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3 Links I Love: LAX Musical Chairs, A New Airline in Burbank, Airport Board Game

20 comments on 3 Links I Love: LAX Musical Chairs, A New Airline in Burbank, Airport Board Game
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This week’s featured link

Midfield Satellite Concourse Management Report to the Board of Commissioners – LA World Airports
The new Midfield Satellite Concourse at LAX is substantially complete and should be opening relatively soon. This recent report to the board shows a bunch of photos. Most interesting to me, however, mentions that airlines that currently operate in Bradley, T5, and T6 will move there. I asked LAWA for names, but they aren’t talking yet.

Game of the Week: Of course it took an airline employee to invent a board game about traveling through the airport during the time of COVID. She sent me a review copy, and I have to say, it was a lot of fun. My 7 year-old daughter asked if we could play again the next night (and the next night, and the next night), so don’t pay attention to the “12 and up” label. The general idea is to get from your home to the ticket counter, past TSA, through the terminal, and on to your airplane. Interested? It’s currently for sale on a crowd-sourcing site, so the more people who buy, the cheaper it gets. Check it out here before the sale ends on March 14.

Two for the road

Open Positions – Avelo
Start-up airline Avelo has quietly changed many of its job listings from saying the location is in the LA area to now saying Burbank. Giddyup…

Interim Financial Results 2021 – Air New Zealand
You would think that a country heavily dependent on international tourism like New Zealand would have an airline with a disastrous result. It’s not nearly as bad as I figured. For the last 6 months of 2021, revenues were down 59 percent on capacity being down 65 percent. Incredibly, domestic capacity is at three-quarters of pre-COVID levels because Kiwis are all flying domestically, replacing much of the lost international tourism.

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Brett Avatar
Brett

20 responses to “3 Links I Love: LAX Musical Chairs, A New Airline in Burbank, Airport Board Game”

  1. FC Avatar
    FC

    I can’t imagine AS moving out of T6. So small ones like Boutique Air, Mokulele Airlines, and VivaAerobus will probably get moved. Would AC get moved? That’d be surprising.

    Reply
    1. Carl Avatar
      Carl

      If I had to guess, the airlines moving from 5/6 to MSC (and to move their check in area to T-1.5, if you watch the recording of the meeting) are:

      Spirit
      Allegiant
      Hawaiian
      Frontier
      Sun Country
      Boutique
      Mokulele
      Aerobus

      I am unsure on JetBlue. I’m sure they’d like to be close enough to newly minted bestie AA, but with AA’s longer term goal of 10 gates at T5 and the lack of an open FIS, would JetBlue be better served at MSC maybe with check in at T5?

      I think Alaska and Air Canada stay in 6.

      As far as the International airlines moving, the only one I am sure of is AirFrance. Right before the COVID restrictions, the LAWA board approved AF’s lease for a new club in the MSC (March 5, 2020) I’d assume that KLM would move too, but don’t remember seeing anything.

      Reply
      1. Greg Avatar
        Greg

        I suspect you are right about AC since they have a maple leaf louge in T6 unless the T6 terminal improvement project has changed substantially since the last public presentation requiring them to move. Once T9 is built then they would probably move there.

        Reply
    2. SEAN Avatar
      SEAN

      I could see AC shifting to T7 sharing gates with UA & LH & allowing AS & B6to expand in T5 / T6. If that is not the exact plan, it maybe something close to it.

      Reply
    3. Nate V Avatar
      Nate V

      Mokulele isn’t moving. We are partners with Alaska Airlines & would have received notification months ago.

      Reply
  2. Bill from DC (aka Cranky Gazelle?) Avatar
    Bill from DC (aka Cranky Gazelle?)

    Who or what is the story behind Avelo? Never heard of it before.

    Reply
    1. Yo Avatar
      Yo

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avelo_Airlines

      Casino Express/Xtra Airways, cert purchased, planning new routs as Avelo.

      Reply
      1. Chris Avatar
        Chris

        That Casino Express livery truly is a thing of beauty.

        Reply
        1. Yo Avatar
          Yo

          Their old 737-200 used to spend some time at the old Dyne-Air Tech hangar in Phoenix frequently in the early 90’s. Always loved their livery.

          Reply
    2. enplaned Avatar
      enplaned

      http://www.aveloair.com

      https://newsroom.aviator.aero/andrew-levy-to-launch-budget-airline/

      Reply
  3. Jason Avatar
    Jason

    There’s also a Pan Am board game.

    Reply
  4. SEAN Avatar
    SEAN

    Shame on you Cranky, don’t you know that kiwis don’t fly? But they taste pretty dam good though./s

    Happy Friday to all.

    Reply
  5. Marie Avatar
    Marie

    The board game looks awesome! I ordered a copy for my self and and my sister – christmas 2021 shopping done!

    Reply
  6. Jim M Avatar
    Jim M

    So I get the tunnel part for LAX midfield for going check-in to gate, but how does the tunnel part work for going gate to customs (arrival)? Is the tunnel split? I’ve had a variety of experiences with TBIT customs — ranging from horrible to very fast. So it will be fun to see the impact here.

    Reply
    1. David M Avatar
      David M

      From the diagrams I could find, the tunnel is split. See slide 14 in this PDF: http://lawa.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=4&clip_id=268&meta_id=21167

      Reply
      1. Jim M Avatar
        Jim M

        Thanks David!

        Reply
  7. DesertGhost Avatar
    DesertGhost

    It looks like the Midfield Satellite Concourse is designed to accommodate large aircraft, so wouldn’t it make sense to use it for international carriers whose main focus is O&D?

    Reply
    1. CF Avatar
      CF

      DesertGhost – The original plan was for 12 widebody gates. I believe it will now have 15 gates, some of which are for narrowbody. So it will be used by both.

      Reply
      1. DesertGhost Avatar
        DesertGhost

        Thanks for the clarification.

        Reply
  8. Chris P Baacon Avatar
    Chris P Baacon

    Are gates at BUR common use? There are 14 gates, 9 on A (WN, AA, B6) 5 on B (AS, DL, UA, NK). The concourses are not connected. According to wiki, almost 6 million pax used BUR in 2019, almost 70% on WN. In a pre-COVID world, I’d guess they were using 7 of 9 gates on A, maybe 8 of 9 if B6 and AA had to share a gate. I’m wondering how much flying Avelo could actually launch from BUR? Looking at the job postings, it clearly is a crew base, you want to be able to do as much flying as possible in order to not pay crews to deadhead. They are launching with 2 737-800s, but plan to grow to 15 in the first year. (FYI, I have had conversations with people in Houston involved in the launch, but no NDA). Bur has a hard cap of 14 gates. I can’t see them being able to operate more than around 15ish daily flights to “underserved” (i.e. less than daily) markets from BUR. Just not seeing how they get economics of scale for crew bases, insourced ramp and customer service functions (and required training programs) with a launch base city that is so restricted from growth?

    Reply

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