest has always been known for having stellar labor relations, but the pilots are unhappy about the international codeshares that the airline keeps announcing.

Delta Hints at Cincinnati’s Demise as a Hub
With the merger complete, Delta can now start making some bigger changes. Cincinnati has slowly been shrinking, but now its hub days may be numbered.

October Airline Traffic Numbers
October traffic numbers are out for the airline industry, and it’s no surprise to see nearly everyone cutting capacity. That helped keep traffic strong.

There were a couple of things that happened in the last week that got me thinking that I needed to write an update on how things were going for British Airways over at London/Heathrow’s Terminal 5. First, my walkthrough of the new Indy airport had me thinking about other recent big terminal openings. And second, I found out that the Telegraph over in the UK named me one of the world’s top 25 travel blogs, and specifically called out my writings on Terminal 5. Did I mention I love the British?

Anyway, I’m sure many of you haven’t been keeping track, but I have been keeping up my chart of Heathrow terminal changes on the site.

Nearly all BA flights have moved to Terminal 5 now including a big move of long haul flights in the last couple of weeks. There are still a handful of moves coming at the end of January, but the bulk of it is done. And now that the changes are nearly complete, it sounds like it’s operating quite well too.

I’ve spoken to three different people in the last couple weeks who have flown through Heathrow’s Terminal 5 and they’ve all had nothing but good things to say about it. It sounds like after the initial problems, they’ve smoothed out quite nicely.

I’m hoping to get out there to take a look sometime next year. For now, has anyone else had good or bad experiences to share?

Delta released early details of its summer 2009 schedule, and all I can say is . . . wow. They are moving a lot of airplanes around, and they’re flying to a bunch of cities that you’ve probably never heard of. They’re clearly enjoying having a brand new fleet of Northwest airplanes to schedule, but a lot of these seem like risky moves. Then again, you know what they say. No risk, no return.

The details are all available in the press release, so I won’t bother going over them all. But here are a few thoughts.

• They’re really starting to mix the fleets faster than I thought. A Northwest 747 will fly Atlanta to Tokyo and a Northwest A330 will fly Salt Lake to Tokyo. What I want to know is where these planes are coming from. I mean, it’s not like those aircraft are sitting on the ground right now. They’re flying other routes. So what else is being pulled down?




• And speaking of Salt Lake to Tokyo, this one is very interesting in that the local market is pretty slim. Sure, they have plenty of feed from the Rockies into Salt Lake to send over to Tokyo, and now they have the Northwest hub on the other side in Tokyo as well. They might be able to pull it off through sheer connectivity, but it will be tough.




• Delta is really pushing its 757 here a lot, but I’m trying to figure out where they’re all coming from. We already saw the Pittsburgh/Raleigh-Paris flights, but now we have a bunch of Africa flying as well as some smaller European cities (Gothenburg and Valencia).




• What the heck is in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea to make that flight worthwhile? And I thought Liberia was odd.




• Sal (Cape Verde Islands) has become a mini hub for these guys with flights to Liberia, Malabo, Luanda (Angola) and Abuja (Nigeria). I flew through Sal when I was flying South African from Atlanta to Johannesburg a few years back, and there’s not much there. Since then, SAA has stopped flying there completely, so it’s interesting to see Delta move in. Of course, these flights only operate once or twice a week at most. It’s more of a fuel stop/crew rest point out of convenience and nothing else. These flights won’t be cheap.

I’m really curious to see how this all works out for them. I mean, they could end up losing a lot of money if it doesn’t. But if they’ve figured something out, it could be huge. The Asian flying in particular really shows the power of the merger (if the flights are successful). Assuming they stick, Delta will be able to point to all the naysayers and say that the merger really did create many new route opportunities. My guess is that only some of these will stick, however, but that’s ok. As long as they act quickly to cut the ones that fail, then this will still be worthwhile.

I’ve seen unleaded gas for $1.75 a gallon here in Oklahoma, a barrel of oil is hovering around $60, and jet fuel is just over $2.00 a gallon, nearly 30% less than where it was a month ago. With this plunge in fuel prices, is it time to revisit ExpressJet’s now defunct model of providing point to point service between smaller cities? I hope so.

Jim Ream and the rest of the ExpressJet crew received a lot of flack for going out on their own and starting what I called a “Southwest Express” type of model. Instead of using 137 seat planes to link larger cities as Southwest does, ExpressJet used 50 seat aircraft to link smaller cities like Ontario and Tucson or Sacramento and Colorado Springs where no service currently existed. I loved the idea, but with fuel prices climbing, the ERJ 145 became a very difficult plane to make this work. (That wasn’t their fault – they had to use those planes.)

In August 2007, the airline reported a very low 63.8% load factor during the height of peak season. A year later in August 2008, after pruning the flights that didn’t work, the airline turned in a very healthy 78.4% load factor and showed that there was demand for the service. Unfortunately with the price of oil, there was no way they could make this one work, so they shut it down.

But even with lower prices, the Embraer still isn’t the right plane for this operation. Actually, I think the 70 seat Q400 turboprop might be the perfect aircraft for it. It can handle the relatively short stage lengths with ease, and it sips fuel compared to the 50 seat jets. So who is the right airline to try this?

Horizon.

Horizon is in the middle of retiring its Q200 and CRJ-700 aircraft in favor of an all-Q400 fleet, but that transition takes time. The airline has to remarket its 70 seat jets before it can get rid of them, so it has been trying to work with Bombardier on slowing down the Q400 deliveries to coincide with their ability to ditch the 70 seat jets. So why not start taking those Q400s as planned and open some new routes in old ExpressJet cities? Fares are higher in general right now, so that will only help, though of course the weakening in demand is alarming.

But there would be several advantages for Horizon over ExpressJet here. The flights would be operated by an airline with a connection to several major frequent flier programs, unlike ExpressJet, and they could offer codesharing with major airlines as well.

I always liked the ExpressJet idea, and I’d like to think that this could now work. It’s never a great time to start to try something like this, but this doesn’t have to be a major rollout. They can just start picking and choosing the best ExpressJet routes and grow from there if it works. Come on, Horizon. Give it a shot.

Next stop on the roadtrip: Indianapolis. My main reason for being here was a visit with the in-laws, but while I was in town, I was able to arrange a tour of the brand-spanking new Indianapolis Airport that opens tonight, November 11. Ok, so it’s not actually a new airport in that the runways aren’t moving, but the new terminal completely replaces the old one, which will be knocked down. The new terminal is also in a completely different location and requires using a new exit from a different freeway. Needless to say, they’ve been promoting the heck out of this thing here in Indy before it opens for departures tomorrow (November 12) so people don’t get lost. (Arrivals after 8p tonight will come in to the new building for positioning, but departures don’t begin until tomorrow.) There’s a lot of good and some bad with this new terminal, but let’s just start with an overview map of the area and work our way through.

As you can see, the new exit is further from downtown, but it is a dedicated exit for the airport that has no stoplights along the way as is the case currently. It’s about a mile from the exit until you get to the terminal itself which sits between the two runways, so yes, it’s going to be a longer drive for most people who use the airport. The first thing you realize on your drive in is that there is PLENTY of room for expansion here. It’s almost reminiscent of Denver when you drive through flat emptiness for awhile before the terminal rises out of the ground. As you can imagine, that means there’s plenty of room for parking.

Parking is actually cheaper than it is in the old location. Daily maximum for the garage is only $16 (down from $22) and economy lots are as cheap as $7 a day. Through December, the airport is offering a free day or parking when you have at least two days. Click here for the coupon.

The terminal itself is set up very well in that traffic flows don’t cross each other often. Departing passengers will either come in on the second level at the curb or via the garage which is sort of on a level 1.5 that requires you to go up a half story for ticketing or down a half story for baggage. When you go up to ticketing, the ticket counters are on the left and right while straight ahead is the enormous, round Civic Plaza area to get to the gates. From here, you’ll see entrances to both concourses on opposite sides of the plaza surrounded by shops and restaurants. Here’s a video of the area:

The Civic Plaza is one area I just don’t understand. Sure, the open space is nice for people who are waiting for loved ones, but I can’t see the shops and restaurants doing very well. Anyone who is flying out is going to want to go through security and then relax whereas those people flying in aren’t going to want to hang out for a beer in the airport after they arrive. These shops will likely only cater to people waiting for people to arrive, so I’ll bet that they’re going to suffer. Besides, if I had to pick someone up at the airport, I’d plant myself in front of the huge picture window and just watch the planes go by, and I wouldn’t be shopping.

So, let’s get back to what matters here. There are two concourses, A and B, that can be entered from opposite sides of the Civic Plaza. It’s seems strange that A is on your right and B is on your left, but they named it this way since you drive in from the right and come upon A first. Unlike in the four concourses that exist today, these two are connected behind security so you never have to leave security unless you’re leaving the airport.

Speaking of security, they have it set up well here with plenty of room for lines, a dedicated CLEAR lane, and several gates and scanners on both sides. Over on the A side, you’ll find the gates dominated by Delta/Northwest with Continental as well. There are also two international-equipped gates on this side but obviously no international service as of yet. Over on B, you’ll find all the other airlines: Air Canada, AirTran, American, Frontier, Midwest, Southwest, United, and US Airways.

When you enter the concourses, there are three gates off to the left in B/right in A while the other 17 gates lie on the other side of each concourse for a grand total of 40, 7 more than in the current airport. In case you were wondering, there is plenty of room for expansion here as well if it’s needed.

The airport gets points for using local brands on the concourses. I’d highly recommend a stop at Shapiro’s deli over on B. I’ve been to two locations in town and they have really good food. It’s definitely the place to stop if you want to grab a sandwich for the road.

The concourses themselves are wide and airy and are filled with art. More importantly, they’re filled with a free wi-fi signal as well. On the plus side, there are laptop charging stations, but unfortunately there are no power outlets near the seats. You would think that a place designed in this day and age would have ample power outlet access throughout the seating area so people could recharge without going to some power charging location. Also, they’re taking bets here that the airlines won’t have interminably long delays. The seats have fixed armrests that make lying down impossible unless you’re Kate Moss-skinny and can squeeze underneath.

If you’re on an arriving flight, you head back towards security where they’ve actually done a good job of separating the entrance and exit so you don’t get tangled up here with opposing flows. You’ll walk back through the Civic Plaza and then head downstairs to baggage claim. There are six bag carousels with three on each side of the hall. Once you grab your bag, you can either walk out to the curb for pickup or you can head up a half level to go back through the tunnel to the parking garage.

If you need ground transportation or a rental car, you go back to the garage and then downstairs. In the old airport, you have to take a shuttle to get to rental cars, but they’ve actually put all the cars on the bottom floor of the garage in the new airport so it’s much easier.

So that’s it. Of course, the big question here is . . . how much will it raise operating costs at the airport? A brand new $1.1 billion terminal project has to be paid for somehow, and it’s going to fall on the shoulders of the airlines, as usual. Higher operating costs make it harder to maintain flights. So, I’ll be watching closely to see how much this new airport impacts the ability to keep flights at the airport. For more on this, see my BNET post on the economics of the new airport.

Links
All of my pictures and videos of the new airport
New Indianapolis Airport website with map
Indianapolis Star special section on the new airport