South - Local Talk: Airports: Oklahoma City Will Rogers Airport

I'd like to suggest something that does not satisfy the criteria of being a hot topic on the boards:
- Local Talk: Airports: Oklahoma City Will Rogers Airport

The only reason is that I run into some FT discussions from time to time with other Okies. The reason I'd like you to consider this regards to OKC's airport renovation and expansion. Basically, they've pretty much taken 90% of the airport down and have rebuilt those areas. They've already knocked down one terminal and moved all those airlines into its newly expanded wing. Today, Delta becomes the last airline to move out of the last remaining old terminal and into the new wing so they can demolish what remains of the old OKC airport.

I'm not sure exactly how many posts per week this board would get, but it'd be a nice, temporary place to discuss the OKC airport expansion.

I think OKC has had to make a real push to strengthen its image, and it's used a massive checkbook as part of that campaign to basically rebuild the airport. The place looks very promising and it's actually enjoyable to check in a couple hours early to go shop and hang out in the lounge there.

Would you all consider at least temporarily opening a forum in the Local Talk section for OKC?

Excellent. Thank you. Hopefully some fellow Oklahomans will venture over to this forum and chat in here.

As of April 20th, the following changes have been made in OKC:

- The circa 1950s stone art deco design they're implementing is really looking solid. I'm just impressed with the new design of this airport. Hearing the comments from other passengers on the way in proves this airport is going to make a positive impact for our flat, spread-out city.

- Southwest has moved their three gates from the "garage" terminal to the new terminal, right in front of the security lines. Like Pittsburgh, it's a huge win for WN to get the closest gates to security.

- Known for its limited food selection, OKC now has a food court with a few more restaurants included: Sonic (a regional classic burger joint with good burgers and coneys), Sbarro's, and Schlotzkys. There's also another bar installed called "The Mohogony Lounge." The bar's got 7 plasma TVs and some decent furniture. 20 feet away is the nose of a WN jet, which is rather cool.

- "The Big XII Store" opened up. It's a store with all Big 12 University apparel. Each school has a case with a nice selection. Yes, you can find that Baylor baby bib you've always been looking for. :) 20% off this week.

- Looks like the third new luggage carousel is slated to open within the week. Being behind schedule, they've shown an initiative to get this stuff done. And this new carousel should be for AA and UA as NW and CO already have their own carousels in the new area.

- DL has moved its ticket counter to the other side, between NW and Frontier. WN remains in the old area (last one remaining as they await to complete their new counter)

- Delta remains in the C concourse (last airline there), but as I walked by yesterday in the new concourse, I noticed their gate counters have already been moved to their new gates. They'll be at gates 12 and 13, next to CO's 2 gates. So it seems they're only going to use 2 gates rather than the 3 they had in the garage.

- America West begins service to OKC from LAS and PHX next Friday (May 6th). Looking at the map, it seems like HP will most likely get gate 1 to run their new service for those RJ's. Hopefully OKC will respond positively with this airline and hopefully bring in some Airbus jets soon. We'll see

- FINALLY! The passenger pickup area is NOW COMPLETE! No more walking out to the shuttle and taxi lanes to get picked up! Like your average airport, you can now walk out the sliding doors and get picked up curbside instead of walking 50 feet away. This part has been closed for 2 years. It's weird how you take some odd things for granted.

- All auto rental companies are now moved to their new counters. These look a lot better than that dim-lit area across from the UA baggage claim that smelled of sweat.

- The security line's changed. You now go through security at the new, permanent point, which is designed very nice. But the line is roped off near the CO ticketing counter and just looks sort of odd in the midst of the new deco.

- The Will Rogers Grill and the Oklahoma Store have both completed.


All in all, the airport is really taking shape. I'm so proud, as an Okie, to see the improvements. It really brings a sense of pride to the traveling citizens of the city. It sounds like most of feel this will really help us out in the future.

The final bonus is the concept that the airport is only 2/3 complete, and yet all the existing airlines have already been moved to their new gates. That means we'll have 20 gates available for anyone else who wants to move in! Hopefully that'll spell out to good news for us as new airlines (maybe even a mini-hub in the future) might take a chance at serving the city.

That's all for now

One of the things that my girlfriend and I still joke about (OU students 1997-00) is the tiny " <-- airport " sign at the split from I44 northbound to I240 westbound in route to OKC. Have they fixed that yet? It always felt to us as if the path to the "international" airport was a secret, on a need to know basis, or something like that. "Pssst... airport, this way." Know what I'm talking about?

-Tim

Hehe, yeah, I remember that too. Remember when that 40/240 junction was under construction? The speed limit in the workzone was freakin' 52 MPH! How bizarre. The "World" airport now has good guidance from I-40, 44, and 240. I guess they decided the secret should be out....OKC HAS AN AIRPORT! :)

MOD: Am I allowed to post pictures within my post or do you recommend I simply link them?

MOD: Am I allowed to post pictures within my post or do you recommend I simply link them?

Link them please.

I don't think you can attach them to a post anyway, but it's almost always better to link than to use up bandwith.

As of April 20th, the following changes have been made in OKC:

- Southwest has moved their three gates from the "garage" terminal to the new terminal, right in front of the security lines. Like Pittsburgh, it's a huge win for WN to get the closest gates to security.

. . .

- The security line's changed. You now go through security at the new, permanent point, which is designed very nice. But the line is roped off near the CO ticketing counter and just looks sort of odd in the midst of the new deco.



Great post. I haven't been through OKC since Christmas but I'll be through this summer. That place seems to have been under construction forever; maybe they'll finally finish up soon.

One source of concern. Has placing WN in the new concourse caused major lines at security? At many airports (including my current home, IND) the WN concourse is prone to extremely long, slow security lines, and those on other airlines dread seeing WN gates added to "their" concourse.

One source of concern. Has placing WN in the new concourse caused major lines at security? At many airports (including my current home, IND) the WN concourse is prone to extremely long, slow security lines, and those on other airlines dread seeing WN gates added to "their" concourse.

Security has 3 gates in the new hallways. But what pax do not see are 2 more security gates down the hallway toward airline gates 1 through 14. The security agent will guide a portion of the pax down the hall to the 2 additional gates (one being the extra-screening gate for SSSS pax). So all in all, I counted 4 security gates + 1 additional-screening gate. During the noon segment, I did not see any WN lines crowd up the security gate. However, next week I'll be on a 7:30a flight; so perhaps I can get a better evaluation on that.

Just a quick FYI. Delta's in the process right now of moving to their new gates at 11 & 12. The ground crew was working on tweaking the gates for the arriving M80 and CRJs from ATL, CVG, and SLC. So that now completes the transition from Terminal C. I am GUESSSING we'll see that thing on the ground in a month or so.

America West affiliate Mesa Airlines has made its innagural (spelling?) flight to OKC. In what seems to be an odd logistical plan that I would've never thought of, Continental is sharing its check-in counter with HP, as well as its 2 flight gates. So 6 flights a day are now going to PHX and LAS, which gives competition to SW on both routes from OKC.

UA has moved to its temporary counter and AA has moved to its permanent counter. Their permanent ticketing counters are now being built behind the wall.
The Will Rogers statue in front of the passenger pickup out in the courtyard was presented last week. They continue to work on gardening and landscaping projects, but seem like they'll have most of it completed in the next 2 weeks.

Also, I'm noticing a preparation to reopen the passenger garage tunnel to the terminal. Basically, they moved the escalator position from perpendicular to parallel to the terminal. This will help save like 5 or 10 seconds of commute, :) but cleans up some of the layout and saves some space.

New luggage carousel #3 has now opened for UA and AA flights. That means SW is the lone airline now sitting in the ugliest part of the airport for luggage pickup. Their ticket gate also remains the lone gate in the old terminal. They reported on the website their ticketing counter should be moved pretty soon.

On a sidenote, I noticed some 7 of those Independence Air jets sitting near the west hangars. I recall I-Air involuntarily liquidating some of those CRJs late last year as part of their cash default on their loan from Bombardier (or was it Canadair?).

Finally, hopefully you won't be down in the passenger arrival area too long. About every 5 minutes, a celebrity voice recording comes on, talking about OKC's 100th anniversary celebration coming up....IN TWO YEARS. So every now and then you're blessed with that obnoxious voice of one Barry Switzer. :) Sheesh.

This is great info.

I think more participation is needed to consider adding a new forum, however.

Anyone else?

Spiff, I agree w/ you. I know, though, how difficult it is to get people to check out new forums here. The site is so grandiose that it's hard to try to keep up with multiple ones. But I do agree that it might be tough. I'm checking out some of the other airport forums and do not see all that much activity on some of those either. Do you think part of the lack of participation could simply reside in the fact that it doesn't have its own forum? Maybe a few people will discover it on the list and pick up on it. But I certainly would hope the forum would get more of a response than some of the airport forums that currently exist. Below are a few examples of airport forums with the date of their last post:

BFL - Aug 22, 2004
GRR - Nov 25, 2004
MBS - Mar 8, 2005

Anyway, thanks for giving me a place to discuss the improvements. I simply wish there was a way to seek out the other OKC travelers who exist on this board.

Thank you.

By the way, has anybody else out there ever connected at OKC, or do I hold the distinction?

On an MR a few months ago I flew DFW-->OKC-->ORD-->LAX-->HNL. Got a strange look from a fellow passenger on OKC--ORD leg when I told him I was going to HNL!!

I really enjoyed my OKC layover. It was a sunny, brisk day. With carry on in tow, I headed over to the Four Points by Sheraton on the OKC grounds. Had to cross a few lanes of traffic, part of a parking lot and a grass field, but it was nice to get out of the terminal bldng for a while. I enjoyed a relaxing, albeit otherwise unremarkable breakfast buffet before making the return journey to the new, open-feeling terminal.

Wow, that's bizarre. I've heard of connections via WN, obviously, but never of a legacy carrier. You just might be one of the only ones who hold that honor.

I would enjoy seeing an OKC board as well.

Cool. 2 of us. :) We're gettin' there.

Demolition on the old terminal C has begun. I flew in yesterday from a 4-day trip and noticed the majority of the terminal was taken to the ground. The only thing standing are the gates and the support structures under them. It was odd looking. But nonetheless, it took them a couple weeks to clean up the rubble from the terminal A demolition last year.

Two CNBC stores have opened up inside the airport - one on either side of security. The one on the outside of security is the only vending outlet for families waiting to pick up pax.

I and others appreciate the enthusiasm devoted to the Will Rogers Intergalactic Airport (as my AA pilot welcomed us to it a few years back).

However, there just isn't the support to create a new forum for it.

I'm going to move this to LocalTalk: South as it seems to be the closest existing forum for this thread. I hope that all OKC enthusiasts will continue the discussion there. It is a nice airport.

Underground walkway between the terminal and garage reopened this week!!!!! This occured after a year-and-a-half closure. Basically, the escalators down there connecting to the 1st floor were moved from a perpendicular position to a parallel alignment with the walkway. The west elevator has now opened as well. It's looking like a 4th baggage claim may be opening soon as well.

And again, the demlotion cleanup is progressing quickly. Looks like they'll be done very soon with that.

Demolition cleanup of terminal C is almost complete. They're down to about 4 or 5 feet of rubble. Looks like they should have it done within the next week and a half.

We connected through OKC in April, going from STL to DFW. It was very nice, we had a nice burger at the Will Rogers Grill, and were impressed with how light and pretty the terminal was.

Hopefully the construction crew will keep up the pace and get the additional gates completed by summer of next year.