urb-a-saurus

On the airport runway, what I remember reading is that, after all of the Abrams Creek brouhaha, they lengthened the original runway to almost 10,000' and delayed the extension to 11,250'. When Director Smith came aboard, he revisited the extension, and threw it out at that time, because the cost estimates came in "too high." I am thinking $38M? On the Smisek lecture, whenever I saw articles about the LGW, CDG, and LHR non-stops, they would always say something to the effect that CO would not disclose the financial performance of these routes, but there were often anecdotal statements in the articles that said the routes were doing well. This was the first time I remember a CO official saying point blank that the CLE hub lost money. As MTS pointed out above, there is really not much context around that statement, so you don't know if Hopkins was unique in that. As MD88pilot said above, CO can't be doing that badly, as they are still at CLE. However, the financial numbers and business strategy that made CLE viable for CO alone, may not pan out for the CO-UA combination. There may be better ways to do it. The Smisek lecture was not unlike earlier lectures from Gordon Bethune, among other things, chastising local business people for running to CAK to fly to New York etc for a cheaper fare, and stating that NEO needed to support the hub. Smisek also said that Cleveland had not made money, but CO "stood by" us. If we were not performing before, it is hard to see, with the city not growing, how we would perform two years from now, especially in the larger world of the new United. I keep thinking of that paper brought out in the San Francisco suit, the one they later said was a recession scenario. By the way, do people here consider CLE a real hub, or a HINO? PS that news that PIT is retaining the CDG flight sans subsidy with no hub felt like a punch in the gut. If they can do it...............

Are you referring to the former NW ticket counters which are next to SW, as opposed to the gates? I figure that the NW business would have moved to the DL counters with the merger, leaving them open. Did CO take any of that space? IIRC, on concourse C, there was one old NW gate left unused, and CO has everything else, for now (hehe).

A Continental news release dated 10/21 indicates that the merged airlines are adding new routes from their hub cities "in 2011." I got excited (sound of fanfare). Then I read further. Cleveland Hopkins gets: restored service to (sound of buzzer) Cincinnati. The big winners appear to be IAH and IAD. Check it out at Continental.COM.

Was downtown last night for Blue Man Group. I noticed that the inside the first floor of the former NCB, now PNC building 4 story building along Euclid had steel framing going on inside (kind of across from 668). I didn't know if this was office renovation or perhaps new retail. New retail opening to the street between E6th and E9th would be awesome.

The word that comes to mind when looking at the med mart design rendering is STERILE, although I suppose for a medical facility, STERILE is not such a bad word association

So now we have another combination: Airtran, which is not at Hopkins, and Southwest, which is.

Today, in USA Today's "Today in the Sky Blog" the CEO of Airtran was quoted as seeing opportunity in Cleveland for Airtran if the CO hub is downsized or eliminated. (Is that a nonstop to Atlanta or Milwaukee? be still, my heart :roll:) As for the hub, I am starting to get that "LeBron" feeling, as Mr. Smisek has been unwilling to give clear indication of CLE's future in the system, even while announcing new routes from Houston to Auckland and Lagos. He definitely knows what their plan is for IAH. Perhaps the PD should start a HUB-O-METER to replace the LeBron-O-Meter :wink:.

^ Enjoyed that film! Wow, maybe the musical accompaniment should have included "TAPS"

What are the salary cap consequences from the sign and trade? I assume Miami will pay him. Does he still count against the Cavalier's cap? Is that why they got the cap exception in trade?

^^LMAO on the Darth Vader to be video! That was grreeaatt!!

The "how can you leave me, after all I've done for you" retort from the Cavalier's owner came across to me as so much self pitying, impotent rage. He'd gone over the edge for Lebron and Lebron had left, with middle finger extended. For all he thought he had done, covering for Lebron and spending millions to improve the team, here he was with a franchise reduced in value, and facing the inherent difficulties in trying to maintain the team's talent level. He was screwed, and for an executive used to being in charge, this must have been for at least a short time, an almost intolerable situation. Whether the outburst was a an opening into the man's raw emotions or a calculated ploy to cozy to Cavalier's fans and keep their buy-in, it felt ineffectual, especially the insults directed at Lebron, the "guarantee" to win a championship first, the "announcements coming in the next days and weeks", and the comments about our "departing" prodigious and indefagitable sports curse. More wishful thinking than reality! I remember reading somewhere that it had been a dream of Lebron's to be playing on a team with multiple superstars, so this can't be that much of a shock. The Miami management arranged it. The Cavaliers did not. The Cavalier's management has its work cut out. They could be looking at a sub .500 season. It is time to focus forwards!

Did Delta require the higher pricing to make the CVG hub viable, or were they just doing it because they could? Lowering prices would have brought CVG more business, but would have lowered per passenger revenue. The question may be, does the equilibrium point between passenger volume and fare level support a sustainable hub operation? Hubs must have major fixed costs.

Apparently, DL, in its halcyon days at CVG, did not see the need to lower its "exorbitant" fares to induce the return of the "hordes" of Cincinnatians fleeing to nearby airports. With their penchant for seeking low fares, these "hordes" would not be that attractive to a legacy carrier. Other airlines would have had the opportunity to charge high fares too, but did not see it worth their while to challenge DL's dominance or coexist/compete with them in any big way. The large hub at CVG, sans "hordes", was supposedly 70% connecting traffic. Even if you add the "hordes" back, I'd bet it would still be over 50%. If DL chooses to consolidate its connections elsewhere, such as Detroit, for economies of scale purposes, the decline in flights at CVG could be precipitous indeed. I could see something Buffalo-esque after it's all said and done. Pittsburgh and St Louis are larger metros. Look at their current flight schedules.

Sounds great, although I had to chuckle that the meeting on UC and downtown developments was held in Mayfield Hts.

327, I agree with you 100%, although some might argue, chicken and eggly, that the "things on the street that interest people", need the people flux before being created. At any rate, I was in downtown Montreal in April, and the maze of off street passageways was amazing and full of people and businesses, yet I saw street life. I am interested in their proposal for stores and restaurants lining Huron Rd. That sounds exciting. There was something like that outside the Seminole Hard Rock Casino near Ft Lauderdale, and it was hopping.

CO announced coming nonstop 787 service to Auckland, NZ from IAH, as part of an expansion of the IAH hub. So even though Jeff Smisek said, when asked about the post merger impacts on CLE, the future is unclear, they sure seem to know what they are doing at IAH. Should we worry? What impact is the 787 likely to have on CLE? The number of 1st class seats mentioned is too high for Hopkins, at least with current economics.

The 'L' shape makes sense to me. If they ever needed to expand, and the county eventually abandoned the administration building at the corner of Ontario and Lakeside, they could expand on that parcel creating a huge rectangle of show space. On the downside, a nondescript four story building across from both the Justice Center and Marriott is underwhelming. Too bad they couldn't do something atop the medmart such as a hotel or offices. That might even provide some revenue?

Hey, Charlotte is getting nonstop service to Rome according to the USAIR timetable. Not so many large cities nearby to compete with. :cry:

I totally forgot about that and now they have Lufthansa financial backing. I think Lufthansa owns ~20% of JetBlue now. Yes, jetBlue feeds LH at JFK just like Allegheny did PanAm back in th '70s. For a bit of nostalgia, here are some of the Upstate NY cities that once had mainline jet service: Niagara Falls, BUF, ROC, SYR, ALB, Plattsburg, Glens Falls, Elmira-Corning and Ithaca.... and almost forgot Utica-Rome Ah, thanks for the upstate NY memory. I remember flying an AA DC10 from Rochester NY to CLE when I was in college. I think it continued on to LAX. CLE used to have N/S service to LAX both on UA and on AA back in the CAB days. Oh and don't forget Mohawk, my one and only emergency landing.

Users on forums I have read have almost universally written off the Hopkins hub, some rather derisively. Its definitely doom, gloom, and scorn with some added sour grapes from people in cities already de-hubbed.....not very encouraging. Of course I can't count the number of times this possibility has come up in the last ten years without happening. One curiosity I have is how local officials could offer anything that would balance out the magnitude of the airline economics involved, in order to keep the hub. If anyone knows, I would love to hear it.

The elegant first floor of Higbees would make for a sophisticated, dressy gambling venue. Of course the waitresses must walk around passing out frosted malteds. Some things are sacred!

When the decision on CLE is made, the PD will actually have something definitive to report. There has been at least one more non-article since my last non-post, lol. Don't worry though, Dennis K. and Frank J. are on the job, sigh. :laugh:

^ And yet another, larger non-article in the Sunday Plain Dealer (today) saying the same things as all of the previous non-articles about the impact of a CO-UA merger on Hopkins Airport, only this time with charts and figures. It's like pre-election coverage: "well this may happen, or it may not happen, and we project this or that result, but we really can't be sure until its over." It must sell newspapers or something, because it sure doesn't add anything meaningful to the discussion. Besides, we, as Clevelanders, are sufficiently adept at anticipating being shafted without our daily paper rubbing our noses in it. :wink: :whip:

I wonder what the residents of Three Villages will have to say! I live in Lyndhurst and would love to get some subsidies to keep our property taxes under control.

OK, today's Plain Dealer carried yet another non-article about the potential consequences for Cleveland Hopkins Airport from a United - Continental merger, talks for which have apparently restarted. I don't know how many times the PD can re-write the same non-article, based on speculation from so called aviation experts, but it keeps cranking them out. We have recently been told that the CLE hub is supported by enough O-D traffic to make a go of it, which would provide a base to add reliever operations to help with Chicago and Newark capacity limitations. Let's try to be a little optimistic, although, as a life long Clevelander, I know how hard that can be! In the mean time, the city should continue upgrading the terminal concessions and related facilities to ensure that Cleveland Hopkins is an airport that people would want to use for flight connections.