Megan Kuhn: November 2008 Archives

Virgin Atlantic leased space for a first class lounge at Newark Liberty International airport.

The carrier inked a five-year, six-month lease with airport operator the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ).

The roughly 6,300-sq-ft space is in Terminal B.

A port authority spokesman declined to provide further details.

Virgin American can't get a break at Chicago O'Hare International airport.

The startup planned to inaugurate service from the Windy City to Los Angeles and San Francisco late this year, but that has been postponed until next year because the carrier has been unable to sublease one or two gates for its eighth destination.

Now the Chicago Tribune is reporting the airline may go elsewhere because gates are leased through 2018.

All hope may not be lost.

While Chicago's Aviation Department can't force a tenant to sublease gates, the department continues to work with the airlines to see if an arrangement can be worked out, department spokeswoman Karen Pride tells me.

O'Hare has 178 gates, of which United Airlines is the primary leaseholder on 65 and American Airlines is the primary leaseholder on 61 gates.

Tomorrow will be a busy day for Mary Peters. The US transportation secretary plans to visit three airports in three time zones as new runways open at Washington Dulles International, Chicago O' Hare International and Seattle-Tacoma International airports.

That sounds exhausting. Thankfully, I only have to make it to one ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Dulles will open its first new runway since the airport opened in 1962. The fourth runway will be used for domestic and international operations. It is 9,400-ft and is the airport's third north-south runway.

O'Hare will open its first new runway since 1971. Before paving could begin, more than 3.1 million cubic yards of earth had to be moved and 126 acres of land in Des Plaines, Illinois, had to be cleared.

Made of nearly 270,000 tons of asphalt, the new domestic runway will open on the northern-most boundary at Chicago O'Hare. The east-west runway is 7,500-ft.

On the west coast, Sea-Tac's third runway will open at 8,500-ft runway, making it the shortest at the airport.

Airport operator the Port of Seattle purchased about 500 properties, including about 400 single-family homes, for the project.

Designed to last 40 years, the runway required 130,000 cubic yards of concrete and 35,000 tons of asphalt for the runway shoulders. More than 16 million cubic yards of dirt was moved during construction.

"If you took all the trucks that carried that dirt they would go from here [Seatte] to Miami and back," Sea-Tac spokesman Perry Cooper says.

MidAmerica St. Louis airport will lose its only commercial carrier when Allegiant Air exits the Mascoutah, Illinois facility on 3 January.

The Las Vegas-based airline is leaving because of competition from St. Louis, Missouri, roughly 27 miles (43.45km) northwest, and the slowing economy, Allegiant spokeswoman Tyri Squyres says. 

MidAmerica will lose twice weekly Las Vegas flights and Orlando-Sanford, Florida service.

Low-cost competition at Lambert St. Louis International airport includes Southwest Airlines flights to Las Vegas, according to Innovata.

MidAmerica is the latest airport losing Allegiant because of nearby competition.

Low-cost competition in Detroit and Flint, Michigan led the airline to announce it will leave Lansing Capital Region International airport in the first quarter.

Allegiant offers flights from Lansing to the Tampa Bay area and Orlando, city pairs served by several other low-cost carriers. Southwest, Spirit Airlines and AirTran Airways connect Detroit and Orlando, according to Innovata, which also shows that Southwest and Spirit fly between Detroit and Tampa,

AirTran links Flint with Tampa and Orlando, schedules in Innovata show.

Allegiant will relocate to Grand Rapid's Gerald R. Ford International airport, roughly 70 miles west in February.  

A new heavy maintenance facility will not be built on the west side of Colorado Springs Airport.

Frontier Airlines decided against constructing a heavy maintenance facility in Colorado Springs as the low-cost carrier attempts to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Capacity cuts and fleet reductions eliminated the need for the facility, Frontier spokesman Steve Snyder says, noting the airline has been reviewing all projects as part of the bankruptcy process.

Instead of building its own facility, Frontier will continue to lease part of Continental Airlines’ hangar in Denver for heavy maintenance work.

Construction on the 100,000-square-foot hangar (30,480 square meters) had not started. The facility had been slated to open in or after April 2009.

The airline selected Colorado Springs because of the financial package offered by the airport and the ease of flying between Denver and Colorado Springs, roughly 100 miles (160 km) south, Snyder said when plans for the facility were first announced.

Incentives offered to Frontier and other airlines include a 100% rebate of personal business property taxes related to hangar construction materials, Colorado Springs airport director of aviation Mark Earle says.

The airline also received a combination of rebates and exemptions that equate to a 100% abatement of sales and use taxes for activity in the hangar for the life of the project, he says. Aircraft, aircraft parts, equipment solvents, materials, “anything used in the maintenance process” is included.

"Airport staff will continue to market the airport in an effort to attract successful airline maintenance projects such as the SkyWest maintenance facility which has been in operation since July 2007,” Earle says in a statement.