urbanMSP

NPR had a pretty in-depth story a few weeks ago about regional airports really feeling the pinch from the pilot shortage. The gist was that new federal regulations require drastically more practice time, which has slowed the number of incoming pilots drastically, and thus service particularly at regional airports has become drastically unreliable. Then as the number of flights shrinks, federal funding shrinks too.

I wonder if something like this is going on in St. Cloud.

I'm sure it has some impact, but the regional airports that have really been hit hard by the pilot shortage are those that have service from Great Lakes. They're at the bottom rung of the pilot ladder, and so when there are shortages above, everybody reaches down and poaches from them.

Something else worth noting is that I'm starting to see more Delta mainline service to cities that have previously been served by CRJ's. Just on the top of my head they include: Sioux Falls, Fargo, Duluth, Bismarck, Minot, etc. I think Delta is advertising that they are adding capacity, but the frequency goes down. Daily operations at MSP are hovering around 1100 takeoffs and landings a day compared to 1400-1600 up until 2006 or so. Delta has said they want to get rid of the majority of 50 seat CRJ's which almost makes the A and B concourse unusable anymore due to the inability to handle anything larger than a CRJ200. There's still large number of CRJ200's still flying in and out of MSP, just curious if this downward trend of traffic will continue in the future.

Delta has said they want to get rid of the majority of 50 seat CRJ's which almost makes the A and B concourse unusable anymore due to the inability to handle anything larger than a CRJ200. There's still large number of CRJ200's still flying in and out of MSP, just curious if this downward trend of traffic will continue in the future.

I read a few months back about MAC taking a look at shutting down A or B, maybe both, depending on what Delta does with the 50-seat CRJ's. MAC may also move an airline from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1, in addition to Spirit's move this month. They could look at removing the B concourse and refurbishing A to handle mainline aircraft.

A large chunk of A and B would have to be removed for the planned crossover taxiways at that end. There will still be decent demand for props/small RJs well into the future, but thankfully we're done with the nonsense like CRJ200s flying to large cities for the sake of frequency. A will probably lose 6-10 gates for the taxiways, and B may lose 2-4. And the far side of B (that faces the runway) will likely see more large RJs. The main constraint seems to be the lack of waiting area seating out there.
I have to imagine T2 will be getting new gates sometime sooner rather than later (at least the extension of H concourse, not the future what-I-imagine-would-be-the J concourse on the south). The new Google satellite view shows the enlarged ramp with gate markings on the ramp all the way up to H16, but of course the highest jetway right now is H10. Time to extend the building.

I have to imagine T2 will be getting new gates sometime sooner rather than later (at least the extension of H concourse, not the future what-I-imagine-would-be-the J concourse on the south). The new Google satellite view shows the enlarged ramp with gate markings on the ramp all the way up to H16, but of course the highest jetway right now is H10. Time to extend the building.

H11-H13 are part of the current 2015 CIP for the airport. H14-H16 are slated for 2018, but sit unfunded. H17-H26? will be on the south end and are 2020+, also unfunded.

Edit: H11-H13b - the expansion is for 3 gates, but 4 jet-bridges. Also, they will begin the bidding process this April and open the gates in Fall 2016. At that time, it is expected Sun Country will use 2 during the Winter season and 1 the remainder of the year, however all the new gates will be common use, not leased to one particular airline.

So when the south concourse comes online post-2020 they'll have non-sequential numbering of the T2 gates, or they'll have to reset all the numbers.

A large chunk of A and B would have to be removed for the planned crossover taxiways at that end. There will still be decent demand for props/small RJs well into the future, but thankfully we're done with the nonsense like CRJ200s flying to large cities for the sake of frequency. A will probably lose 6-10 gates for the taxiways, and B may lose 2-4. And the far side of B (that faces the runway) will likely see more large RJs. The main constraint seems to be the lack of waiting area seating out there.
I have to imagine T2 will be getting new gates sometime sooner rather than later (at least the extension of H concourse, not the future what-I-imagine-would-be-the J concourse on the south). The new Google satellite view shows the enlarged ramp with gate markings on the ramp all the way up to H16, but of course the highest jetway right now is H10. Time to extend the building.

Actually, that's not true. No changes for A or B are needed for the future expansion of the crossover taxiways.

It looks like A13 and A14 are removed in that map.

Skywest (United Express) ending STC-ORD March 1.

Delta service from Rochester-Detroit will be coming to an end April 9th. Instead they'll be adding another frequency from RST-MSP.

Also A while back I had dinner with someone from the MAC through work and I asked a few questions about future int'l airlines. Don't hold your breath for Korean anytime soon, which to me is a big bummer. I also asked about SAS or Norwegian since our Scandinavian population is so large and while it seems as though that region is one of the areas the MAC reaches out to for new service, they haven't had much of a response from the carriers. Most his responses to other airlines I asked about were pretty generic and I wasn't going to spend the whole night grilling him on the subject.

The most interesting thing he told me was that the Gulf carriers we a group they used to reach out to pretty consistently, but in the past few years had basically given up on. Recently though he said Emirates had reached out to them about the possibility of adding future service to MSP. Now with the idiotic comments Delta's CEO recently made about the Gulf carriers, I'm hoping maybe that will encourage Emirates some more to get DXB-MSP service going...? The more I think about it the less far fetched it seems.

This is all of course very interesting to me as I work with a consortium working to bring some of the most exotic airlines with the prettiest paint jobs to the booming Twin Cities market. /s

Frontier to start nonstop service to Atlanta and Philadelphia on April 30th.

It is great to see the increase in competitive routes out of MSP. It's in the low 40s now for the number of routes served by more than one (Delta) carrier. With Spirit's move to Terminal 1 and the three gate expansion project ongoing, it will be interesting to see how T-2 changes. Do addtional carriers like Jet Blue finally make a presence at MSP or do we see the supposedly-promised growth by SW and Sun Country that is also part of the terminal expansion?

Also A while back I had dinner with someone from the MAC through work and I asked a few questions about future int'l airlines. Don't hold your breath for Korean anytime soon, which to me is a big bummer. I also asked about SAS or Norwegian since our Scandinavian population is so large and while it seems as though that region is one of the areas the MAC reaches out to for new service, they haven't had much of a response from the carriers. Most his responses to other airlines I asked about were pretty generic and I wasn't going to spend the whole night grilling him on the subject.

Delta and Korean have had a pretty acrimonious relationship recently, despite being in SkyTeam, so I don't think they're likely to start service for a while. Even absent this, I suspect a 777 would be too large a plane for ICN-MSP
service, and neither Delta nor Korean have 787s arriving anytime soon. 767s don't have the range.

Delta has Asia fairly well covered with the NRT and (now) SEA hubs, and while some routes ex-MSP (or the Midwest) would be slightly quicker via ICN not to the extent that would justify the ICN flight.

Condor's success with the FRA flight last year makes me think more seasonal service is a possibility. But even then the geography is important. FRA is central to other popular European destinations. OSL, CPH and ARN are not -- you've overflown France and Italy by a long way.

With Emirates' apparent move into more DXB-Europe-USA flying that would seem to be the logical hope for one of the Middle East 3 to come here. The market for more direct flights to Middle East/Asia out of here is not large enough at the moment.

Re KE: Delta's 763ERs have been flying MSP-NRT a few days recently (likely with low load factors) at 5950 mi. MSP-ICN is 6248 mi, so not much more. From what I've seen, the B763ER range is ~5900nm, and the A332 can do ~7500 miles. Delta could easily do an A332 (those may free up as they get the ten new A333 MTOWs on property starting in just a couple months). The 763 has ~210 seats, and the A332 has 234 seats.

I totally see a scenario where some longer-haul A332 routes (such as Seattle-Paris,HK,Shanghai) or even other routes that just need more capacity (east coast/ATL/DTW-Europe) are upgauged to these shortly-arriving A333s, freeing up A332s to try thinner routes that require more range than the B763. Such as MSP-ICN. But of course the current situation with Korean plays into how useful that connection would be, due to how appealing it is to ticket Asia-bound passengers beyond Seoul.

Here's a map showing ranges from MSP for B763ER (5900 nm) and A332 (7500 nm). http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=MSP-ICN%2C ... =wls&DU=mi

Of note: MSP-Beijing is definitely doable with Delta's A332s. This would connect to Skyteam partner China Southern's giant hub at PEK. MSP-Shanghai could possibly even be within range for the A332, connecting to China Eastern (also SkyTeam).

The 767's that were used on the MSP-NRT route were do to mechanical issues with the 777 which is usually used on this route not low load factors. They even used a 744 yesterday for this route. The 767's made it nonstop on the NRT-MSP route but had to make a fuel stop in SEA on the MSP-NRT route.

Graves picked to develop hotel at MSP Airport
http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/n ... icked.html

Looking forward to seeing renderings next week!

A332? B763? B744?

What is going on with these numbers?

B747-400?
B767-300?
A330-200?
Why the need to try and be so cute?

A332? B763? B744?

What is going on with these numbers?

B747-400?
B767-300?
A330-200?
Why the need to try and be so cute?

A standardized naming convention is... cute?

Would you prefer Boeing 6 and 6S?

I believe the first numbers are what's "cute" whereas the second numbers are actual airplane model numbers.

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