Plattsburgh International Airport held a ribbon-cutting to celebrate the first United Express flight arriving this week. The airline, operated by SkyWest, took over the airport’s essential air services agreement from PenAir Airlines, and will offer two nonstop daily flights weekdays, and a daily flight on weekends, to Washington, D.C.’s Dulles International Airport. United says the daily flights on 50-seat passenger jets will connect the North Country, and Montreal, to major destinations in the U.S. and worldwide.
The airport hopes its 5-year, multi-million dollar expansion, and the opening later this year of its new international arrivals center and U.S. Customs facilities will draw interest from other airlines looking to offer flights to other U.S. destinations, the Caribbean, Mexico, or even Europe.
Melbourne to reconfigure domestic terminal for int’l ops
Melbourne Tullamarine airport said it will reconfigure its domestic terminal and install «swing gates» allowing both domestic and international operations within the next five years, The Airport Professional has reported.
The reconfiguration would allow the airlines, mainly Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith) and Virgin Australia International (VA, Brisbane Int’l), to use their widebody aircraft more flexibly for both types of flights.
«Swing gates» will be installed both in Terminal 1, used by Qantas, and in Terminal 3, used by Virgin Australia. Initially, the airport plans to convert just three Code E gates, but this number is set to grow to six to eight within a decade.
«What these projects are intended to do is meet that international growth challenge by using latent or spare capacity in the domestic terminals,» airport Planning Executive Michael Jarvis said. «[The aircraft] might have come in from a domestic sector, it might be going off to an international destination in Asia or North America and the airline can leave the aircraft at the gate without having to tow it to the international terminal with all of the fuss and money that involves.»
Both Australian airlines, as well as all foreign carriers, currently use Terminal 2 for international operations. The facility is sandwiched between Terminals 1 and 3 and has limited potential for expansion
According to the ch-aviation capacity module, Qantas and Virgin Australia are currently the largest airlines serving Melbourne with 30.8% and 23.4% market share by capacity, respectively. Qantas operates 765 weekly departures, including 85 on international routes; while Virgin Australia operates 588 weekly departures of which 33 are to destinations abroad.
The airport also has Terminal 4, which is used by local LCCs, such as Tigerair Australia (TT, Melbourne Tullamarine) and Jetstar Airways (JQ, Melbourne Tullamarine).
Source: ch-aviation.com
Wilmington International Airport: Terminal expansion plans
Wilmington International Airport will be going through some changes that will hopefully be finished by 2022.
In phase one, the TSA outbound bag areas will be reconfigured. In the second phase, that will cost about $12 million, the ticket office will be expanded. Construction for that will start in March next year.
Finally the third phase, which will redesign the concourse, gate area, concessions, restaurants and baggage claim areas, is expected to cost $40 million.
Oklahoma City Airport Trust approves terminal expansion plans
The city Airport Trust approved the final construction plans Thursday for $65.3 million in renovations and expansion of Will Rogers World Airport’s terminal building and related facilities.
Airports Director Mark Kranenburg said the primary goal of the project is to increase gate capacity because Will Rogers has only one leasable gate now, which limits marketability to other airlines.
The city also needs to stay on pace with the federal Transportation Security Administration’s passenger-checking processes, officials said. To more efficiently accommodate travelers, the airport will build a new security checkpoint with more space on both sides of the scanning equipment.
The Oklahoma City office of Frankfurt-Short-Bruza Associates has been contracted to design and oversee the project, which includes a new concourse, four new gates, more concessions and larger reception lobbies. As the space is designed now, passenger greeting takes place in a narrow lobby immediately adjacent to the TSA checkpoint and is split by escalators to the baggage claim area.
Rick Johnson, FSB’s chief operating officer, described the new design as something more akin to a “town square.” The design will also provide visitors with upstairs, panoramic views of the airfield with more seating space on the pre-check side of TSA.
Source: The Journal Record