KCI Flight Schedule Adjustments

[im2kull]

March (11th is when the schedule changes) is looking like a decent uptick on Southwest.

Was 25 flights a day in Jan/Feb

Last month, STL had about as many daily SWA flights as KCI has total daily flights across all airlines.

And at one time SW was full speed ahead at making KC a focus city instead of StL. It's amazing how many opportunities KC has missed by dragging their feet on that airport so that people don't have to walk too far to the gates.

That's an extremely oversimplified, and just plain wrong viewpoint. The rest of the world becoming westernized is the biggest reason for KC slipping from the 28th busiest airport in the early 60s to where it is today. Air travel was an extreme luxury for only Americans for a very long time. Europe and Asia were essentially third world countries after WW2. For decades. The rest of the world, was third world. Places like Dubai weren't just non-existent, they impossibly hard to imagine.

[normalthings]

Spirit just added MCI to Pensacola Florida

[brewcrew1000]

Spirit just added MCI to Pensacola Florida

Florida flights nationwide have been getting added like crazy, pretty soon florida might be busiest airspace in the US, i think it was for most of 2020

[normalthings]

Spirit just added MCI to Pensacola Florida

Florida flights nationwide have been getting added like crazy, pretty soon florida might be busiest airspace in the US, i think it was for most of 2020

I wonder if Spirit wil need a second gate soon.

[normalthings]

KC is well positioned to be an A220 focus city for JetBlue or Breeze. Less so for Delta due to their Detroit and Minneapolis hubs

Is breeze still happening? They went quiet at the beginning of the pandemic.

Just took delivery of another plane yesterday!

Just got DOT approval to run service.

[shinatoo]

What are the most common direct flights to costal cities from KCI? or where there before the end times and might be comming back?

[flyingember]

What are the most common direct flights to costal cities from KCI?

In the aggregate it's Florida. There's so many non-stops to Florida that you can reach somewhere in that state easier than the other 20 coastal state combined.

Florida:
Destin/Ft Walton
Ft Lauderdale
Ft Meyers
Miami
Orlando
Orlando/Sanford
Panama City
Pensacola
Punta Gorda
St. Petersburg/Clearwater
Tampa
=11

The other 20 coastal states:
Baltimore
Boston
Houston
Houston Hobby
LA
Myrtle Beach
NYC
Newark
Oakland
San Diego
San Francisco
Seattle
=12

[shinatoo]

Thanks. Most of those FLA are seasonal thought, correct?

[Sani]

Perhaps we'll see a resurgence of Southwest flights once the new terminal opens. Justin Meyer tweeted today:

Felt SO GOOD to be back in the air today talking air service restoration and the opportunities #BuildKCI will provide for Kansas City’s airline partners when the new terminal opens in March 2023. Thanks for your partnership, @SouthwestAir.

[normalthings]

.

[flyingember]

Thanks. Most of those FLA are seasonal thought, correct?

Added seasonal and # of airlines.

Florida:
Destin/Ft Walton 1x (seasonal)
Ft Lauderdale 2x
Ft Myers 2x
Miami 1x
Orlando 2x, 1x (seasonal)
Orlando/Sanford 1x (seasonal)
Panama City 1x (seasonal)
Pensacola 1x (seasonal)
Punta Gorda/Ft Myers 1x
St. Petersburg/Clearwater 1x (seasonal)
Tampa 2x
=11

The other 20 coastal states:
Baltimore 1x
Boston 1x
Houston 1x
Houston Hobby 1x
LA 3x
Myrtle Beach 1x (seasonal)
NYC 3x
Newark 1x
Oakland 1x
San Diego 1x
San Francisco 1x
Seattle 2x
=12

So non-seasonal is 6x destinations in Florida and 66% have two+ airlines serving the airport.
Not Florida non-seasonal is a average of 0.55x destinations per state and 27% have two+ airlines serving the airport

[normalthings]

Perhaps we'll see a resurgence of Southwest flights once the new terminal opens. Justin Meyer tweeted today:

Felt SO GOOD to be back in the air today talking air service restoration and the opportunities #BuildKCI will provide for Kansas City’s airline partners when the new terminal opens in March 2023. Thanks for your partnership, @SouthwestAir.

Southwest added KCI to Myrtle Beach and Charleston today.

[earthling]

Hopefully the new terminal will boost more destinations with perhaps improved mini-hubs. KCI used to have over 100 non-stop destinations back when Vangard was based in KC. Now it's what, around 50 or so non-stop from a quick search - and was around there before travel dumped. If the airlines don't step up with new KCI hopefully at some point in future market conditions will improve enough for another local airline startup like Vangard.

[normalthings]

Hopefully the new terminal will boost more destinations with perhaps improved mini-hubs. KCI used to have over 100 non-stop destinations back when Vangard was based in KC. Now it's what, around 50 or so non-stop from a quick search - and was around there before travel dumped. If the airlines don't step up with new KCI hopefully at some point in future market conditions will improve enough for another local airline startup like Vangard.

Breeze just received a bunch of approvals too so that’s always an option. I’d hope that the $7 million annual debt savings and the $55 million in stimulus funds are put towards infastructure that makes us a good connecting city choice.

[WoodDraw]

What will that $55 million be spent on?

[brewcrew1000]

United has added a bunch of point to point midwest to East Coast destinations. Like Milwaukee to Portland, ME, Myrtle Beach, Charleston, Savanah

Would love to see more airlines add these point to point spots. One Destination I would love to see is Palm Springs, CA, was there last week, loved the area but the drive from LA was just horrible traffic wise

[flyingember]

Hopefully the new terminal will boost more destinations with perhaps improved mini-hubs. KCI used to have over 100 non-stop destinations back when Vangard was based in KC. Now it's what, around 50 or so non-stop from a quick search - and was around there before travel dumped. If the airlines don't step up with new KCI hopefully at some point in future market conditions will improve enough for another local airline startup like Vangard.

Subtracting duplicates in the same mtro (ex. Chicago Midway + Ohare or St Peretersburg + Tampa are both one destination)
41 destinations.

We need to gain more regional hops that drive demand within the overall network. Places like Salina or Little Rock or OKC

Wichita has 13 nonstops which is far more per capita than KCI has.
Vanguard once had a flight to Wichita and Des Moines.

[normalthings]

PrimeFlight Cargo leasing apron and warehouse space on Mexico City Ave. Will take more than half of the 449 Mexico City Ave. building. Current building tenants include DHL, Worldwide Wide Flight Services, etc. With DHL permits at KCI Logistics Center, I wonder if they will move their flight operations to a new apron attached to that building.

PrimeFlight is not affiliated with Amazon Prime Air (as far as I can tell).

[SingleMalt12]

Hopefully the new terminal will boost more destinations with perhaps improved mini-hubs. KCI used to have over 100 non-stop destinations back when Vangard was based in KC. Now it's what, around 50 or so non-stop from a quick search - and was around there before travel dumped. If the airlines don't step up with new KCI hopefully at some point in future market conditions will improve enough for another local airline startup like Vangard.

KCI doesn't exactly have a stellar record with either startup airlines or outside airlines having a hub there. It is possible that the new terminal could change that and KCI definitely does have room for expansion but not necessarily the population.
We'll see

[earthling]

Vangard couldn't survive the 9/11 impact, was doing well before that. The Feds bailed out many airlines but Vangard wasn't included in bailout funds (IIRC). It may have continued on fine and perhaps have grown if it weren't for 9/11. The new terminal will also be more hub friendly, so better conditions than old airport.