Reefmonkey Posted February 9, 2023 Share Posted February 9, 2023 Bush and Hobby have both been expanded so much (and so much more expansion for Bush to come), I sometimes wonder if there isn't justification for a third airport? Los Angeles has LAX, John Wayne, Burbank, Long Beach, Ontario and San Bernadino, I think Houston could swing a third Given that most of the Houston area's growth has been to the west and southwest, it seems that would make the most sense. Upgrading one of the existing reliever airports into commercial service, as a small hub or nonhub, at least for regional jets. The best candidate would be Sugarland Regional Airport, good facilities already, room to grow, and good quick access to I-69. West Houston Airport, off Highway 6 north of I-10 would be another option, but downside to this airport is it's a bit landlocked, you practically have to drive through Bear Creek Park to get to it, and I wouldn't want to try to expand it, because undeveloped land around it is Addicks Reservoir. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hindesky Posted February 9, 2023 Share Posted February 9, 2023 https://www.fly2houston.com/ellington-airport Continental used to have a connection flight to IAH for a couple years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross Posted February 10, 2023 Share Posted February 10, 2023 Metro Airlines flew Twin Otters from Sugar Land to IAH in the 80's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wxman Posted February 14, 2023 Share Posted February 14, 2023 I believe Conroe Lone Star Executive is currently being explored for commercial flights as of last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pleak Posted March 14, 2023 Share Posted March 14, 2023 Many many years ago (Maybe beginning in the 80's?) there was a big proposal going around for a third large airport out west in Katy. Lots of fighting over the Katy Prairie, etc. I think it finally died in the late 90's. But not sure. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattyt36 Posted March 16, 2023 Share Posted March 16, 2023 On 2/9/2023 at 5:03 PM, hindesky said: https://www.fly2houston.com/ellington-airport Continental used to have a connection flight to IAH for a couple years. More than a couple years, from 1990 to 2004. The EFD flights over IAH were sold at the same price as the IAH nonstops, which made them pretty attractive, especially considering parking was free at EFD and FFs could earn additional miles. CO (well, Emerald as the Houston Proud Express) flew DC-9-10s from IAH-HOU earlier in the 1980s. CO resumed IAH-HOU service sometime after the EFD flights, I believe when AA started SAT-HOU-LGA and AUS-HOU-DCA. For a very short time, the UA HOU-IAH flights were flown by 737-700s and continued on to LGA. In any case, Houston does not need a third airport from a capacity perspective, although I can see an airline like Allegiant (read: Avelo) starting EFD. CXO just really restricts your market reach. Draw a 30-mile circle around CXO and a 30-mile circle around EFD and you can see the significant difference in the population of the catchment area--EFD has about 4 times the population and isn't as "proven." TKI (McKinney) is seriously considering building a 4-gate terminal to become Dallas's third airport: McKinney voters to decide on $200M airport bond to lure commercial air service (dallasnews.com) It would require the airport obtaining Part 139 certification to accommodate scheduled passenger service. Of airports in Texas without commercial service today, only AFW (Ft Worth Alliance), DRT (as of last month), EFD, FTW, and LBX (Lake Jackson, I guess due to Dow charters) have Part 139 certification. RJs are on their way out, and airlines are cutting cities left and right due to lack of pilots (this point has never seemed to register with OP, even when it has affected him personally multiple times). Note as well UA doesn't serve HOU, AA and UA don't serve MDW, AA and UA don't serve LGB or OAK. Chicago has talked about building a third airport for years. It's just not cost efficient. It's totally possible that a third airport in the MSA gets service, but it's not going to be for capacity relief. More than likely it will be for cheap flights to Florida and Las Vegas, which could arguably be accommodated at IAH or HOU. On 3/14/2023 at 2:59 PM, Pleak said: Many many years ago (Maybe beginning in the 80's?) there was a big proposal going around for a third large airport out west in Katy. Lots of fighting over the Katy Prairie, etc. I think it finally died in the late 90's. But not sure. That's correct--the City did own land for the proposed westside airport and AFAIK sold it. The City of Atlanta IIRC only sold land it had acquired for a new airport in Paulding County even more recently. Paulding County residents, county settle dispute with deal not to commercialize local airport. (ajc.com) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strickn Posted March 24, 2023 Share Posted March 24, 2023 GYY already has a 9000' concrete runway, so it would be really inefficient to build a third airport in northeast Illinois, probably putting it even farther out from the Loop than GYY is, but Illinois leaders still talk about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilcal Posted March 24, 2023 Share Posted March 24, 2023 Almost a 0% chance. Conroe is way too close to IAH. A Katy-ish option is the only thing that would make sense, and I can't imagine that there is enough demand. Who would even serve it? A single AA regional jet to DFW like Beaumont gets? Southwest and UA would be out. It wouldn't be dense enough for any LCC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefmonkey Posted March 24, 2023 Author Share Posted March 24, 2023 (edited) I don't think this is that far out in left field, especially given all the growth in the Katy and Fort Bend areas in the last two decades. One could make the same arguments against a third airport in the DFW area, ("who would even serve it? Southwest and AA would be out"), yet McKinney is making its GA airport a third commercial airport for the DFW area: https://www.dallasnews.com/business/airlines/2022/10/12/mckinney-weighing-its-own-commercial-airport-as-alternative-to-dfw-love-field/ https://www.fox4news.com/news/mckinney-airport-open-house Edited March 24, 2023 by Reefmonkey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strickn Posted March 24, 2023 Share Posted March 24, 2023 On 3/16/2023 at 3:01 PM, mattyt36 said: EFD flights over to IAH were sold at the same price as the IAH nonstops, which made them pretty attractive, especially considering parking was free at EFD and FFs could earn additional miles. The City did own land for the proposed westside airport and AFAIK sold it. Houston Exec Airport (KTME) did get built privately and is in operation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattyt36 Posted March 24, 2023 Share Posted March 24, 2023 4 hours ago, wilcal said: Almost a 0% chance. Conroe is way too close to IAH. A Katy-ish option is the only thing that would make sense, and I can't imagine that there is enough demand. Who would even serve it? A single AA regional jet to DFW like Beaumont gets? Southwest and UA would be out. It wouldn't be dense enough for any LCC. The closest corollary would be PAE, which was opened for commercial service in 2019 by Alaska and United. Southwest announced service but pulled out before even starting. United suspended service during COVID, came back in 2020, and left for good in 2021. Alaska is still there, but more than likely is serving it to occupy the gates and prevent them from being taken over by a new entrant with the associated competitive effects (think AA and its checkered history at DAL). Average fares at PAE for the most recent 12 month period are about 20% lower than for SEA. All destinations served from PAE by Alaska are served by Alaska from SEA. If there were no commercial service at PAE, the vast majority would use SEA. A lesser number would use BLI, which is also served by Alaska. The business case for PAE rests solely on Alaska locking other airlines out of the market, i.e., even though the demand may be there, the supply is "artificial." The opportunity cost of Alaska not serving PAE is that another airline likely would and charge much lower fares with the attendant competitive effects, not because they're adding passengers that wouldn't already be flying them from SEA in the first place. It's the same sort of calculus a company like HEB goes through when deciding to build a new grocery store without cannibalizing existing ones--sometimes you have to do it because someone else may do the cannibalizing. Saying that TKI is building a new airport because of some sort of latent demand is fallacious. City leaders have been talking about it for more than a decade (even before they bought the thing from Collin County in 2013) as an economic development initiative because, despite being a rapidly growing area, it's not particularly convenient to DFW or DAL--let's be honest, the former is really the primary reason any company would move to the Soulless Prairie (low-tax environment aside). All of the corporate traffic from the DNT corridor locating out there put ideas into their head. If the City of Katy or the City of Sugar Land or Fort Bend County are as interested in building an airport as the City of McKinney has been for years, then sure, it could happen, but linking that to some sort of burgeoning, latent demand is ridiculous. AA may very well serve TKI from day 1 for the same reason AS serves PAE, but let's see where they are 1, 3, 5, and 10 years down the road. They couldn't even serve DAL for more than a couple of years at a time. The fact remains that DFW and DAL will have multiple nonstop flights to all major destinations in the U.S. and any operation at TKI will definitely be "niche." Sure, some may save 30 minutes driving, but those savings will be dwarfed by the time cost of having to connect in ORD or ATL (or IAH). I do disagree though--if SGR, for example, did convert to a commercial service airport, IMO the most likely tenants would be LCCs like Allegiant. P.S. Just as a reflection of how the industry is going in the completely OPPOSITE direction--in the past couple of weeks, DL exited 4 markets altogether, while UA exited 2, in addition to all the previous cuts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattyt36 Posted March 24, 2023 Share Posted March 24, 2023 Just now, strickn said: Houston Exec Airport (KTME) did get built privately and is in operation. Sure, but not as a commercial service airport as was originally intended. Aerial dogfight erupts over airport - Houston Business Journal (bizjournals.com) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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