BWI Airport News

[Itus]

Originally Posted by bma83

I heard this before. And hearing it again makes me ask why Aer Lingus chose to go to Dulles, or why are they staying at Dulles? And they even have the nerve to advertise their Dulles flights in the Baltimore Sun. I never understood why so many international airlines fly out of Dulles. BWI and Dulles are basically the same distance from DC. But BWI has an added advantage of serving two cities as well as getting passengers from southern Pennsylvania and Delaware. The only advantage with Dulles, I see, is its hub for United.

I think there's a fiction going around the airline industry that international routes will always be more successful at Dulles than at BWI. Obviously this isn't true. Air Jamaica tried Dulles service before only to pull out later, but they have operated quite successfully at BWI...a while ago on regular widebody aircraft in fact. Aer Lingus may be one of those carriers that will perform better in Baltimore. There is also probably too much transatlantic competition from Dulles already.

My thoughts are that Dulles probably has access to most of the international traffic, but there will be some carriers that just work better from BWI, for any number of reasons.

[Itus]

we need more pics in this thread. here's Aer Lingus at BWI

image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr

[LtBk]

Does anybody know how IAD got popular with international carriers?

[aquablue]

A few obvious reasons.

1) Dulles is the main airport of Washington, D.C, the capital of the United States. International traffic, in the past, would have first been looking to fly to Washington, D.C, as it is (and was) a major diplomatic/organizational hub. Naturally, they would direct their business to the airport that bore the name of the capital city. As the power of northern virginia grew, it only remained natural that airlines would grow and take advantage of that market too -- high tech, etc..

Therefore, It was the first airport to gain a tradition of a substantial international presence. This traditional remains, sorry to say. BWI is considered Baltimore's airport first and foremost and doesn't have the drawing power of Dulles with the Washington name. Like it or not, an airport with Baltimore's name is not where business people want to be going when heading to DC. Even Air Lingus, when I took the flight from Dublin to BWI, marketed the destination as Washington/Baltimore. Sometimes the sreens in Dublin said Washington, not baltimore as the departure point.

2) Dulles is a major hub (united) which helps with connections. BWI is more of a low cost hub.

3) Dulles is larger, has more room for expansion and is more connected to the wealthy Tysons Corner Virginia market. Many travellers from abroad are not even going into DC. The PG area near BWI is not as wealthy or a business destination for international travellers.

Face it lads, BWI will never compete with Dulles for international flights as Baltimore itself is not a high profile destination for internaional visitors in comparison to Washington, D.C, a city known the world over.

The best hope you have is to improve the city of Baltimore and turn it into a major league player similar to a boston, etc.. if you wish to gain more high prestige traffic. As of now, it is quite obvious that the airport as marketed itself as a low-cost hub with soutwest and this works quite well. The city is just too close to DC, its a plain fact, sorry to say. I don't even know if Baltimore would attract the variety of airlines anyway. Places like Philly even don't.

[indiethinker]

Originally Posted by aquablue

A few obvious reasons.

1) Dulles is the main airport of Washington, D.C, the capital of the United States. International traffic, in the past, would have first been looking to fly to Washington, D.C, as it is (and was) a major diplomatic/organizational hub. Naturally, they would direct their business to the airport that bore the name of the capital city. As the power of northern virginia grew, it only remained natural that airlines would grow and take advantage of that market too -- high tech, etc..

Therefore, It was the first airport to gain a tradition of a substantial international presence. This traditional remains, sorry to say. BWI is considered Baltimore's airport first and foremost and doesn't have the drawing power of Dulles with the Washington name. Like it or not, an airport with Baltimore's name is not where business people want to be going when heading to DC. Even Air Lingus, when I took the flight from Dublin to BWI, marketed the destination as Washington/Baltimore. Sometimes the sreens in Dublin said Washington, not baltimore as the departure point.

2) Dulles is a major hub (united) which helps with connections. BWI is more of a low cost hub.

3) Dulles is larger, has more room for expansion and is more connected to the wealthy Tysons Corner Virginia market. Many travellers from abroad are not even going into DC. The PG area near BWI is not as wealthy or a business destination for international travellers.

Face it lads, BWI will never compete with Dulles for international flights as Baltimore itself is not a high profile destination for internaional visitors in comparison to Washington, D.C, a city known the world over.

The best hope you have is to improve the city of Baltimore and turn it into a major league player similar to a boston, etc.. if you wish to gain more high prestige traffic. As of now, it is quite obvious that the airport as marketed itself as a low-cost hub with soutwest and this works quite well. The city is just too close to DC, its a plain fact, sorry to say. I don't even know if Baltimore would attract the variety of airlines anyway. Places like Philly even don't.

I would guess all of that is one of the reasons the airport was named Baltimore-Washington International instead of Baltimore International.

[aquablue]

Originally Posted by indiethinker

I would guess all of that is one of the reasons the airport was named Baltimore-Washington International instead of Baltimore International.

Due to the fact that BWI wished to capitalize on Washington, D.C traffic, and it worked well for budget travel. It is however, still a Baltimore airport first and foremost. Although it attempted to mount an offensive against Dulles it has no mainline domestic hub which works against it. Also, international airlines like to stick together, a critical mass is needed, which BWI never attained. BWI also doesn't have much expansion room...I think its all built out, and its runway layout is not the most efficient in comparison to Dulles' 3 parrallels. This, and the market, works against it in being a hub.

[NorthaBmore]

Originally Posted by Itus

we need more pics in this thread. here's Aer Lingus at BWI

image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr

Aer Lingus doesn't fly in to BWI anymore, right

[sdeclue]

Any word on the Aerotropolis around BWI? I read an article about a year ago of a plan to make a city around BWI with tons of density and several towers. I'm guessing the credit crunch has tabled all of that.

[NorthaBmore]

never heard about that at all. That would be amazing if it happened, but...

[NorthaBmore]

I went searching real quick and found a website:

http://www.aerotropolis.com/aerotropolis.html

It's not specific to BWI but once again, it looks great.

[StevenW]

[NorthaBmore]

To build something like that would cost an insane amount of money.

[StevenW]

I'd guess between 15 to 20 billion.

[Itus]

I believe the Crosswinds Resort was going to be part of that, but from what I remember that project is on hold. An intermodal transport hub was also talked about but I haven't been able to find anything being planned so far. Since the first mention of an aerotropolis I think a few hotels and business complexes have been built in the area though.

[Itus]

Originally Posted by NorthaBmore

Aer Lingus doesn't fly in to BWI anymore, right

Aer Lingus suspended service after the September 11th attacks, and after restarting it discontinued service again in 2004. I think I recall that following 9/11, the airline needed to cut its overall network and so it cut BWI since it was one of its newest routes. In 2004 international traffic still hadn't really recovered yet and the BWI route was at roughly a 4x per week frequency. That coupled with the Shannon stopover and a weak dollar were cited as reasons for the pull-out at that time. Aer Lingus was also undergoing some of its own internal problems and major restructuring.

[indiethinker]

I wonder if an airport is really what you would want to use as an anchor for redevelopment.

[k25150]

Even Air Lingus, when I took the flight from Dublin to BWI, marketed the destination as Washington/Baltimore. Sometimes the sreens in Dublin said Washington, not baltimore as the departure point.

What a joke. We've just been demoted to Fort Worth, Ft. Lauderdale and Oakland status.

[NorthaBmore]

Originally Posted by indiethinker

I wonder if an airport is really what you would want to use as an anchor for redevelopment.

If it really does get built, I think it is a good idea. It's not redevelopment, but just look at the Dulles Greenway corridor in NoVa! I would LOVE to have something like that in Baltimore.

[Itus]

Aer Lingus/Dulles update for October 2008:
Total Passengers (IAD): 5,552

Other Stats (my estimates)
Total Flights (to/from IAD): 36
Average # Passengers per flight: 154
# Seats per flight: 272
Load Factor: 56.6%

Unless I'm mistaken about the figures, that load factor is dismal. The fares to Dulles are also consistently the lowest being offered on Aer Lingus' transatlantic flights. One would hope the cargo numbers are a lot better...

[NorthaBmore]

In other stats, i wonder what our ridership over 2008 will be at BWI. we have had a steady increase to I think 23 million? 21? But anyway, I wonder how much that number will be effected by the economy. Air travel in all is of course, way down compared to last year and less people are expected to be traveling over the holidays.