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It doesnt matter if St Pete is one airline (really 4), dont move the goalposts. What matters is the destinations you can take from it, and the fact is St Pete, Tampa's secondary airport, has more destinations than San Antonios primary airport. That's a fact. You can fly to 0 Canada cities from San Antonio. You can fly to 3 from St Pete. SRQ is 35 minutes from St Pete, which is next door to Tampa, it is in the Tampa Bay region. Sanford is 25 minutes from Orlando. They all count.
To be honest, the secondary airports (and you could add MLB to the list) aren't really all that important to the central point, which is that the Orlando-Tampa area has more airline service from its two main airports (MCO and TPA) than does the Austin-San Antonio area (AUS and SAT).
Also, since we're ranking which area is "better," it's worth noting the satisfaction scores of these airports as measured by J.D. Power in their annual survey. Based on 2020 data, here's how they're ranked, and which category they're put into:
To be honest, the secondary airports (and you could add MLB to the list) aren't really all that important to the central point, which is that the Orlando-Tampa area has more airline service from its two main airports (MCO and TPA) than does the Austin-San Antonio area (AUS and SAT).
Also, since we're ranking which area is "better," it's worth noting the satisfaction scores of these airports as measured by J.D. Power in their annual survey. Based on 2020 data, here's how they're ranked, and which category they're put into:
The airports are in the region, they count to me. If they build a new international airport in New Braunfels, I will count it too. But yes, TPA and MCO are still well ahead regardless even if just those 2 are counted. Also TPA definitely gets the highest marks of them all.
And I'm not ranking them, I dont care who is better. Walker just made a lot of untrue travel claims, so I was correcting them. They made it sound like central FL is as isolated as Key West and that with air travel, Central FL has to rely on New York or Charlotte to get anywhere. Obviously not true. You can get basically anywhere but Asia and Africa from central FL. But you can't do that from central FL either.
Obviously Orlando has flights everywhere, given that it's a massive tourism economy...
In general though I don't find it difficult to get anywhere via air travel from Austin, however. I can't see how the difference in airports would matter at all unless you were an every-single-week business traveler, and even then I'm not sure it would be that big of a deal. One thing I do like in Austin is the airport is quite convenient from downtown and the core parts of the city. I'd absolutely hate a massive airport in New Braunfels, that's seriously the worst idea I've ever heard of.
Obviously Orlando has flights everywhere, given that it's a massive tourism economy...
In general though I don't find it difficult to get anywhere via air travel from Austin, however. I can't see how the difference in airports would matter at all unless you were an every-single-week business traveler, and even then I'm not sure it would be that big of a deal. One thing I do like in Austin is the airport is quite convenient from downtown and the core parts of the city. I'd absolutely hate a massive airport in New Braunfels, that's seriously the worst idea I've ever heard of.
Doesnt San Antonio have great tourism? Why cant it get a flight to at least Canada. You cant discredit Orlando. TPA holds its own, but MCO has a very impressive list. One of only 12 cities with a Dubai flight and a large base to LATAM. Even Orlando's secondary airport has flights to basically every major city in the UK. Too bad those are ending in October, but a wave of Canada flights will be taking the place. The only city Orlando/Tampa is really missing is Paris.
And the point is not difficulty. The point is Orlando/Tampa simply has more nonstop connections to more places on more continents, and is more driveable to more cities. And is cruisable. Again the reason I brought it up was because others made untrue claims.
Also no one said they should build an airport in NB... I said IF one was ever built, I'd count it as an Austin-San An airport, the same way St Pete, Saraosta, and Sanford count for Orlando/Tampa. Come on...
Doesnt San Antonio have great tourism? Why cant it get a flight to at least Canada. You cant discredit Orlando. TPA holds its own, but MCO has a very impressive list. One of only 12 cities with a Dubai flight and a large base to LATAM. Even Orlando's secondary airport has flights to basically every major city in the UK. Too bad those are ending in October, but a wave of Canada flights will be taking the place. The only city Orlando/Tampa is really missing is Paris.
And the point is not difficulty. The point is Orlando/Tampa simply has more nonstop connections to more places on more continents, and is more driveable to more cities. And is cruisable. Again the reason I brought it up was because others made untrue claims.
Also no one said they should build an airport in NB... I said IF one was ever built, I'd count it as an Austin-San An airport, the same way St Pete, Saraosta, and Sanford count for Orlando/Tampa. Come on...
To be fair, the comparison is between Orlando-Tampa and Austin-San Antonio, not between Orlando and San Antonio. Austin has service to Toronto and Calgary. Not nearly as much Canada service as either Orlando or Tampa, but it does exist.
To be fair, the comparison is between Orlando-Tampa and Austin-San Antonio, not between Orlando and San Antonio. Austin has service to Toronto and Calgary. Not nearly as much Canada service as either Orlando or Tampa, but it does exist.
Goodness...the poster said "Orlando is not impressive because its a tourist destination", no mention of Tampa or the whole region, they just mentioned Orlando, hence why I brought up just San Antonio. Nor did anyone deny central TX has Canada service.
I clearly KNOW what I'm talking bout. Fiserv has offices everywhere big deal. KPMG does have a presence in Orlando which is significant.
But Orlando has got nothing the last five years of the size that central Texas has gotten:
Tesla plant is under construction - a 400 million investment;
TWO apple campuses worth over 2 billion, the second under construction.
Oracle Software moved their HQ there
Samsung Semiconductor plant, the only location outside of Korea; and TODAY, Samsung announced central Texas will be getting a SECOND chip plant, valued at 17 billion.
A new 524 acre film production campus in Bastrop, south of Austin was announced last month. This will be the second major investment in film production. Two prominent directors, Rich Rodriguez and Rick Linklater live and work there.
Netflix and Amazon Prime just leased more space there last month.
Other significant operations include VMware, Facebook, IBM, and Applied Material Devices, which for the latter, though based in San Jose, its CEO works out of Austin.
Plus Austin is the home town for Indeed.com, Whole Foods and Dell Technologies.
I'd like to add to the conversation by highlighting some of San Antonio's economic might. S.A' s manufacturing base which is the third largest in Texas, generating more than $40 billion annually towards GDP. The Military/ DOD presence which is the largest economic driver in the S.A./Austin area, generating $50 billion towards GDP annually.
San Antonio's corporate and economic base definitely contributes to the Austintonio area or the San Austintonio region as I like to refer to it.
San Antonio is also home to multi-billion F500/1000 companies, as well as private companies that are similar in size. Valero Energy, Nustar, Energy, Clear Channel Worldwide, I-heart media, USAA, Rackspace Hosting, Sirius, Taskus, Kinetic Concepts and HB Zachary, all operate on a global scale. HEB food stores, Whataburger, Harland Clarke, Vision Works of America and Harte Hanks Communications are other multbillion corporations HQ in S.A.
On the flip side, San Antonio lost some big names to merger or relocations; At &t, CST Brands, Andeavor/ Tesoro were F500 HQ in S.A. which affected S.A.'s economic profile. It was sad to lose these big time F500, especially At&t which was one of the biggest F 500 HQ in S.A. Valero Energy, Tesoro, and At&t would actually be apart of the F 100 club. That would mean S.A. had 3 F100 and now only has one. At it's high S.A had 7 F500 and has dwindled since then.
Moreover, Toyota and Navistar international are currently investing Billions in local plants. Boeing and Lockheed Martin also have a major presence at Port San Antonio which is an aerospace, cyber-security, and technology innovation campus of more than 14k employees. S.A. is considered a leading global cyber security hub.
Amazon has expanded to over 2 million square feet in S.A with three new facilities one of them being a 750,000 Sq ft. All robotic fulfilment center.
Miscrosoft has built multiple data centers with plans to spend another $1 billion at Texas Research Center in far west S.A.
Nationwide, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, The Hartford, Hulu, QVC Network, all have regional office campuses and employee thousands locally.
Other major industries in S.A are Healthcare/ Biosciences, Technology, Energy, Aerospace and of course Tourism. S.A. has one of the largest medical centers in the U.S. more than 30k work at the South Texas Med Ctr.
Austin and S.A. are both growing economically and imo compliment each other.
Austin being a major technology hub and S.A
Being a major military, energy and manufacturing center with a growing technology ecosystem.
As far as my opinion on which combined metros are better?
I feel both regions have a lot to offer. I feel S.A.and Austin will merge first since they are located in a much bigger state where there is a stronger since of unity and more intertwined with each other.
This is probably due to there being less of a large population base surrounding these two metros whereas Orlampa has two many other cities in close proximity. Florida is small geographically where Orlampa is located.
Last edited by SweethomeSanAntonio; 09-07-2021 at 12:06 AM..
Doesnt San Antonio have great tourism? Why cant it get a flight to at least Canada. You cant discredit Orlando. TPA holds its own, but MCO has a very impressive list. One of only 12 cities with a Dubai flight and a large base to LATAM. Even Orlando's secondary airport has flights to basically every major city in the UK. Too bad those are ending in October, but a wave of Canada flights will be taking the place. The only city Orlando/Tampa is really missing is Paris.
And the point is not difficulty. The point is Orlando/Tampa simply has more nonstop connections to more places on more continents, and is more driveable to more cities. And is cruisable. Again the reason I brought it up was because others made untrue claims.
Also no one said they should build an airport in NB... I said IF one was ever built, I'd count it as an Austin-San An airport, the same way St Pete, Saraosta, and Sanford count for Orlando/Tampa. Come on...
Goodness...the poster said "Orlando is not impressive because its a tourist destination", no mention of Tampa or the whole region, they just mentioned Orlando, hence why I brought up just San Antonio. Nor did anyone deny central TX has Canada service.
uhh, what? Where on earth did I say that? People on here sure are sensitive.
What I'm saying is that Austin has a sufficiently good airport that has nonstops to most every domestic place I'd actually want to go, and international flights can generally be done with one hop.
While certainly Orlando's airport has more flights, Austin's is good enough that the airport would be quite low on the list of reasons to pick one place over the other for me. For what it's worth, the post I replied to did actually originally suggest that Central Texas is downright difficult to fly out of. Though I think they realized that was being a little silly and edited the post afterwards. (Kudos for that..)
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uhh, what? Where on earth did I say that? People on here sure are sensitive.
