Senate to Discuss National’s Perimeter Rule

Ah, Reagan National Airport, a favorite topic of government officials (especially those in Congress), most likely because it's the airport that they often use. The airport has a 1,250 mile perimeter rule in place, which restricts the number of markets that can be served from the airport. It was originally put in place to help grow the then-new Dulles by forcing all of the longer-haul domestic and international routes to be based out of the airport.

Over time, the perimeter has been expanded to include more markets eligible for nonstop flights. And twelve exemptions to the rule, which allow for service to Denver (United and Frontier), Las Vegas (LAS), Los Angeles (Alaska), Phoenix (US Airways), Salt Lake City (Delta), Seattle (Alaska), giving those carriers access to popular markets with the prospect of limited competition.

The FAA reauthorization bill is currently being debated by the Senate, and not surprisingly amendments to the perimeter rule are being suggested. It's a popular topic for a couple of reasons. First, providing expanded air service to constituents is certainly a boost for a political leader. Second, said political leader can now fly home from Washington a bit easier.

There are a few options on the table right now. Sen. Kay Hutchinson is suggesting adding four slots for flights to medium-hub airports that are less than 2,000 miles from the airport. That conveniently would allow more service between National and Texas. John Ensign is suggesting that airlines that currently serve the airport from a large hub could use their current slots to fly to any city beyond the perimeter. And there are other proposed options, as well.

Personally, I don't see much use for the perimeter rule anymore. Dulles doesn't exactly need much help in becoming an established airport anymore.

Anyway, you can get all the details here.

Airlines Get More Mobile

Over the past few years, a lot of airlines have really started to take advantage of mobile technology, and in the past couple of weeks we've seen a few interesting developments.

First, Alaska, Alaska-subsidiary Horizon, American, and United have all rolled out mobile boarding passes. Continental has had mobile boarding passes for awhile now, but the airline just expanded the program to London's Heathrow airport, making them the first airline to have mobile boarding passes available for flights from the United Kingdom to the United States.

So why does this matter? Well, I just think of a boarding pass as yet another thing to lose. And I've found that, especially with boarding passes printed online, I just shove my boarding pass into a pocket where it just becomes a crumpled mess. Plus, the mobile boarding pass if you're not near a printer when it's time to check-in. Also, it's really convenient to be able to walk straight to security without printing anything out, and even if checked bags are necessary, having a boarding pass in hand will save time.

Another interesting development is the release of a mobile application for Blackberry, iPhone and Windows Mobile by Alaska last week. Plenty of airlines have websites that are optimized for mobile devices, but I think an app is better because one doesn't have to fiddle with a mobile browser, and instead have an app installed on their phone that has links to all the important functions.

Anyway, you should definitely take a look at some of these handy tools. Also, mobile boarding passes are only available in some areas, so it's good to check the airline's website as you get ready to head off on your trip.

An Interesting Revenue Source for Denver

On this blog I've written here before about sources of revenues, but recently Denver announced one of the more interesting ones - the airport has purchased 27 oil and natural gas wells on airport property that it was previously leasing to Petro-Canada Resources (USA) Inc. for $5.5 million. The wells will provide approximately $3.5 million in additional annual revenue for the airport. Overall, the airport owns or operates 76 wells.

The airport's John Ackerman said in a press release that "this deal is very good for DIA and our airline partners, because improving our non-airline revenue sources helps to keep costs down for our carriers, which in turn helps us grow air service to the Denver market." This is definitely unique, but not only to Denver - DFW has oil on its property, too.

Meanwhile, the airport reported its best Janauary ever, with traffic of 3,776,403 passengers, a year-over-year increase of 2.9%. It's certainly good to see that from an economic perspective, but of course, Denver travelers have also been benefiting from competition for a few years now. United is still the dominant carrier, though.

Australian Government Investigates Airport Parking Rates

Lately I've focused a lot on North America in this blog, but for this post, let's head down under! Yesterday a report from the Australian Competitor and Consumer Comission (ACCC) said that it "maintains its view that airport car parking prices are consistent with charges reflecting an element of monopoly rent," an annual performance report released yesterday declared. Airports are in a position to set car parking prices above an efficient level by controlling the conditions of landside access to terminal facilities."

As written here before, parking represents a huge piece of airport revenue. In the case of Melbourne, it represented 20% of total total revenue.

So what happens now? Well, the issue will be studied further in the coming months, and the government will decide on the next step to take. And that step could very well be having parking rates charged at airports start being regulated by the government. So it'll be interesting to see how that develops.

Clearly, people are only complaining because they did not go to About Airport Parking and compare parking rates at major airports (including off-airport sites) in Australia and New Zealand!

Well, probably not. But it should be noted that in addition to parking in the North America, you can use About Airport Parking to compare parking rates in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

TripAdvisor Survey Reveals “Airport Annoyances”

Yesterday, the popular travel website TripAdvisor announced the results of its annual travel survey, and I found some of the results to be very interesting.

For example,TripAdvisor reports that "79 percent of travelers said they are comfortable with U.S. airports using full body scanners that can see through clothes." With all of the media attention focused on the negative aspects on body scanners, I didn't think the number of those in favor would be so high. But it appears that most travelers are willing to give up a bit of privacy in the name of security. (Assuming, of course, that the body scanners are effective in that regard.)

Travelers also shared what annoyed them the most about airports, and not surprisingly waiting for security took the top spot in this category at 39 percent. 19 percent of respondents said that the high price of food in airports was their biggest annoyance, but apparently the price of water is more annoying. When asked if there should be a price limit on bottled water in airports, 95% agreed. It appears that the majority believes airport vendors have been taking advantage of the liquids ban.

There are some other interesting statistics as well. For example, I found it particularly interesting that 30% said that they would pick one flight over another because of the availability of inflight Wi-Fi, while at the same time 60% said they wouldn't be willing to pay for inflight Wi-Fi. Interesting.

Meanwhile, travelers also cited fees (especially bag fees) as one of their biggest annoyances.

You can see all of the results here.

Smartphones Can Help You Avoid Parking Dilemmas

Yesterday, I cam across an interesting story from down under in Australia - the CFO of a large business parked at the airport for a trip, but couldn't find it upon his return. Thinking it was stolen, he reported the incident to the authorities, and after waiting a few weeks his insurance company covered the cost of a new car. But, the article continues: "Weeks later he got a call from the Sydney airport authority who wanted to know whether he was going to collect his car which by then had collected a $1,000 parking ticket."

Apparently said executive had forgotten where he had parked.

Let's be honest - when you're heading to the airport for an important trip, the last thing on your mind is where you're parked. Getting checked in, going through security while avoiding a pat-down, and boarding on time are all more important.

Fortunately, today's smartphones can make life easier. I mean, a simple note in one's phone of parking location can save time upon returning home. And there are even cell phone applications that make this easier, like G-Park for the iPhone. My personal favorite, however, is Carrr Matey for Android phones, which, as the name implies, has a pirate theme. Instead of parking, you "drops anchor," and then when you need to return you find your "vessel," not your car. Both of these apps use the phone's GPS to generate turn-by-turn directions back to your car.

Unfortunately, these apps might not have helped our executive - he went to the right location in the parking garage, but just went to the wrong level.

Continental Changing Terminals In Denver

Here's a quick heads up to the Continental flyers who might be going in or out of Denver in the near future - the airline changed terminals yesterday due to its alliance switch, something that it has already done in places like Chicago, Frankfurt, and Tokyo.

A few months ago, Continental moved from SkyTeam to the Star Alliance, which appears to be the motivation for the move from Concourse A to B. The latter is primarily used by United, who currently operates a hub there. So passengers who are moving from one of Continental's ten flights a day (from Cleveland, Houston and Newark) to a United flight (and vice-versa) can now avoid a train ride between terminals. Fellow Star Carrier US Airways is moving there as well.

While the move does make life easier for passengers, it will also save Continental some money as it will be closing its Presidents Club in Concourse A on March 16. Instead, club members, Star Alliance Gold flyers, and BusinessFirst passengers will instead have access to United's two Red Carpet Clubs in Denver.

Huntsville Really Wants Low Fares

Huntsville airport has the highest airfares in the country, according to DOT data. Recently, the airport applied for a grant through the Small Community Air Service Development (SCASD) program to help a attract a low-fare carrier in the form of marketing assistance and revenue guarantees (a sweet deal for the airline!). Huntsville ended up scording one of this year's grants, in the amount of $1,000,000 (less than what they wanted) to help get service to Baltimore/Washington and Orlando. United isn't very happy about that because they already serve Dulles nonstop,  but that's another story for another day.

 But Huntsville isn't just happy with its new service, hence its new website, "We Want Low Fares!" The airport writes:

There is more work to be done, however, because AirTran also flies into Atlanta. We must add the Atlanta market – AirTran's gateway to the entire United States – and that depends solely on the support of the North Alabama community....This Atlanta service is the determining factor in our passengers saving an average of 40% on airfares, yielding a total savings of $60 million per year for our community. Now more than ever is the time when we look toward the community to pledge is financial support to bring the Atlanta service to Huntsville.

Delta, however, already flies the Atlanta route, so that's probably a concern for AirTran.

My question, however, is if these moves are short-sighted. Low fares are great for the community, but a balance needs to be struck. Yes, fares to Atlanta and Washington might be high, but these are global hubs for Delta and United that have a much farther reach than AirTran does, and that's important for a local business community.

So, what say you? What's more important? Low fares, access to many destinations, or a bit of both?

Resident Seeks To Build Interfaith Chapel in MKE

On one trip to San Diego last year, I was connecting in Chicago's Midway Airport on a Sunday, and I started to hear announcements about a Catholic Mass that morning, which was something I wasn't expecting. But, apparently, both Midway and O'Hare have had interfaith chapels for fifty years, and the chapel at the former receives over 150,000 visitors a year. They offer Catholic Masses, as well as Muslim and nondenominational services.

These chapels were originally created for airport and airline employees who would have trouble making it to religious services due to their work schedule, but they have proved popular for travelers, as well.

Inspired by those chapels, Suzanne McKinney, has formed "The Interfaith Airport Chapel of Milwaukee" group with the goal of using about 600 square feet of the airport's parking garage for an interfaith center. The group is now raising money for that goal.

So why now? Apparently, St. Stephen's church in Milwaukee was popular for those traveling through the airport, but it has now moved to a new building what is not as convenient.

What do you think? Are interfaith chapels/prayer rooms a good idea for airports? Personally, it does seem handy for those who are constantly on the road and have trouble finding religious services.

In the Strange But True Department…

It's Friday. In addition to that, I'll be on spring break in a mere five hours. So let's cover some of the more silly news.

First, let's go to over to everyone's favorite airline, Ryanair. Surprisingly, it wasn't anything the airline did that's so funny this time around. As most everyone knows, Ryanair is the king of ancillary revenue. They'll charge and sell everything and anything. And that includes scratch tickets onboard. Well, a passenger was flying from Krakow to East Midlands, bought one of those tickets, and won €10,000. Naturally, Ryanair doesn't carry €10,000 on all of its aircraft - the prize is claimed through the scratch ticket company. Unfortunately, the winner was angered by that, and in his frustration, ate the winning ticket. Because he forfeited his prize, Ryanair will give it to charity, and letting passengers vote on where it will end up. One of the choices is an eating disorder charity. You can vote here.

Funnily enough, 50 people have contact Ryanair claiming that they were that passenger, and as such deserve the prize. 40 of those weren't even on the flight!

Next, let's go to another story that I saw on the blog View from the Wing this morning. A Texas lawyer allegedly lost his $800 coat at Houston's Intercontinental airport. Apparently, he is holding Continental Airlines, the City of Houston, and the company that manages the food court responsible for this. He's threatening to sue all three if he doesn't receive $800 for his coat. Seriously, dude? I'd be bummed if I lost my $800 coat (though I'd never buy something that expensive), but I wouldn't hold anyone (other than myself) responsible for it! My law professor last semester warned the class that we live in a very litigious society. Indeed.