Airport reviews

Quote: Wizard

The Boise airport is nice. Clean, big, and uncrowded.

About 88% of air passengers travel via 30 large and 31 medium airports. Small airports handle less than about 10K passengers per day.

Small airports like Boise were probably built in anticipation of growth 20 years ago, and instead the traffic has been reduced over the last decade as airlines are now cutting out small airports. They seem very spacious.

The 30 large hubs, by definition each carry more than 1% of the traffic of the USA, and collectively they carry 72% of the passenger load. Four are in Florida, three in California and in the NYC area and in DC area. Two in Chicago area, and two in Texas.

FL MIA Miami
FL MCO Orlando
FL FLL Fort Lauderdale
FL TPA Tampa

CA LAX Los Angeles
CA SFO San Francisco
CA SAN San Diego

NY JFK New York
NY LGA New York
NJ EWR Newark

MD BWI Glen Burnie
VA IAD Dulles
VA DCA Arlington

IL ORD Chicago
IL MDW Chicago

TX DFW Fort Worth
TX IAH Houston


GA ATL Atlanta
MA BOS Boston
PA PHL Philadelphia
NC CLT Charlotte

MI DTW Detroit
MN MSP Minneapolis

AZ PHX Phoenix
CO DEN Denver
NV LAS Las Vegas
OR PDX Portland
UT SLC Salt Lake City
WA SEA Seattle

HI HNL Honolulu

The French national carrier will introduce the A380 to Mexico City from January 2016 on an initial three times weekly basis, substituting a Boeing 747-400 that presently serves the route. From March 2016 the A380 will operate on a daily basis, significantly boosting available capacity with a four class product offering - La Première, Business, Premium Economy and Economy.

Quote: Pacomartin

The French national carrier will introduce the A380 to Mexico City from January 2016 on an initial three times weekly basis, substituting a Boeing 747-400 that presently serves the route.

I think AF flies daily to Mexico City. If so, would an A380 3 times a week allow them to transport about as many passengers with fewer flights? That would save them some in costs.

I wonder if the crew refers to economy passengers as "Les Miserables" :)

Quote: Nareed

I think AF flies daily to Mexico City. If so, would an A380 3 times a week allow them to transport about as many passengers with fewer flights? That would save them some in costs.

As we discussed earlier, the exits on an A380 will support 853 seats, but all airlines prefer configurations that use the extra space to increase the number of premium seating. So the answer is that the A380 does not have that much more total seating than the B747.

It is not clear from the press release. Perhpas they are simply going to fly three A380s and four B747s a week at the start of the year, and then move towards seven A380 per week later in the year.

AF Boeing 747
36 angle-flat seats
398 standard seats

AF A380
9 open suites
80 angle-flat seats
38 standard seats PREMIUM ECONOMY
389 standard seats ECONOMY

The press release says 20% more seats, although I calculate 19% (434 to 516)

===================

Jan-Jun 2015 1,090 flights Mexico and France 251,957 passengers
58% Air France
33% Aeromexico
9% XL Airways
Passenger traffic to France and UK is nearly identical, but well below the 390,546 going to Spain.

Average number of passengers per day in/from Mexico by European carriers
868 Iberia (Iberia Líneas Aéreas de España)
771 Air France (Société Air France)
635 Lufthansa (Deutsche Lufthansa AG)
548 British Airways
517 K L M (Royal Dutch Airlines)
323 Air Europa (Air España)
300 Virgin Atlantic Airways, Limited
249 Pullmantur
218 Transaero Airlines
200 XL Airways (XL Airways France)
184 Air Berlín
147 Tui Nederland
144 Neos air (Neos S.P.A.)
117 Aeroflot Russian
88 Blue Panorama
88 Tui Belgium
67 Thomas Cook (Thomas Cook Ltd)
47 Iberworld (Iberworld Airlines)
31 Edelweiss (Edelweiss Air AG) Air Ag
28 Corsair (Corse Air Int.)

Quote: Pacomartin

So the answer is that the A380 does not have that much more total seating than the B747.

Ah, I think I see it now. there are many more expensive seats on the A-380. Maybe the idea is to sell those to businessmen willing/able to pay for them?

Also, how much of Europe's traffic to Mexico goes to Mex City and how much to resorts? I'm willing to bet Cancun gets as much or more traffic as Mex City does.

Quote: Nareed

Ah, I think I see it now. there are many more expensive seats on the A-380. Maybe the idea is to sell those to businessmen willing/able to pay for them?

Also, how much of Europe's traffic to Mexico goes to Mex City and how much to resorts? I'm willing to bet Cancun gets as much or more traffic as Mex City does.

Some of the European traffic to Mexico City may be going to smaller resorts via Star Alliance connecting flights with Aeromexico: Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Scandinavian Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines, TAP Portugal, Portugalia

You may be correct about Cancun. I used to think of Cancun as primarily a resort for people from the USA, but now I see that there are a huge number of nonstops (regular and charter) from Europe. As airfares came down, and the price of vacationing in Southern Europe went up, more Europeans just fly to Mexico.

British Airways | London–Gatwick
Virgin Atlantic | London–Gatwick
Thomson Airways |Birmingham (UK), London–Gatwick, Manchester Seasonal: Dublin, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow–International, Newcastle upon Tyne,
Air Berlin| Düsseldorf Seasonal: Munich
Condor |Frankfurt, Munich
Air Europa| Madrid
Air France |Paris–Charles de Gaulle
EuroAtlantic Airways | Seasonal: Lisbon, Porto
Jetairfly |Brussels
Transaero Airlines |Moscow–Vnukovo
TUIfly Nordic |Seasonal Charter: Copenhagen, Gothenburg–Landvetter, Oslo–Gardermoen, Stockholm–Arlanda
XL Airways France |Brussels, Paris–Charles de Gaulle
Thomson Airways |Oslo–Gardenmoen, Stockholm–Arlanda
Eurowings |Cologne/Bonn (begins November 8, 2015)
Lufthansa |Seasonal: Frankfurt (begins December 8, 2015)

Thomas Cook Airlines | London–Gatwick, Manchester Seasonal: Glasgow–International, London–Stansted
Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia |Charter: Copenhagen, Oslo–Gardermoen, Stockholm–Arlanda
Arkefly | Amsterdam Seasonal Charter: Warsaw–Chopin
Calima Aviación | Seasonal charter: Madrid
LOT Polish Airlines |Charter: Warsaw–Chopin
Novair | Charter: Gothenburg–Landvetter
Orbest | Charter: Lisbon,Madrid
TUIfly operated by Arkefly |Seasonal Charter: Hamburg
Wamos Air Charter| Madrid

Mexico finally broke 100 million air passengers in 2014 (all airports combined). In comparison, Atlanta airport reached 96.2 million air passengers.

Quote: Pacomartin

You may be correct about Cancun. I used to think of Cancun as primarily a resort for people from the USA, but now I see that there are a huge number of nonstops (regular and charter) from Europe.

What tipped me of was the mention of XL. I've never seen any of their aircraft in Mex City. I wouldn't necessarily see any, naturally, but the odds are good. I work right under the approach corridor, and I tend to notice aircraft livery and type (when possible). So I assumed they were flying to Cancun.

At GDL once I saw an AF Cargo 747. But then cargo moves in all kinds of ways.

Quote:

Mexico finally broke 100 million air passengers in 2014 (all airports combined). In comparison, Atlanta airport reached 96.2 million air passengers.

Shorter distances, dense population in the middle of the country, and less per capita GDP overall.

BTW, I'm surprised Toluca doesn't make it to the top chart any more, unless it was included in Mex City.

Quote: Nareed

BTW, I'm surprised Toluca doesn't make it to the top chart any more, unless it was included in Mex City.

Tolucas has dropped to 17th place since it was largely abandoned by Volaris. According to Wikipedia these are the remaining routes from Toluca

Interjet : Acapulco, Cancún, Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo, Las Vegas, Monterrey, Puerto Vallarta, San Antonio, San José del Cabo
Aeromexico Connect: Guadalajara, Monterrey
Spirit Airlines: Fort Lauderdale, Houston–Intercontinental
TAR Aerolineas: Guadalajara, Mérida, Tuxtla Gutiérrez
Volaris: Acapulco (ends August 26, 2015), Cancún

Quote: Pacomartin

Tolucas has dropped to 17th place since it was largely abandoned by Volaris.

I wonder how long it will last. I wonder if Interjet will move all its operations out once the new Mex City airport opens.

Quote: Nareed

I wonder if Interjet will move all its operations out once the new Mex City airport opens.

Possibly the most disastrous infrastructure decision ever made in the Americas was on November 29, 1975, when Mirabel International Airport in Montréal went into service and the older Montréal–Dorval airport was allowed to remain open for short haul flights to the USA. The airlines at Dorval thrived, Mirabel was a financial disaster, and Montréal is in 4th place in Canada. Toronto is a distant #1, Vancouver International Airport, and Calgary International Airport are slightly larger than Montréal .

The Mirabel disaster is the primary cautionary tale against leaving the old airport open when opening the new one.

The DFW airport opened for commercial service as Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Airport on January 13, 1974, at a cost of $700 million. The name change to Dallas/Fort Worth International did not occur until 1985. Dallas Love Field which had been the airport since WWI was allowed to remain open. But it had sever restrictions on flights which are just being lifted today.

Logically, they should close Toluca if they build a new Mexico City airport, just to prevent something like Interjet from setting up a low cost alternative. In the USA that would never happen, as airports are locally owned and managed . The fact that one airport is in the state of Mexico would mean it would be impossible. However, Mexico seems to have a more centralized government than the USA.