Question regarding major airports in Texas... (Houston, Dallas: 2014, houses, tax)

[Marv101]

In light of the current state of our economy, it's no secret that one public works project a la the FDR era would be building and/or expanding numerous airports nationwide; many of the 10-15 largest cities in the USA could certainly use a new and substantially larger one.

In light of the substantial number of new residents which Texas has been getting for years and is expected to continue to get, do any of your fuine state's four largest cities (Dallas/Houston/Austin/San Antonio) need to either expand their current airports dramatically, or build new ones?

Thanks!

[nsumner]

DFW's last expansion was completed in 2006 which included the new terminal D. A 2.6 billion project. I don't believe they are planning to expand the airport but concentrate on bringing in more airlines.

Lovefield being a smaller airport but still pretty busy just had a new airline join them Virgin last week. I am not aware there that they have any plans to expand. In fact, I think this move saved them because they were struggling since Legend airline went belly up so fast.

I'd be interested to see if there are any concrete plans from other posters.

Naima

[shoe01]

Originally Posted by Marv101

In light of the current state of our economy, it's no secret that one public works project a la the FDR era would be building and/or expanding numerous airports nationwide; many of the 10-15 largest cities in the USA could certainly use a new and substantially larger one.

In light of the substantial number of new residents which Texas has been getting for years and is expected to continue to get, do any of your fuine state's four largest cities (Dallas/Houston/Austin/San Antonio) need to either expand their current airports dramatically, or build new ones?

Thanks!

I don't know if there's a huge need for those cities, since Houston has three airports and SA just built a new terminal. I don't know about Austin. Maybe runway extensions could take place at one or two of those places, but then land, homes, and businesses would probably need to be purchased ($$$).

IMO the governments need to get their fiscal houses in order.

[jimithing78]

First thing - tell Obama to stop spending all of my money with public works projects. They're not stimulating the economy and this isn't what I want my tax money spent on.

DFW doesn't need expansion - there are plenty of gates. What it needs is refurbishment. Other than terminal D the airport is showing it's age compared to other major hubs around the country. You could make an argument about making more gates at Love field since the Wright Amendment is about to be gone but there's really room unless they take over the land on the other side of the field that houses the museum and private businesses. The existing airport could use a little modernizing but it's really not bad.

Austin Bergstrom is only about 10 years old. There's a ton of room to expand as it used to be an air force base but I don't think it's really necessary. Austin is a growing city but the airport is still completely sufficient.

San Antonio seems to have things under control. They just opened a new terminal this year and are demolishing one of the old ones next year. Then they're opening another new terminal in a couple of years.

Houston Hobby is similar to Love Field in that it's an older airport that's surrounded by city so there's really no room for expansion. I hear they're renovating it but haven't been there lately to see it. George Bush is similar to DFW - it's showing it's age a little and could use some updating but I can't see any reason to expand it.

I just don't see any need for a nationwide movement to upgrade or update our major airports. Let it be decided by individual airports and let them spend their own money to do it.

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by shoe01

I don't know if there's a huge need for those cities, since Houston has three airports and SA just built a new terminal. I don't know about Austin. Maybe runway extensions could take place at one or two of those places, but then land, homes, and businesses would probably need to be purchased ($$$).

IMO the governments need to get their fiscal houses in order.

What is the 3rd airport in Houston?
Where is it?

[Dallas native]

Originally Posted by nsumner

DFW's last expansion was completed in 2006 which included the new terminal D. A 2.6 billion project. I don't believe they are planning to expand the airport but concentrate on bringing in more airlines.

Lovefield being a smaller airport but still pretty busy just had a new airline join them Virgin last week. I am not aware there that they have any plans to expand. In fact, I think this move saved them because they were struggling since Legend airline went belly up so fast.

I'd be interested to see if there are any concrete plans from other posters.

Naima

Virgin America flies out of DFW, not Love Field: Virgin America | Press Releases

[Dallas native]

Originally Posted by jimithing78

DFW doesn't need expansion - there are plenty of gates. What it needs is refurbishment. Other than terminal D the airport is showing it's age compared to other major hubs around the country. You could make an argument about making more gates at Love field since the Wright Amendment is about to be gone but there's really room unless they take over the land on the other side of the field that houses the museum and private businesses. The existing airport could use a little modernizing but it's really not bad.

The 4 original DFW terminals (A,B,C & E) are getting $1.9 billion worth of refurbishments starting in 2011: http://www.dfwairport.com/dfwucm1prd/groups/public/documents/webasset/p1_034973.pdf (broken link)

Love Field is also being renovated/expanded so that it will be ready before the Wright Amendment finally departs in October, 2014. The new terminal configuration will be similar to that of Houston's Hobby Airport: Love Field Airport Modernization Vision. The agreement to phase-out the Wright Amendment resulted in a compromise that limits the number of gates at Love Field. I believe that the most gates it can have is 20, but I'm not positive on that.

[Dallas native]

Originally Posted by momof2dfw

What is the 3rd airport in Houston?
Where is it?

There doesn't appear to be another commercial passenger airport with scheduled service in Houston besides Bush-Intercontinental and Hobby. There are lots of reliever airports in the Houston metro, but if you're flying on a commercial airline it's Bush or Hobby.
List of airports in Texas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Alley01]

Both HOU and IAH in Texas have been targeted by the FAA as needing to expand or adjust their travel patterns to accommodate an increase in traffic or passengers. You can get more details from this report.

http://www.faa.gov/airports/resource...dia/fact_2.pdf

[feufoma]

Originally Posted by Dallas native

There doesn't appear to be another commercial passenger airport with scheduled service in Houston besides Bush-Intercontinental and Hobby. There are lots of reliever airports in the Houston metro, but if you're flying on a commercial airline it's Bush or Hobby.
List of airports in Texas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For a while commercial flights were flying out of Ellington as well. However, I don't think that's the case today. There still might be a Continental flight from Ellington to IAH. As I understand that was a pretty successful route for those living in the southern part of Greater Houston/ Galveston to save time getting up to IAH, which is some 75 miles from Galveston.

Both IAH and HOU are constantly under renovation. Terminals E and C at IAH were recently completed. The other international terminal (D) is being renovated. Around 50 gates were added to HOU a few years ago.