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mattyt36

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Everything posted by mattyt36

  1. You’d def be on a very (relatively) short list of people in the entire history of the world who have visited Suriname! You made my evening with the SAF news!
  2. Just in time for you to join the fight! Rumors of Venezuela Invasion Plans Put Oil-Rich Guyana on Edge | OilPrice.com But definite good news.
  3. As a quid pro quo for endorsing Sheila Jackson Lee?! Another fanciful theory. In any case, glad you acknowledge there will be another Biden administration.
  4. Or having complete policy disagreements and a multi-decade personal relationship, maybe? Not everything is a conspiracy. 🙄
  5. I'm sure not a darned thing. C'mon, augie, you know Turner and SJL are part of the "same" Democratic Party with a long history. John Whitmire was essentially hand-picked by the State GOP. Why on earth would Turner even think of endorsing him? I thought you understood politics . . .
  6. @Houston19514 1) Yes, you have established multiple times that the C-North club is close to D-West. Not sure why you think that is in dispute. 2) The problem, once again, is the size of the club. It's way too crowded as it stands now. (I must ask, have you ever even been in it? Because this is pretty self-evident.) It goes without saying it's not optimal (a generous description) to serve either 3 additional widebody or 6 narrowbody flights. 3) You should hope that UA uses the D gates WAY more than the 3 gates they have preferential rights to because (1) that would imply they are expanding international service here; and (2) it keeps rates for the other airlines in check. Do you want to risk some airlines operating at the margin to leave, either to go to HOU or leave the market altogether? 4) Yes, UA can operate more international flights from E once the B gates open and domestic operations can be transferred off of E. HOWEVER, you seem to not understand how hubs work. E is ALREADY at capacity at peak times, so UA is ALREADY overflowing to D as it stands today. If UA is going to add new markets, you add them at the peak times to maximize connectivity. Therefore, if UA is not using any more than the 3 gates in D that they are close to using today at the peak, it implies UA is not expanding international service from IAH. I'm not sure why that would be desirable. So I find it very difficult to understand how someone who is purportedly in favor of expanded air service to continue making such arguments. Maybe you aren't in favor of expanded air service--maybe your interests simply align more with (what you think) UA's are. If one does have the interest of the region at heart, it seems to me that the following argument is just not very logical: 1) HAS is about to open the first new international gates at the airport in two decades. They hired an airport "starchitect" (Fentress) to design it. 2) If it were to be a "signature" facility (like essentially any new international terminal in the country would be), you would hope the hub airline (or a consortium of the airlines in the same alliance) would install appropriate facilities to serve its passengers conveniently and signal the importance of IAH in their global networks and UA's continued expansion opportunities. 3) Yes, the C-North club is in close proximity to the new pier, but it is way too crowded as it stands today (I can only assume you haven't stepped foot in it) and not anywhere near on par with international clubroom standards. 4) Yes, there will be a new club opening with the new gates, maybe even as soon as 2 years from now (but I'm not holding my breath). 5) Yes, people will be able to walk to it--but is that what you would ideally want, or would you, say, prefer one of the only Star Alliance lounges in the world? Maybe you are just being contrarian, or just rationalizing whatever decisions UA makes as OK for them (trust me, they have made plenty of boneheaded decisions in the past). 6) Yes, B gates will provide room for UA to expand at IAH, but they will not be internationally capable. If UA is not using D at a higher degree 5 years from now than it is today, I can only interpret that as indicative of a world in which UA is not expanding internationally from Houston. Your argument essentially boils down to, "All is good if UA doesn't intend to use Terminal D." Why on earth would you be arguing "in favor" of that?
  7. It's not a contractual "claim," it is a contractual "right." I don't know how relevant it is to the discussion here, however. They got half of the gates on the new concourse as a legacy of an agreement negotiated more than two decades ago. Most of the gates will be empty for most of the day, as they are today. Does that sound good to you? No flurf? (Are you arguing with yourself again?) Well (1) we'll see; (2) remodeling won't solve the main problem, which is space; and (3) thinking (and unfoundedly so) that they "may expand it" because it helps your argument today also doesn't help the problem today. I guess I can take your "guarantee" only to the extent that, assuming UA stays in business, all clubs will eventually get remodeled, renovated, or expanded--solid "death and taxes" reasoning there, I guess. You're the only one calling it that, but go right ahead. Well, usually when one makes a "guarantee," they have something to back it up besides what can only be described from reading your responses as your "gut feel." I'll accept that as a supposition because, hey, we all suppose, I suppose. Because they just remodeled less than 10 years ago. Why would they remodel it over the one on C-South, which is legacy 1990s? If they were planning a multimillion-dollar renovation and expansion of the C-North (oh, I'm sorry, D-West) club, why wouldn't they invest in an entirely new and purpose-built lounge in D-West? I mean, it really makes one scratch one's head. I don't believe your definition of "easy access" is the same definition as others, especially at widely accepted planning standards and service levels in the industry, but we've been over this before. Whatever UA does seems to be good enough for you because one can always fallback on finding examples of decidedly crappier facilities elsewhere. Other people disagree. It's all a matter of preferences and taste. (While we're on the topic of the UA Club in Terminal B, it's a great time to point out that UA never built out the new lounge shell space that they build on B South, even though they "guaranteed" it in press releases when the project was announced.)
  8. Several things: -The three preferential use gates is a legacy of the old D agreement and really has nothing to do with the new gates on D West other than HAS took them back when international growth was strong early in the 2010s and said they would give them back when additional gates were built. (An airline doesn't have any "claim" on preferential use rights in a common use terminal, they're negotiated and may be granted.) Since there will be no FIS built in B, the D gates will really be the heart of UA's future international growth--and we should hope UA uses the gates as much as possible or else the rates could be prohibitively high for the foreign flag airlines (this was a problem when Terminal E opened in the early 2000s, but UA provided traffic guarantees). And if these gates are going to be the "nicest" at the airport, one would think UA would be interested in a new club there, especially since the Polaris Lounge reduced the size of the E club. -The C-North United Club is a renovation of a decades-old club and not appropriate or competitive to serve multiple widebody international flights in addition to the new C-North gates--not sure why that is so difficult to understand. It's horribly overcrowded today. If the gates will be appreciably "nicer" than the other international gates, one would assume that UA would want to depart their more highly competitive flights from there (e.g., LHR and AMS). If they're little better than the new C-North gates, well, I guess it doesn't matter. The gates will certainly be a long haul from the Polaris Lounge, so maybe they don't care. Still, there may be a Star Alliance Gold lounge on the new pier that UA intends to use in common with other airlines--I believe that was proposed at one point, but I haven't read anything recently. The only Star Alliance Gold eligible lounges at IAH (able to be used by a passenger flying on any Star Alliance airline) were the UA lounges as LH and BR used the common use lounge. SQ, NH, and NZ used the UA lounge in E. Usually when you invest $1.5 billion in a new signature "front door" international facility, you would make an investment in this sort of thing to elevate the passenger experience.
  9. The more important question, of course, is who she has endorsed, as I'm told it's all about endorsements.
  10. United and HAS jointly released this summary of the Terminal B redevelopment project today. It will, as suspected, include a new United Club, which will be the new largest in the system. That said, I remain surprised they won't have one in Terminal D for purely competitive reasons. (Actually, I guess if LH builds a club, many UA passengers would have access to it as Star Alliance Gold as they do in DTW or IAD, for example, so maybe that's it, but I haven't seen anything one way or the other.) The middle pier of B-South to be demolished with parking positions added in the "bottom of the U" between the east and west piers. It doesn't look to me from the renderings that they intend to redo the piers, so I guess there will be no individual holdrooms and loading bridges up from the apron level like with Southwest in A. Security will now be on a level above the ticketing level, I believe in an entirely new building. I'm sure the new club will be between the two new piers. As drawn, they look a little more "flavorful" than "New C North." $2 billion is a pretty big chunk of change, so good for them. The Controller did not approve the most recent legislative request to appropriate $150MM in City funds for the project, but UA and HAS would not be putting this out if they did not expect to iron out those issues. United, Houston Airport System Invest more than $2B in Terminal B Transformation
  11. You can put me in the camp of being glad they're not lighting money on fire to "check a box."
  12. It really should be taken as a great sign that VB is expanding service with the new international gates about to open as a sign that the higher fees associated with the additional gates are not deterring service from a ULCC. It also says everything about the strength of the Mexican business market to Houston, which is way, way stronger than it was even 10 years ago. Houston has become front-of-mind in Mexican business in a way that it wasn’t even in 2015. It’s no mistake the first US destination connected to NLU was IAH.
  13. @Houston19514 (1) There is no airport called "Hobby International," it is called "William P. Hobby Airport" (2) Take a look at the long-term trends
  14. The statement "continues to hold on to (and in fact slightly widen relative to DFW) its lead in international air traffic among Texas cities" is, indeed, factually wrong. You presented data for a 10-month period with no comparison for the prior year, so how can you say what you posted shows that it has "widened its lead"? "Widened its lead" relative to last year for 10 months, maybe, but the long-term trend shows quite the opposite. At best, your post is unintentionally misleading because you did not present a complete picture. Which is fine, as you probably don't have access to the data, but for those that do the trend is very clear . . . the most recently available 12 month period for which "apples-to-apples" data are available from the same source show that FY 2023 was the second worst on record for Houston international traffic relative to Dallas. "continues to hold on to" = "still has the lead, but it's slipping" "slightly widen relative to DFW" = since 2010, DFW has increased its share of traffic from 61.5% to 91.0%. In the 12 years since 2010, DFW has increased its share relative to IAH in all but 4 years, including 2023. I certainly wouldn't put money on IAH being the busiest international airport in Texas in 2030.
  15. WRONG . . . the long-term trend is horrible, and definitely not something I'd be crowing about. In fact, 2023 was a degradation from 2022 and the second worst year on record. Enplanements* for the 12 months ended 6/30, source U.S. DOT: DFW as % DFW IAH HOU IAH+HOU IAH+HOU 2010 2,405,979 3,910,711 0 3,910,711 61.5% 2011 2,554,272 4,218,972 0 4,218,972 60.5% 2012 2,713,955 4,193,425 0 4,193,425 64.7% 2013 3,060,908 4,224,102 0 4,224,102 72.5% 2014 3,346,754 4,556,493 0 4,556,493 73.5% 2015 3,614,270 4,818,210 1,711 4,819,921 75.0% 2016 3,862,233 5,259,895 254,846 5,514,741 70.0% 2017 3,977,730 5,160,323 425,468 5,585,790 71.2% 2018 4,151,756 5,018,714 469,221 5,487,935 75.7% 2019 4,327,097 5,283,314 473,582 5,756,895 75.2% 2020 3,322,000 3,859,088 289,577 4,148,665 80.1% 2021 1,942,966 1,865,448 206,825 2,072,273 93.8% 2022 3,788,809 4,063,828 413,368 4,477,196 84.6% 2023 5,133,673 5,165,698 477,370 5,643,068 91.0% Long haul (i.e., excluding Canada, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean) trends are much worse and DFW surpassed in 2018: DFW as % DFW IAH IAH+HOU 2010 939,712 1,314,639 71.5% 2011 991,241 1,423,408 69.6% 2012 1,111,076 1,479,275 75.1% 2013 1,267,153 1,524,376 83.1% 2014 1,420,645 1,725,525 82.3% 2015 1,611,325 1,853,277 86.9% 2016 1,760,463 1,996,298 88.2% 2017 1,880,072 1,920,150 97.9% 2018 1,989,298 1,875,071 106.1% 2019 2,052,739 2,031,814 101.0% 2020 1,541,464 1,446,250 106.6% 2021 323,328 328,191 98.5% 2022 1,126,371 1,042,232 108.1% 2023 1,925,217 1,814,007 106.1% * - This is how these things are measured in the U.S., as we don't count passengers twice, i.e., once when they leave and once when they come back.
  16. Maybe Pickard Chilton can design the W Hotel that we've "all" been desperately waiting for.
  17. I agree Whitmire is likely to win but thinking that there is serious "pressure" for endorsements and that endorsements from "Garcia, Kaplan, Kahn & Co." will figure in any meaningful way in the outcome is, IMO, rather hilarious. Congrats buddy! There's a first time for everything! 🤣
  18. Agree 💯, STL, ATL, and Arlington are what GreenStreet would be if it were lively. Nothing to write home about. I'm sure all will seem as outdated as shopping malls in 10 years. Area around Reds ballpark in Cincy seemed more organic but I have only been there once.
  19. You say "Baseball Village" as if it weren't some recently invented term essentially tied to the Cardinals development. Why not just say "it doesn't look like the Cardinals development whereas the Cardinals development LOOKS like . . . the Cardinals development!" With Hines and HOK involved, hopefully it'll set a new standard and one appropriate for Houston. Having been to the Cardinals development, I can say it's absolutely dead when there isn't a game (haven't been to Truist when there isn't a game, but I honestly don't know why anyone would want to go there when there wasn't one . . . like the AT&T Stadium/Globe Life silliness). It's essentially a glorified pre-game concession stand.
  20. Bingo. People are literally complaining about something that by definition will not be built as the renderings show. The delay of at least a year from today (and, what, five years from when the land was initially acquired?), however, leaves me scratching my head--didn't Crane sign some sort of MoU guaranteeing development by a certain date when he moved those houses? If they're waiting on the economic environment to improve, I'd say there's a great chance it will slip further. I guess they'd need to break ground by then, however, if they want to ensure it is open for the World Cup.
  21. 💯 It's obviously a conceptual rendering That said, I fear it would imply they aren't that far along
  22. Good thing no one is proposing to build cap parks in Houston to cure asthma. 🙄
  23. Thanks to the C Baldwin Hotel, I learned that if anything Charlotte Allen probably deserves way more credit than either of the Allen Brothers for the founding of Houston. The brothers used her inheritance to purchase the land. John Allen died in 1838, 2 years after the founding of Houston, and Augustus left the city around that time. Charlotte died in Houston in 1895, almost 60 years after the founding of Houston. Whoever came up with the name of the hotel did a great job IMO at trying to help get the story told.
  24. Unfortunately, even if that happens, Houston will be down 1 if Marathon and Southwestern get acquired.
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