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William P. Hobby Airport


ricco67

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They're not making extra money, they're tossing it away on expensive toys. Can anyone explain how it is money well spent to invest millions in drones to watch traffic, instead of, say, hiring more cops to work patrols? :wacko:

Next time anyone is whining about the poor underfunded police, just remind them of this boondoggle.

Base price for a drone is $30k. Base price for a new police squad car is $80k.

You have to pay two people in a squad car. One person can man several drones.

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FAA can't afford to upgrade the air traffic control system, but they're testing unmanned planes? Uh, betcha Homeland Security is back there footing the bill. :ph34r:

ATC generally isn't involved with low-level aircraft. For example, TV news helicopters coordinate amongst themselves unless they're entering restricted airspace. The drone flies at about 1,500 feet so it probably doesn't need much assistance from air traffic controllers.

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ATC generally isn't involved with low-level aircraft. For example, TV news helicopters coordinate amongst themselves unless they're entering restricted airspace. The drone flies at about 1,500 feet so it probably doesn't need much assistance from air traffic controllers.

Yes, but everything inside the loop and nearly everything inside the beltway from north to south is class Bravo airspace from the surface up to 10,000 ft. There's a small corridor between I-10 and the North Loop, over The Heights, where planes and choppers may fly without ATC clearance under 2000 feet. Otherwise, anything will need explicit ATC clearance and radar guidance from ATC to fly. There are "shelves" of airspace beneath the class Bravo that encircle the two airports at about 8 miles out, starting at 2000 feet and stepping up to 4000 feet. That's where the news choppers usually stay. But, with the two airports being so close to one another, the surface ring is almost conjoined north of I-10.

It's no big deal to enter Bravo airspace -- it isn't "restricted", but doing so requires strict compliance with ATC guidance and quick pilot response to their commands. That's definitely not the place for some cop to be trying to fly multiple drones.

Edited by dalparadise
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  • 3 weeks later...

IMO CO should also consider serving from Houston:

* Frankfurt, Germany

* Lagos, Nigeria

* Johannesburg, South Africa

* Seoul/Incheon, South Korea

* Hong Kong

I'm not sure how likely Sydney is, but IMO Sydney would be a good destination sometime in the future.

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IMO CO should also consider serving from Houston:

* Frankfurt, Germany

* Lagos, Nigeria

* Johannesburg, South Africa

* Seoul/Incheon, South Korea

* Hong Kong

I'm not sure how likely Sydney is, but IMO Sydney would be a good destination sometime in the future.

SYD would be great, and i remember reading somewhere (believe a.net) that it was a route that CO was considering...

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IMO CO should also consider serving from Houston:

* Frankfurt, Germany

* Lagos, Nigeria

* Johannesburg, South Africa

* Seoul/Incheon, South Korea

* Hong Kong

Continental has had a direct flight from IAH to Frankfurt for quite a long time... it's very convenient.

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Continental has had a direct flight from IAH to Frankfurt for quite a long time... it's very convenient.

Continental does NOT operate a nonstop (there may be a "direct" IAH-EWR-FRA - But that is not the same thing) - Lufthansa operates nonstop IAH-FRA.

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Do Continental and Luthansa have a codeshare agreement?

I was on an Air France flight from Paris to Houston once and for the first hour of the flight the n00b flyer behind me complained to his wife, the air hostess, and anyone else who would listen about how he paid for a Continental ticket and demmit he should be on a Continental flight, not Air France. Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees.

Of course, the same dummy had another fit about an hour before landing when he found out that he wouldn't be allowed to bring the two backpacks he stuffed full of strawberries at an outdoor market somewhere in France into the United States.

Some people just don't know how to fly.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

Banned for 31 years by a treaty that limited transAtlantic travel between Europe and the U.S, Continental is one of four U.S. mainline carriers, along with Delta, Northwest and US Airways, who have acquired coveted landing slots for new service from cities around the country to Heathrow, the world's busiest airport. Previously American, United, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic were the only authorized carriers.

http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2008/...pands_trav.html

I'm sure that's great news for many business travelers.

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Banned for 31 years by a treaty that limited transAtlantic travel between Europe and the U.S, Continental is one of four U.S. mainline carriers, along with Delta, Northwest and US Airways, who have acquired coveted landing slots for new service from cities around the country to Heathrow, the world's busiest airport. Previously American, United, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic were the only authorized carriers.

http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2008/...pands_trav.html

I'm sure that's great news for many business travelers.

Traveling to Heathrow isn't great news for any travelers.

That is one airport that many people make a point to avoid.

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Traveling to Heathrow isn't great news for any travelers.

That is one airport that many people make a point to avoid.

I flew to London a few years ago on British Airways and had to fly into Gatwick... the airport itself was very easy to get through... the only pain was having to take the longer train ride into London which really wasn't too too bad... I think it was like 30 to 45 minutes or something. I have never flown into Heathrow.

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Continental has long felt itself at a serious disadvantage because it didn't have landing slots at Heathrow. The issue for them isn't proximity to London, it is that Heathrow offers passengers a far larger number of connections. Gatwick is minuscule in comparison. That said, from a passenger viewpoint, if you need to make a connection there are better hub airports from which to do it than Heathrow.

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Traveling to Heathrow isn't great news for any travelers.

That is one airport that many people make a point to avoid.

I'll take Heathrow over De Gaulle. LHR may be a mess, but it at least tries to pretend that passengers need things like food and bathrooms.

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  • 2 months later...

i think its fair to say, that after this weeks announcement, our so called "naming names" for IAH service to FCO/MXP are out the door. No need to feed the AZ market when we need to be feedign the LO/LH/OZ markets!!!!

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i think its fair to say, that after this weeks announcement, our so called "naming names" for IAH service to FCO/MXP are out the door. No need to feed the AZ market when we need to be feedign the LO/LH/OZ markets!!!!

So... many... codewords...

Which announcement do you mean? The US Airways thingy?

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  • 1 month later...

The new list is out. Based on passengers (not freight):

  1. ATL - Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson 89.4 million
  2. ORD - Chicago O'Hare 76 million
  3. LHR - London Heathrow 68 million
  4. HND - Tokyo Haneda 67 million
  5. LAX - Los Angeles - 62 million
  6. CDG - Paris De Gaulle 59.9 million
  7. DFW - Dallas-Fort Worth International 59.7 million
  8. FRA - Frankfurt am Main 54.2 million
  9. PEK - Beijing Capital 53.6 million
  10. MAD - Madrid Barajas 52.1 million

There's lots of Continental employees on HAIF. Anyone know how IAH did?

Just found the list of the top freight airports:

  1. MEM - Memphis
  2. HKG - Hong Kong
  3. ANC - Anchorage

I know MEM is FedEx's main hub, and all FedEx deliveries to the United States from Asia come through ANC. DHL goes through HKG.

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I know MEM is FedEx's main hub, and all FedEx deliveries to the United States from Asia come through ANC. DHL goes through HKG.

Most of the Alaskan airports have a tremendously large amount of air freight relative to the size of the metro areas that they serve. Shouldn't be much of a shocker.

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Can we make this a thread about avoiding those 10 airports whenever possible? I've never once flown through ORD and had an on-time arrival or departure. Not once. And it's never just a little delay, either -- it's always one of those "glad I brought a travel pillow, where's the nearest shower" delays. I also never understood why a major transportation hub would have developed in a region that has so many snow days... :wacko:

ATL has gotten a lot better in recent years, but I still hate the fact that Delta routes every single one of their flights through ATL before it goes anywhere else. My mongrel idiot of a cousin made travel plans recently (without consulting anyone else) that involved her flying to ATL from DFW to get to Phoenix, courtesy of Delta. WTF?

We never fly into LHR. Manchester's airport is awesome -- the Love Field of England, if you will -- although I suppose it isn't for everyone, especially if you're only flying into the country for a few days or only want to see London. But the trip from Manchester to London is a very short two-hour train ride through some lovely country. I equate it to flying Southwest into Little Rock and then driving to Memphis to avoid the extreeeeeemely expensive rates at MEM.

Now that I read this, I'm thinking I might have weird travel habits... :unsure:

Anyway, I'm surprised to see that Frankfurt is so far down the list. They used to be crazy busy.

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