BWI Airport News

[LtBk]

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.

If international travelers aren't going to D.C, than where are they going?

[NorthaBmore]

NoVa, MoCo

[Itus]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jonathan Dean 410-859-7027

BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport Ranked # 2 Healthiest U.S. Airport by Health Magazine
BWI AIRPORT, MD (December 02, 2008)

Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport was rated the second healthiest American airport in the December issue of Health magazine. Health editors and the magazine’s panel of experts highlighted several features of BWI Marshall, including the Airport’s security checkpoints, the BWI trail, and the availability of massage services at the Destination Relaxation concession.

“BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport works very hard to ensure a convenient and positive travel experience for customers,” said Timothy L. Campbell, Executive Director of the Maryland Aviation Administration. “We remain committed to offering healthy opportunities for travelers in a world class airport environment.”

To compile the list of America’s healthiest airports, Health magazine editors reviewed data from government reports, rating agencies, the aviation trade group Airports Council International, and other sources. The measures included information such as food choices, bathroom cleanliness, environmental friendliness, safety, delays, and overall consumer satisfaction. Health magazine’s expert panel selected and ranked the top 10 healthiest airports.

The Health magazine recognition is the latest for BWI Marshall Airport. Other recent honors for BWI Marshall Airport include a ranking among favorite U.S. airports by the Smarter Travel 2008 Readers’ Choice Awards and a J.D. Power and Associates survey that placed BWI Marshall among North America’s best airports for passenger satisfaction.

http://www.bwiairport.com/press_room..._releases/181/

also http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/trav...named_bwi.html

[Itus]

BWI Stats for October 2008 available here: http://www.bwiairport.com/pdfs/stats...8.pdf#zoom=100

Highlights:
British Airways - 9325 passengers (78% load factor; 7.5% drop over Oct 07) / 471,743 pounds (?) of cargo (+4.1% increase over October 2007)
Note: for the 12-month period ending October 2008, cargo for the BA flight was up 12.9% over the previous 12-month period ending October 2007.

Air Jamaica - 7495 passengers (64% load factor; 8.8% drop over Oct 07) (the load factor I calculated assumes A321 aircraft on all days -- I'm not sure if this was the case)

Total Commercial Passengers: 1,715,258 (5.5% drop over Oct 07)
Dulles: 1,939,162 (4.6% drop)
Reagan: 1,576,640 (4.0% drop)

[k25150]

Is Reagan profitable? BWI would be much busier if they closed Reagan. I think it was discussed after 9.11.

[Itus]

Originally Posted by k25150

Is Reagan profitable? BWI would be much busier if they closed Reagan. I think it was discussed after 9.11.

I have to assume the demand over there is pretty strong, and with slot controls airlines have to make pretty good money there (limited competition and numbers of flights, etc). People who need to get to DC and want the convenience of a metro stop not far from their destination (government employees) would be in an uproar if Reagan were closed probably.

The "shuttle" routes from Reagan to airports in New York and Boston have been some of the most profitable assets for airlines like US Airways. There's more competition on these routes now though I think.

[LtBk]

Originally Posted by NorthaBmore

NoVa, MoCo

Aside from business, there is nothing much to do in those places.

[micrip]

Originally Posted by k25150

Is Reagan profitable? BWI would be much busier if they closed Reagan. I think it was discussed after 9.11.

..never happen...Congress would never allow it. It's where most of them fly from when traveling from their home districts.

[Itus]

This won't influence air route prospects really I imagine, but Baltimore/Washington was mentioned in this Nigerian article:

Delta Airlines’ ‘non stop’ service initiative boosts aviation traffic
Wednesday, 17 December 2008 00:03 WALE HAASTRUP

Delta Air Lines marks the first year anniversary since the start of its daily nonstop service between Lagos Murtala Muhammed International Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

Delta remains the only United States’ carrier to operate nonstop service between Nigeria and America, offering hundreds of onward connecting opportunities via Delta’s Atlanta hub.

Bobby Bryan, commercial manager for West and East Africa of the airline said, “Delta’s flight between Lagos and Atlanta has gone from strength to strength, and recently, we have been seeing load factors averaging around 80 percent. The top U.S. destinations that our customers from Nigeria have been travelling to include Houston, Baltimore/Washington, Los Angeles, Dallas/Ft Worth and New York, and year to date, we have carried approximately 95,000 passengers.

“Traffic between the United States and Africa is one of the fastest growing areas in aviation. We have been steadily building on our presence between the African continent and the U.S. and we currently operate service from Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, Senegal and Ghana.”

Delta operates the flights between Lagos and Atlanta with Boeing 767-300ER aircraft with up to 217 seats in a two-class configuration featuring 36 seats in BusinessElite, Delta’s award-winning business class service and 181 in economy class.
Delta’s BusinessElite service offers a more personalised, comfortable and entertaining experience with all-leather sleeper seats, in-seat on-demand entertainment, innovative food offerings from celebrity chef Michelle Bernstein and award-winning, original wine selections chosen by Delta’s Master Sommelier Andrea Robinson.
Delta is the leading airline connecting Africa to the U.S and has recently unveiled plans to rapidly expand in Africa, next year.

From June 2009, Delta will commence service between Nairobi and Atlanta via Dakar (four times weekly) and Monrovia and Atlanta via Cape Verde (once weekly).

http://www.businessdayonline.com/ind...ion&Itemid=284

[Itus]

not news...but this stuff is so entertaining

http://www.gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id=15583
you can see a couple MD 11s, the BA tail, an A300...

[NorthaBmore]

Originally Posted by LtBk

Aside from business, there is nothing much to do in those places.

Exactly, business travelers would be the ones going there. Even though Dulles and BWI are about the same distance from DC there are a whole lot more jobs within say 40 miles of Dulles than there is within 40 miles of BWI.

[NorthaBmore]

Originally Posted by Itus

BWI Stats for October 2008 available here: http://www.bwiairport.com/pdfs/stats...8.pdf#zoom=100

Highlights:
British Airways - 9325 passengers (78% load factor; 7.5% drop over Oct 07) / 471,743 pounds (?) of cargo (+4.1% increase over October 2007)
Note: for the 12-month period ending October 2008, cargo for the BA flight was up 12.9% over the previous 12-month period ending October 2007.

Air Jamaica - 7495 passengers (64% load factor; 8.8% drop over Oct 07) (the load factor I calculated assumes A321 aircraft on all days -- I'm not sure if this was the case)

Glad to hear that there is about British Airways, maybe we can keep just that one international flight.

[Itus]

Went through the flight schedules for a bit and noticed some things I didn't know about:

Delta is adding a second flight from BWI to Salt Lake City, starting around March 2, according to oag.com. The new morning flight starts off with 6x week frequency it looks like...and then increases to daily not long after. By summer, Delta should be operating 2x daily flights from BWI to SLC on 737-800s. Southwest also has one daily nonstop flight to SLC, so overall BWI will have three daily flights a day to SLC.

I didn't really see anything else interesting. Not surprisingly, the schedules say that Airtran will be back with double daily (?) flights from BWI to both Los Angeles and Seattle by the summer. United will also be 2x a day again to LA starting in February. Air Canada Jazz will be 5x a day by summer on the BWI to Toronto route.

[bma83]

I wonder when will Air Canada finally add a route to Montreal.

[Itus]

Originally Posted by bma83

I wonder when will Air Canada finally add a route to Montreal.

Coincidentally I was just reading a thread in another forum about one person's struggles to find a flight from BWI to Ottawa.

I believe Montreal and Ottawa were both served from BWI by US Air (Express?) back in the hub days. I have no idea what it'll take to get Air Canada to do it. The best possibility right now for Canadian routes may come from Southwest's partnership with WestJet....but we'll see about that, since Baltimore hasn't been mentioned much officially with regard to that deal.

[Itus]

USA 3000 drops Bermuda flight
2/5/2009
By Tim Smith

Low-cost airline USA 3000 has axed its spring and summer Bermuda schedule. The group says it has been forced to cut the link between the Island and Baltimore as a result of the economic crisis.

However, it is understood the Department of Tourism is close to announcing a new airline is coming to Bermuda, while USA 3000 is also hoping to reinstate the line later in the year. Last summer USA 3000 ran flights on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays for $99 each way, with Premier and Tourism Minister Ewart Brown saying it provided good value competition to the Washington D.C. area.

Baltimore/Washington International Airport is also the closest airport to Johns Hopkins Hospital, meaning without the link patients instead have to fly to Reagan National Airport, which is about an hour away from the hospital on one of US Airways' daily flights.

Flights to Bermuda have been removed from USA 3000's website, and an airline spokeswoman confirmed: "For the spring/summer schedule this route has been discontinued. If a decision is made to reinstate the route availability will reflect on the USA 3000 Airline's website."

Asked if the cancellation was due to the economic climate, she replied: "Yes. Unfortunately, USA 3000 Airlines had to reduce certain markets. We are hoping to reinstate Bermuda in the fall."

Last month, Dr. Brown welcomed news that Zoom Airlines may return to the skies less than a year after the budget company went bust and left holiday-makers stranded in Bermuda.

The Premier warned Zoom would have to work extra hard to recapture the transatlantic market share taken up in its absence by British Airways.

His press secretary said of the latest news: "The Premier will be updating the public very soon on a number of airline developments for this coming spring and summer. We try to avoid speaking prematurely."

http://www.royalgazette.com/siftolog...2&sectionId=60

[Itus]

More schedule changing:

I haven't looked thoroughly through this, but it looks like schedules continue to change (even differing from a week ago).

The promising update is that AirTran's BWI-Cancun flight, which was supposed to only operate on weekends, looks like it may actually be a daily flight during the summer months.

Air Canada Jazz might not be doing 5x a day BWI-Toronto. Right now it looks like 4x a day, with the morning flight being on a regional jet with a bit more capacity.

Air Jamaica appears to have downgraded the BWI-Montego Bay flight from an A321 to an A320. That airline is having serious problems right now so I hope they get out of their funk.

[k25150]

Good news about the LA and Seattle flights. Hope they have a daytime Seattle flight besides that late nighter. Does anyone know why SW dropped their LA nonstops over a year ago? The flights were always full and if United is making money on them I can't see how SW wasn't.

[Itus]

Originally Posted by k25150

Good news about the LA and Seattle flights. Hope they have a daytime Seattle flight besides that late nighter. Does anyone know why SW dropped their LA nonstops over a year ago? The flights were always full and if United is making money on them I can't see how SW wasn't.

I got the impression Southwest might have been making money on the route, but they realized they could make even more money on their signature short haul routes. I don't have the numbers, but, as an example, it was a matter of using an aircraft once for 6 hours at $200 per passenger, or using an aircraft 4 times in those same six hours at like $80 per passenger per flight (totaling $320 per passenger during the total six hours). I think basically they couldn't charge a high enough price on the LA flight to make it compete with the profitability of their short haul routes, so they re-utilized those planes to get the most bang for their buck. Then when oil prices jumped that was the end.

I just wish AirTran would keep these guys year-round

[k25150]

You're probably right or close to it but I think they still have their San Diego and Oakland non-stops. Kind of dumb that they'd let United and AirTran own that route when they control BWI.