1 hour ago, CMHOhio said:

 

Below is the conceptual plan for the entire build-out of the new terminal, garage, rental car facility, and relocated Lane Aviation. It looks like a complete reworking of the taxiways to 10R/28L is part of the plan.

 

 

Thanks for this, whew its a tight squeeze. Never realized how lucky we were at CVG with all the space. 

Just now, savadams13 said:

Thanks for this, whew its a tight squeeze. Never realized how lucky we were at CVG with all the space. 

 

Luckily we also have Rickenbacker which, if they ever add a second runway, could handle a decent amount of passenger traffic as well. LCK currently handles all Allegiant flights, although that's only about ~300k passengers per year. I would imagine they could increase their capacity in the future by quite a bit to take some stress off of CMH. 

57 minutes ago, cbussoccer said:

 

It was mostly just cosmetic if I recall. They were just giving it a face lift. And the new terminal is still at least a decade away, so the cosmetic updates they did on the current terminal will still have a 15-20 year life before we shift to the new terminal. 

 

Yeah I think I'm just getting old. Things that used to seem like they took a long time now seem like they took place over a short period of time.

Not-so-satisfied customers: Here's how the Columbus airport stacks up to its peers

 

John Glenn Columbus International Airport appears to have some room for improvement when it comes to customer satisfaction, according to new J.D. Power rankings.

 

The Columbus airport ranked 11th out of 16 medium-sized airports in J.D. Power’s latest North America Airport Satisfaction Study. Medium-sized airports include those with between 4.5 million and 9.9 million passengers per year.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2019/09/30/not-so-satisfied-customers-heres-how-the-columbus.html

I wonder if the "not-so-satisfied customers" could be a result of the airport nearing maximum capacity. I fly a decent amount and prefer CMH over most airports I fly in and out of, so who knows how meaningful these rankings are.

 

The August stats are out, and the strong ridership growth continues.

 

August

 

2018 CMH: 699,986

2018 LCK: 28,184

2018 Total: 728,170

 

2019 CMH: 735,554

2019 LCK: 28,369

2019 Total: 763,923

 

4.9% increase, or a growth of 35,753

 

Year to Date

 

2018 CMH: 5,389,991

2018 LCK: 233,373

2018 Total: 5,623,364

 

2019 CMH: 5,724,945

2019 LCK: 231,337

2019 Total: 5,956,282

 

5.9% increase, or a growth of 332,918

 

Columbus continues gaining ground on Cincinnati, cutting Cincinnati lead nearly in half compared to this time last year. At this time last year, Cincinnati was 6.4% higher, but Columbus has cut that to only 3.4% larger through August of this year, resulting in a gap of 187,664.

 

If things hold up for the remainder of the year, we should finish right around 9 million. Hopefully they have picked up the pace on the new terminal, because we are going to need it soon.

 

 

 

 

AA dropping its 2nd daily flight to LAX, eff January.  

 

On 10/1/2019 at 8:35 AM, cbussoccer said:

I wonder if the "not-so-satisfied customers" could be a result of the airport nearing maximum capacity. I fly a decent amount and prefer CMH over most airports I fly in and out of, so who knows how meaningful these rankings are.

 

The August stats are out, and the strong ridership growth continues.

 

August

 

2018 CMH: 699,986

2018 LCK: 28,184

2018 Total: 728,170

 

2019 CMH: 735,554

2019 LCK: 28,369

2019 Total: 763,923

 

4.9% increase, or a growth of 35,753

 

Year to Date

 

2018 CMH: 5,389,991

2018 LCK: 233,373

2018 Total: 5,623,364

 

2019 CMH: 5,724,945

2019 LCK: 231,337

2019 Total: 5,956,282

 

5.9% increase, or a growth of 332,918

 

Columbus continues gaining ground on Cincinnati, cutting Cincinnati lead nearly in half compared to this time last year. At this time last year, Cincinnati was 6.4% higher, but Columbus has cut that to only 3.4% larger through August of this year, resulting in a gap of 187,664.

 

If things hold up for the remainder of the year, we should finish right around 9 million. Hopefully they have picked up the pace on the new terminal, because we are going to need it soon.

 

 

 

 

I’m confused, Every time you post these numbers you always cite/compare CVG/Cincinnati is there a reason? Both airports are doing very well. CVG, passenger wise and also with cargo which will soon soar even more with amazons 1.5 Billion Dollar main cargo hub under construction. Also it looks as though your combining 2 separate Columbus area airports then comparing them to CVG as 1 is that correct?

1 hour ago, 646empire said:

I’m confused, Every time you post these numbers you always cite/compare CVG/Cincinnati is there a reason? Both airports are doing very well. CVG, passenger wise and also with cargo which will soon soar even more with amazons 1.5 Billion Dollar main cargo hub under construction. Also it looks as though your combining 2 separate Columbus area airports then comparing them to CVG as 1 is that correct?

 

Columbus has always been the smallest airport of the the 3Cs. I simply compare to gauge it’s growth in relation to the next largest airport. It’s just interesting from a statistical standpoint. 

 

I combine two Columbus airports because we have two airports with commercial passengers operations, unlike Cincinnati. Allegiant flies out of LCK while all other airlines fly out of CMH. I combine the two in order to gauge total passenger growth for the city of Columbus. 

 

It’s unfortunate that you were offended by a simple statistical analysis. 

 

31 minutes ago, cbussoccer said:

 

Columbus has always been the smallest airport of the the 3Cs. I simply compare to gauge it’s growth in relation to the next largest airport. It’s just interesting from a statistical standpoint. 

 

I combine two Columbus airports because we have two airports with commercial passengers operations, unlike Cincinnati. Allegiant flies out of LCK while all other airlines fly out of CMH. I combine the two in order to gauge total passenger growth for the city of Columbus. 

 

It’s unfortunate that you were offended by a simple statistical analysis. 

 

 

oh no I wasn’t offended at all, just curious. Cincinnati also has Lunken Airport that serves around 50,000 commercial passengers a year according to a quick search I just did. Anyway I’ve never been to LCK will maybe take a look next time I’m in Columbus.

Yep Lunken offers commerical service to Cleveland, Chicago, Charlotte and Atlanta. Talks of adding Nashville are next. Passenger service is projected over 60k for 2019.

Edited October 7, 20195 yr by savadams13

9 minutes ago, savadams13 said:

Yep Lunken offers commerical service to Cleveland, Chicago, Charlotte and Atlanta. Talks of adding Nashville are next. Passenger service is projected over 60k for 2019.

Wow, it’s good to see all of the airports serving Ohio growing at such a strong pace!

I actually thought Lunken was doing more passenger than Rickenbacker (LCK).

1 minute ago, GCrites80s said:

I actually thought Lunken was doing more passenger than Rickenbacker (LCK).

Nah I think the heavy Allegiant service out of LCK is higher than LUK. Dornier 328 and Embraer 135 definitely don't have as many seats as Allegiant 319 and 320s

6 hours ago, 646empire said:

 

oh no I wasn’t offended at all, just curious. Cincinnati also has Lunken Airport that serves around 50,000 commercial passengers a year according to a quick search I just did. Anyway I’ve never been to LCK will maybe take a look next time I’m in Columbus.

 

Lunken just has charter operations. I only added LCK into CMH’s total because Allegiant, a major commercial airline, makes up almost all of its passenger total. 

 

 

2 hours ago, cbussoccer said:

 

Lunken just has charter operations. I only added LCK into CMH’s total because Allegiant, a major commercial airline, makes up almost all of its passenger total. 

 

 

Ultimate doesn't follow under charter service anymore. 

6 minutes ago, savadams13 said:

Ultimate doesn't follow under charter service anymore. 

 

Ultimate is not a major commercial airline. They fly public charter flights on a set schedule. Their website literally says they "provide public charter flights". They are not comparable to the major commercial airlines. 

 

Regardless of what you want to call them, it is fairly immaterial for the comparison I was doing. Allegiant at LCK matches Ultimate's annual total out of Lunken in just one month. If Allegiant was flying out of CMH instead of LCK, I wouldn't bother including LCK's numbers for my comparison.

 

8 hours ago, savadams13 said:

Nah I think the heavy Allegiant service out of LCK is higher than LUK. Dornier 328 and Embraer 135 definitely don't have as many seats as Allegiant 319 and 320s

 

Correct. LCK totalled 307,247 passengers last year; 301,853 of those passengers coming from Allegiant. Lunken totalled about 50k last year. Ultimate's planes only seat 30-40 passengers while Allegiant's can hold 155-175 passengers.

34 minutes ago, cbussoccer said:

 

Ultimate is not a major commercial airline. They fly public charter flights on a set schedule. Their website literally says they "provide public charter flights". They are not comparable to the major commercial airlines. 

 

Regardless of what you want to call them, it is fairly immaterial for the comparison I was doing. Allegiant at LCK matches Ultimate's annual total out of Lunken in just one month. If Allegiant was flying out of CMH instead of LCK, I wouldn't bother including LCK's numbers for my comparison.

 

 

Correct. LCK totalled 307,247 passengers last year; 301,853 of those passengers coming from Allegiant. Lunken totalled about 50k last year. Ultimate's planes only seat 30-40 passengers while Allegiant's can hold 155-175 passengers.

A question you may have an answer for. Why does Allegiant screw over Columbus and Cleveland? We only get flights to seven different Florida cities (Orlando not included), and then Charleston, Myrtle Beach, and Savannah. Cleveland gets six Florida flights including Orlando, the three others Columbus gets, plus Nashville and Norfolk. Meanwhile, Cincinnati gets Phoenix, Vegas, LA, Austin, Denver, Puerto Rico, New Orleans, New York City, and Orlando in addition to everything Cleveland (minus Nashville) and Columbus get. What gives? Phoenix and Vegas would surely do superb out of Rickenbacker. I know Rickenbacker is crazy busy with cargo flights, and limited runways. Is this the reason? They are given a limited number of flights?

 

ETA: I know of multiple people who have driven to Cincinnati or Ft. Wayne from Columbus just to get an Allegiant flight to Phoenix. Surely they can see that people do this right?

Edited October 7, 20195 yr by aderwent

^cleveland is well served to all of those Allegiant locations (except Puerto Rico) by big 3 and also low cost airlines so Allegiant wouldn’t stand a chance in some of those routes out of CLE

7 minutes ago, aderwent said:

A question you may have an answer for. Why does Allegiant screw over Columbus and Cleveland? We only get flights to seven different Florida cities (Orlando not included), and then Charleston, Myrtle Beach, and Savannah. Cleveland gets six Florida flights including Orlando, the three others Columbus gets, plus Nashville and Norfolk. Meanwhile, Cincinnati gets Phoenix, Vegas, LA, Austin, Denver, Puerto Rico, New Orleans, New York City, and Orlando in addition to everything Cleveland (minus Nashville) and Columbus get. What gives? Phoenix and Vegas would surely do superb out of Rickenbacker. I know Rickenbacker is crazy busy with cargo flights, and limited runways. Is this the reason? They are given a limited number of flights?

 

ETA: I know of multiple people who have driven to Cincinnati or Ft. Wayne from Columbus just to get an Allegiant flight to Phoenix. Surely they can see that people do this right?

 

In terms of flights on Allegiant, you have to consider where Allegiant's discount competitors are flying to from each city. Southwest is the largest airline at CMH and provides about 10 direct flights to 4 different cities in Florida, and addition to many more connecting flights to Florida through Atlanta. Spirit and Frontier also provide direct flights to 3 cities in Florida with about 4-5 flights per day.

 

In contrast, the only city in Florida Southwest services from Cincinnati is Orlando, and that is only a couple days per week. Spirit does not service CVG at all. Frontier services a good number of cities from CVG but most on a non-daily basis. 

 

All told, Cincinnati has about 75 direct flights on discount airlines to Florida this week, while Columbus has a little over 100 direct flights to Florida on discount airlines. That's assuming I counted correctly.

 

Bottom line, Allegiant "screws over" Columbus because Southwest already owns a huge chunk of the market in Columbus. 

 

In terms of flights to Phoenix, Southwest runs a daily direct flight from CMH to Phoenix, while Allegiant only runs a 3 days/week flight from CVG to Phoenix. The only reason I could see them driving to Cincinnati/Ft. Wayne is if the ticket was substantially cheaper and they weren't adding on any of the additional Allegiant costs aside from their ticket.

6 minutes ago, cbussoccer said:

 

In terms of flights on Allegiant, you have to consider where Allegiant's discount competitors are flying to from each city. Southwest is the largest airline at CMH and provides about 10 direct flights to 4 different cities in Florida, and addition to many more connecting flights to Florida through Atlanta. Spirit and Frontier also provide direct flights to 3 cities in Florida with about 4-5 flights per day.

 

In contrast, the only city in Florida Southwest services from Cincinnati is Orlando, and that is only a couple days per week. Spirit does not service CVG at all. Frontier services a good number of cities from CVG but most on a non-daily basis. 

 

All told, Cincinnati has about 75 direct flights on discount airlines to Florida this week, while Columbus has a little over 100 direct flights to Florida on discount airlines. That's assuming I counted correctly.

 

Bottom line, Allegiant "screws over" Columbus because Southwest already owns a huge chunk of the market in Columbus. 

 

In terms of flights to Phoenix, Southwest runs a daily direct flight from CMH to Phoenix, while Allegiant only runs a 3 days/week flight from CVG to Phoenix. The only reason I could see them driving to Cincinnati/Ft. Wayne is if the ticket was substantially cheaper and they weren't adding on any of the additional Allegiant costs aside from their ticket.

The flights are substantially cheaper. $200+ round trip cheaper. Also, I was asking about the additional flights. Clearly we're well served to Florida.

Just now, aderwent said:

The flights are substantially cheaper. $200+ round trip cheaper. Also, I was asking about the additional flights. Clearly we're well served to Florida.

 

Yes, the flights are cheaper. The difference between Allegiant and Southwest is that Allegiant has fees for everything in addition to you just getting on the plane. So if you want to check a bag you pay a fee. If you want to carry on a bag you pay a fee. If you want a snack you pay a fee. If you want to print your boarding pass at the airport you pay a fee. Even after the fees, Allegiant is still pretty cheap, not much cheaper than Southwest. 

 

I'm not sure what you mean by the additional flights. What I said for Florida applies to all the other cities as well. CMH provides nonstop service to all cities Allegiant services from CVG. CVG is a main focus city for Allegiant, so they have a lot more flights there than at CMH or CLE, but CMH/CLE have more flights on other carriers like Southwest and Spirit.

48 minutes ago, cbussoccer said:

 

 

Bottom line, Allegiant "screws over" Columbus because Southwest already owns a huge chunk of the market in Columbus

. 

 

In terms of flights to Phoenix, Southwest runs a daily direct flight from CMH to Phoenix, while Allegiant only runs a 3 days/week flight from CVG to Phoenix. The only reason I could see them driving to Cincinnati/Ft. Wayne is if the ticket was substantially cheaper and they weren't adding on any of the additional Allegiant costs aside from their ticket.

It is purely anecdotal of course, but I found it interesting, the last 3 times I flew from CVG I was chatting with a number of people on the parking lot bus and at the gate who came in from Columbus. They said they fly monthly to Florida on Allegiant and Frontier because they offer the best rates than they can find in the Columbus market. 

 

While I don't think that really speaks to the Columbus market at all, it is a bit of a change from say 10 years ago when there was zero net migration from Columbus to CVG and there was a large number of Cincinnati passengers traveling from Cincinnati to CMH or Dayton.

1 minute ago, Brutus_buckeye said:

It is purely anecdotal of course, but I found it interesting, the last 3 times I flew from CVG I was chatting with a number of people on the parking lot bus and at the gate who came in from Columbus. They said they fly monthly to Florida on Allegiant and Frontier because they offer the best rates than they can find in the Columbus market. 

 

While I don't think that really speaks to the Columbus market at all, it is a bit of a change from say 10 years ago when there was zero net migration from Columbus to CVG and there was a large number of Cincinnati passengers traveling from Cincinnati to CMH or Dayton.

 

If they are snow birds and regularly go back and forth from Ohio to Florida, this wouldn't surprise me as they probably aren't checking bags and maybe not even carrying on anything other than a personal item. If you travel that way, Allegiant is extremely cheap. 

 

Personally, I much prefer Southwest over Allegiant/Frontier/Spirit. Southwest still offers pretty solid prices but their service is much better than the other three. 

 

I do wonder how much Allegiant can increase service out of LCK. Currently, LCK only has two gates and one runway. With all of their cargo flights, charter flights, and Air National Guard activity I'm not sure how many more Allegiant flights they could comfortably add without building a second runway. As of early last year I know there were no plans to expand the passenger terminal at LCK. 

^Passenger terminal expansion is in the long-term (10+ year) plans for LCK. I went to a meeting about 2 years ago where they outlined their idea for it.

9 minutes ago, GCrites80s said:

^Passenger terminal expansion is in the long-term (10+ year) plans for LCK. I went to a meeting about 2 years ago where they outlined their idea for it.

 

Interesting. That's the first I've heard that. I wonder how much they would be willing to expand given the plans for a new terminal at CMH. There is certainly plenty of space at LCK to expand. 

9 hours ago, cbussoccer said:

 

If they are snow birds and regularly go back and forth from Ohio to Florida, this wouldn't surprise me as they probably aren't checking bags and maybe not even carrying on anything other than a personal item. If you travel that way, Allegiant is extremely cheap. 

 

Personally, I much prefer Southwest over Allegiant/Frontier/Spirit. Southwest still offers pretty solid prices but their service is much better than the other three. 

 

I do wonder how much Allegiant can increase service out of LCK. Currently, LCK only has two gates and one runway. With all of their cargo flights, charter flights, and Air National Guard activity I'm not sure how many more Allegiant flights they could comfortably add without building a second runway. As of early last year I know there were no plans to expand the passenger terminal at LCK. 

Never personally flown Allegiant, however If you have flexibility in travel it can be good.

 

I have enjoyed Frontier. They fly to most major airports so they seem to have a pretty good record in and out.

 

Southwest is the best. With the free bags, it is price competitive, however, If you do not need a bag and just have a small carry on, they are not as price competitive.

Final tower crane is going up at the rental car facility construction site. 

 

https://flycolumbus.com/about-us/development/new-rental-car-facility

Snapped this on my way into the airport this morning, you can see the crane up to assemble tower crane 3. 

 

All cranes are now up.

 

September stats are out and CMH continues it's solid growth. Allegiant at LCK has fallen off slightly compared to last year. 

 

September

CMH 2018: 648,346

LCK 2018: 18,752

Tot. 2018: 667,098

 

CMH 2019: 695,409

LCK 2019: 15,796

Tot. 2019: 711,205

 

CMH Var.:+ 7.2%

LCK Var.: -15.8%

Tot. Var.: +6.6%

 

Year to Date

CMH 2018: 6,038,337

LCK 2018: 252,125

Tot. 2018: 6,290,462

 

CMH 2019: 6,422,240

LCK 2018: 247,133

Tot. 2019: 6,669,373

 

CMH Var.: +6.4%

LCK Var.: -2.0%

Tot. Var.: +6.0%

 

As you can see, CMH is continuing a healthy growth for a second year in a row, although our rate of growth is slightly behind our rate of growth through this point last year. CMH is on pace to hit ~8.7M for the year with LCK likely coming in close to 300k. Next year, CMH should eclipse the 9M mark even with a drastic reduction in the rate of growth. We should only need to ridership to grow by about 3% next year to hit the 9M mark. 

 

Additionally, CMH continues to inch closer to CVG. CVG is about 7% larger the CMH, and about 3% larger than CMH+LCK through September of this year. CVG has added a couple new direct flights recently, so it will be interesting to see how well CMH can continue to close the gap once those come into play. 

 

Work is underway on the second level of the new rental car facility.

 

Here's why CMH is unlikely to get more international flights anytime soon

 

Apart from Toronto, Canada, the only other nonstop flights from CMH to international locations are seasonal ones to Cancun and the Dominican Republic.

 

And that's unlikely to change anytime soon, according to one analysis of Columbus passenger booking data from OAG, a British travel analytics firm.

Why? Columbus passengers simply haven't demonstrated enough demand.

 

 

The top unserved faraway market for Columbus is Tokyo, Japan, according to an OAG analysis of one-way bookings originating in Columbus from September 2018 to August 2019.

 

Tokyo had an estimated nearly 15,500 bookings starting from Columbus during that period. However, it would take about 50,000 bookings annually to support a nonstop flight, according to John Grant, a senior analyst with OAG.

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2019/12/03/heres-why-cmh-is-unlikely-to-get-more.html

 

 

Alaska Air to add 2nd, seasonal flight from Columbus to Seattle

 

The seasonal flight will operate from June 18 through Aug. 17, complementing Alaska’s year-round, daily nonstop service from John Glenn Columbus International Airport to Seattle that began last March.
 

https://www.thisweeknews.com/business/20191231/alaska-air-to-add-2nd-seasonal-flight-from-columbus-to-seattle

17 hours ago, cbussoccer said:

Alaska Air to add 2nd, seasonal flight from Columbus to Seattle

 

The seasonal flight will operate from June 18 through Aug. 17, complementing Alaska’s year-round, daily nonstop service from John Glenn Columbus International Airport to Seattle that began last March.
 

https://www.thisweeknews.com/business/20191231/alaska-air-to-add-2nd-seasonal-flight-from-columbus-to-seattle

We need more flights to San Francisco and another to San Jose.

4 hours ago, aderwent said:

We need more flights to San Francisco and another to San Jose.

Agreed, but I’ll gladly accept additional service to Seattle. Even if it’s just a seasonal addition. 
 

Have we had direct service to San Jose before. I don’t remember ever having it. 

1 hour ago, cbussoccer said:

Agreed, but I’ll gladly accept additional service to Seattle. Even if it’s just a seasonal addition. 
 

Have we had direct service to San Jose before. I don’t remember ever having it. 

Not sure but it's the most convenient to Silicon Valley. I hope we're focused on building corporate connections more than tourist connections. I'm not surprised the Seattle route is doing well enough to add another. I think a San Jose route would be critical in continuing our tech build up.

Columbus left with no nonstop flights to Silicon Valley again after United’s pause, Southwest’s withdrawal

 

Members of Central Ohio's technology and venture capital industries are lamenting the metropolitan area's current lack of nonstop flights to Silicon Valley – a problem that continues to arise even after multiple airlines have seemed to solve it.

 

At the start of the year, Southwest discontinued its nonstop route between John Glenn Columbus International Airport and Oakland International Airport.  That route had existed since 2015, and was once lauded as a new frontier for Columbus to access the West (and all of its venture capital funding).  Also, the daily nonstop United Airlines flight between Columbus and San Francisco, which launched last June, is not running from Jan. 6 through March 5.  That, according to the Columbus Regional Airport Authority, stems from the airline's need to "match their flight schedule to demand" after the holiday season, when January and February are lower-demand passenger travel months.

 

But for those in the Columbus business community who regularly travel back and forth between the areas, this in-between period is rough. ... Nils Root, partner at Columbus venture capital firm Drive Capital LLC, called the current lack of nonstop flights a "nuisance."  "It's not keeping us from making the trip," Root said, noting that "half a dozen of our CEOs are fundraising out there right now."  "But, and needless to say," he continued, "we're all looking forward to Columbus having a direct flight again."

 

MORE:  https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2020/01/16/columbus-left-with-no-nonstop-flights-to-silicon.html

Where is the closest direct flight there now? Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indy, Chicago?

10 minutes ago, Brutus_buckeye said:

Where is the closest direct flight there now? Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indy, Chicago?

 

Probably Cincy, but you can still get flights to San Fran with a layover of only 60-90 minutes so it doesn't make much sense to drive all the way to Cincy. 

 

Of note, the SLC flight is also on hiatus until March. Not entirely surprising considering the business travel there is likely minimal and vacation travel is very low there during the winter months. 

 

On an unrelated note, it would be nice if CMH would go ahead and publish some recent stats. They haven't posted anything on their website since September....

Cranes at CMH this morning.

 

21 hours ago, Columbo said:

Columbus left with no nonstop flights to Silicon Valley again after United’s pause, Southwest’s withdrawal

 

Members of Central Ohio's technology and venture capital industries are lamenting the metropolitan area's current lack of nonstop flights to Silicon Valley – a problem that continues to arise even after multiple airlines have seemed to solve it.

 

At the start of the year, Southwest discontinued its nonstop route between John Glenn Columbus International Airport and Oakland International Airport.  That route had existed since 2015, and was once lauded as a new frontier for Columbus to access the West (and all of its venture capital funding).  Also, the daily nonstop United Airlines flight between Columbus and San Francisco, which launched last June, is not running from Jan. 6 through March 5.  That, according to the Columbus Regional Airport Authority, stems from the airline's need to "match their flight schedule to demand" after the holiday season, when January and February are lower-demand passenger travel months.

 

But for those in the Columbus business community who regularly travel back and forth between the areas, this in-between period is rough. ... Nils Root, partner at Columbus venture capital firm Drive Capital LLC, called the current lack of nonstop flights a "nuisance."  "It's not keeping us from making the trip," Root said, noting that "half a dozen of our CEOs are fundraising out there right now."  "But, and needless to say," he continued, "we're all looking forward to Columbus having a direct flight again."

 

MORE:  https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2020/01/16/columbus-left-with-no-nonstop-flights-to-silicon.html

 

This article is surprising, somewhat. The WN flight to OAK was a tough route to begin with: OAK is generally considered the less-preferred Bay Area airport, connections are limited, and Southwest probably had a tough time getting the yields necessary to make the O&D on the route work, especially once UA entered the market. Add the fleet constraints due to the MAX grounding and the route was ripe for the chopping block. I do think the route could work on a summer-seasonal basis once the fleet is back to full strength, however Southwest has shown no indication of the resuming the route. United's 2-month suspension of SFO shouldn't be anything to worry about. Airlines cut capacity quite a bit in January and February, and the route was a logical cut for the airline. It's worth noting that West Coast access still remains good with Alaska continuing to run SEA daily during the slower winter months. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the article paints a somewhat bleak picture unnecessarily. It's definitely an inconvenience for local businesses that need the service year-round, but if they continue to move the necessary passengers over existing hubs this season, it could cause the airlines to reconsider the seasonal suspensions in the winter of 2021. 

Construction progress. 

 

Final numbers for 2019:

 

CMH: 8,637,108 (+6.1%)

LCK: 308,780 (+0.5%)

Combined: 8,945,888 (+5.9%)

 

LCK had a great last three months apparently. 61,647 Oct-Dec vs just 55,122 those three months last year. That's +11.8%.

2 hours ago, aderwent said:

Final numbers for 2019:

 

CMH: 8,637,108 (+6.1%)

LCK: 308,780 (+0.5%)

Combined: 8,945,888 (+5.9%)

 

LCK had a great last three months apparently. 61,647 Oct-Dec vs just 55,122 those three months last year. That's +11.8%.

Where did you get theses stats? I’ve been checking their website daily to find them but I haven’t seen anything posted since the September numbers. 
 

Regardless, another strong year for the Columbus airports. Nearly 9m combined! They better start expediting that new terminal project. 

58 minutes ago, cbussoccer said:

Where did you get theses stats? I’ve been checking their website daily to find them but I haven’t seen anything posted since the September numbers. 
 

Regardless, another strong year for the Columbus airports. Nearly 9m combined! They better start expediting that new terminal project. 

https://newshub.columbusairports.com/storage/production/20200124173904-2019-record-breaking-columbus-air-service.pdf

 

They released the numbers yesterday.

7 hours ago, aderwent said:

Final numbers for 2019:

 

CMH: 8,637,108 (+6.1%)

LCK: 308,780 (+0.5%)

Combined: 8,945,888 (+5.9%)

 

LCK had a great last three months apparently. 61,647 Oct-Dec vs just 55,122 those three months last year. That's +11.8%.

 

Allegiant flights to some areas like Savannah/HHI continued later into the year this year vs last. Have to think that had a big impact on the numbers.

9 hours ago, aderwent said:

https://newshub.columbusairports.com/storage/production/20200124173904-2019-record-breaking-columbus-air-service.pdf

 

They released the numbers yesterday.

Huh, they haven’t uploaded detailed stats to flycolumbus.com since September. It would be nice if they would catch up. 

On 1/25/2020 at 2:18 PM, cbussoccer said:

They better start expediting that new terminal project.

I remember they said that the time to pull the trigger would be 8.8 million passengers per year or 2028, whichever came first.  So, we should hit that next year.  It's nice to see we're about 7 years ahead of schedule from when they first started talking about the new terminal.  I wonder, will they want a couple of years at that number or will they pull the trigger as soon as they hit that number once?

Here's how many people flew through CMH and Rickenbacker during the airports' record-breaking 2019

 

More people flew through John Glenn Columbus International Airport than ever before in 2019. And it's not the only local airport that can say that.

 

CMH served 8.6 million passengers in 2019, a 6.1% increase from 2018. And cargo airport Rickenbacker International Airport’s passenger terminal served nearly 309,000 passengers, a 0.5% increase over 2018. The airport authority said the 2019 figures surpassed traffic for any previous year for both airports.

 

“This marks the sixth consecutive year of passenger growth for CMH and LCK,” Joe Nardone, president and CEO of the Columbus Regional Airport Authority, said in a statement. “In the last two years, we experienced a 14% upsurge in passenger traffic equaling 1.1 million people.”

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2020/01/27/heres-how-many-people-flew-through-cmh-and.html