Atlanta Considers Futher Expansion

Atlanta has been the world's busiest airport for years, and it is forecasted that the airport will keep on growing. The city itself is growing, and plus the two hub carriers there - Delta and AirTran - keep expanding as well. It's estimated that Atlanta will reach its current capacity as early as 2015.

So the city needs to start planning for new capacity right away, especially because airport projects can take years to plan as they become tied up in red tape. Right now, the two competing ideas are either a sixth runway, or an entirely new airport. Right now, the major tenants at Atlanta want to stick with one airport- a new runway would benefit them the most. And plus a smaller airport could be used by competitors, which is something neither carrier wants. But, the idea of yet another runway isn't all that popular among residents near the current airport.

Either way, the city needs to get going here - air travel is a huge part of the city's economy, especially with two hub carriers. That includes airport employees, of course, but Delta has a bunch of corporate functions in Atlanta as well.

Read more here.

St. Augustine Airport Mulls Name Change

Ah, what's in a name? Airport name changes are always interesting to me. On one hand, the airport wants to promote its city, but airlines also want to have marketable names to work with. For example, my home airport, T.F. Green in Rhode Island, is actually in the city of Warwick but is always marketed as Providence. This does not make Warwick happy. In fact, the city pays for advertisements in the airport that remind passengers of where they actually landed. When some airlines started selling the destination as "Providence/Newport," the mayor of Warwick got more ticked off than usual. Another local story (for me, at least) is Manchester in New Hampshire - the airport decided to change its name to Manchester-Boston Regional Airport to emphasize that it was an alternative to Boston Logan.

One of the most current cases is St. Augustine's airport. It hasn't been all that lucky in generating commercial service - the one time it did it was during Skybus' short existence as an airline. And that airline decided to market the airport as Jacksonville/Daytona Beach. Right now, the airport is thinking of the name "Northeast Florida Regional Airport at St. Augustine." The hope is that the name, which implies a larger area, will make it more attractive to airports. Though some locals don't like the idea of having St. Augustine all the way at the end of the airport's name.

Personally, I like the idea from the marketing perspective, though I think a name change is one of the easier steps in trying to court airlines. Read more here.

Schumer Continues on the Carry-On War Path

I'm sure that anyone that follows travel news has heard by now about Spirit Airlines' new fee for carry-on bags that do not fit under the seat. The fee, which varies depending on when the fee is paid and if the traveler is a member of the $9 Fare Club, can be as high as $45.

Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, has been criticizing the fee, calling carry-ons essential. And he's made five airlines make promises to him that they will not follow Spirit here.

To be honest, I can't say that I support Sen. Schumer here. Not that I really enjoy the fact that Spirit is charging for carry-ons. But Sen. Schumer seems to gleefully ignore that Spirit is allowing small carry-ons for free, plus has a bunch of exemptions for essential items like strollers and assistive devices. Plus, I'm concerned about the precedent here. Should a Senator be allowed to bully airlines? Yes, Spirit's policy might not be popular, but that's what we've come to expect from them - a cheap fare that just represents a butt in the seat.

If Spirit's policy is so horrible, then people will stop flying them, and the airline will change its ways. We don't need the government to poke its nose here.

Read more at USA Today.

Panama City’s New Airport Prepares for Opening

Have you heard about Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport? Perhaps not - but it's an interesting story. For once, it's the first international airport constructed here post-9/11, which is certainly a good milestone. The airport will open just about a month from now, and will be replacing the current Panama City-Bay County International Airport. That airport is only served by Delta at the moment, and that airline will be moving all of its service to the new airport, and will even be upgrading service a bit as it adds mainline service to some Atlanta flights.

But what's even more interesting is Southwest's entrance here. The airline has focused on larger cities like Minneapolis, Boston, and New York of late, and this is a pretty small market. So what brought them over here? Incentives - something I've talked about here before. St. Joe, a large real estate company that's been developing this area is helping Southwest out financially here. To put it simply, they will prevent Southwest from losing money the first couple of years. The hope is that air service from Southwest - now the country's largest domestic carrier - will provide a boost to the area.

You can read more about the new airport here (tip of the hat to my friend Paul), and you can see a Southwest ad about it below!

Expert Calls Body Scanners “Useless”

Fantastic. The Vancouver Sun reported last week that "a leading Israeli airport security expert says the Canadian government has wasted millions of dollars to install "useless" imaging machines at airports across the country." The Canadian government has spent about $11 million to purchase 44 body scanners for use in the country's major airports.

The expert, Rafi Sela said it would be better if Canada adopted some Israeli security techniques. That includes a trusted traveler program that would mean shorter waiting lines for fliers who have already gone through extensive background checks. He also suggested that behavioral profiling also be used.

"I don't know why everybody is running to buy these expensive and useless machines. I can overcome the body scanners with enough explosives to bring down a Boeing 747," Sela said. Let's just hope no one does that in reality! But there is cause for concern here - are the body scanners really worth the price tag? And the potential privacy issues? Are they effective, or have security agencies just been pressured to do something after the Underwear Bomber?

Hat tip to my friend Martin for finding this article.

BART Makes Life Easier for SFO Workers

Any airport is an important employer in its metropolitan area, and San Francisco (SFO) is no different. And of course, all of those employees need to get to work somehow! For SFO, a good number of workers, many of whom are of lower incomes, utilize the city's Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system to get to work.

Unfortunately, that became prohibitively expensive when BART raised its surcharge on airport fares from $1.50 to $4.00. That means an extra $5.00 day, which quickly adds up over the course of a year. So the airport set up a free shuttle for employees who couldn't afford the additional surcharge. Fortunately, BART and the airport have reached an agreement. BART will bring the surcharge back down to $1.50. (But only for airport employees, sorry!)  In exchange, the airport will allow BART to sell advertising in the station, and will also set up train information screens in the airport as well as an information desk.

Kudos to BART for doing right by SFO employees.

Columbia Looks for Low-Fare Carrier

Smaller airports are constantly looking for low-fare carriers. In fact, many have applied for grants from the government to help promote service from them. In many smaller markets, one or two legacy carriers just have a couple of daily departures to their hubs. One one hand, this is great for the community because it creates more convenient air service and also opens up connections to nearly anywhere in the world with one or two connections. But here's the problem - the legacy carriers often charge pretty hefty fares, so airport managers are often doing the best they can to attract new entrants.

And a couple of airports in South Carolina have been working on that very problem, but without much success. Columbia airport has seen to LCCs, Spirit and Allegiant, come in and leave with no success. The airport even offered $15 million worth of incentives to Southwest, but the airline declined the idea after mulling it for a month. Meanwhile, Charleston saw AirTran, it's only LCC, leave fairly quickly as well.

So what's the solution? More money, of course! There's a bill currently in the South Carolina Senate that would establish a fund just for the purpose of developing more air service. To me, the idea sounds interesting - but I do have my concerns. Subsidies definitely have their place in the business, but I think there's a point where they just pay for service that is totally unable to stand on its own.

Good News for British Travelers

Well, finally, European air traffic is moving well again. It'll take awhile, but at least things are finally returning to something that resembles normal operations. Finally, stranded travelers are coming home. But here's a question that most may not have considered - how expensive will the parking bills be? Of course, if someone's stuck away from home for an extra week, that can really jack up the total cost of parking at the airport.

But here's some good news - the all of the major airports in the UK have said that they will waive the parking fees for the additional days since flights were banned last Thursday. Travelers will be charged based on the original planned length of their trip - all they need to do is provide proof.

Kudos to the UK airports for making an unnecessary and very generous move. More details here.

Seattle Unveils New Recycling Program

Well, I could write more about the volcano story - but there's not much else to say other than that it sucks big time, and the airlines are working hard to get as many flights operating safely as possible. So, back to airport news.

I found an interesting story in Roger Yu's regular Airport Check-In column in USA Today - the Port of Seattle has unveiled a new recycling program at Sea-Tac airport that it claims "will reduce waste sent to landfills, improve ramp safety, decrease air emissions, and save more than $250,000 each year."

The program involves consolidating all of the airport's recycling airport operations - in the past this was handled by each carrier individually. The airport has placed six large compactors around the airport that all airlines will use, though the amount of recycling by each airline can be tracked with the use of the key card. The airport says that it will give financial incentives for the use of the new system - it's free to use, and airlines will see a discount on their trash bill if they recycle.

Meanwhile, the amount of space in the new compactors is monitored by computers. Since they're larger, too, this means that collection trips will be made less often and only when needed. This is a move that not only reduces emissions of ground vehicles, but it also has positive effects on ramp safety.

To me, this is a good move - a cost-effective move that helps the environment is always a smart idea. And it's especially good for airports and airlines, who are constantly (fairly or not) criticized for their environmental impact.

The Ash Cloud – What A Mess

All I can say is wow to this - such a long disruption in flights! Many major airports across Europe are still closed and major airlines have still canceled all flights. The only carriers that seem to be operating at least a limited schedule are those in Northern and Southern Europe. Iberia was able to operate most of its transatlantic flights, it appears. SAS also ran all of its US departures yesterday, though many flights went to Oslo instead of Copenhagen. Air France and British Airways have also been running some special flights. The EU hopes that about 50% of airspace will be free today.

Unfortunately, those flights aren't nearly enough to deal with all of the pent up demands. It will most likely take weeks for everything to clear out. Travelers are already flocking to other forms of transportation - Cunard has been getting more bookings for transatlantic journeys, and ferries and railways have seen improved bookings. But even that isn't enough - the Royal Navy will be moving some ships to pick up stranded British travelers.

So, if your travel plans are affected - there's really not much to do at this point, as bad as this sounds. If you're canceling your flight it might be best to take care of that online - all of the airlines are basically telling passengers to not call them. Not that they don't want to help you but call centers are overloaded. Taking care of things on your own might be easier. Meanwhile, airlines are also saying not to go to the airport unless you're sure that your flight is leaving.

Hopefully this will improve over the next couple of days. The airlines are fighting to fly, and some have been running test flights successfully.

For those traveling to/from Europe, good luck!