Originally Posted by
swuglife
See my post above
I just posted this in the 'Austin SC' thread, but the plans from what I heard for the immediate future (as soon as the new terminal expansion opens later this month) is to go from 9 turns per day at 3 dedicated gates to 10 turns per day at 5 dedicated gates.
...
On the heels of a $350 million, nine-gate expansion set to open this spring, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport has plans to add an additional 32 gates—an evolution that would put the airport on par with Texas’ largest international airports.
“We can be as big as DFW,” said Lyn Estabrook, Planning and Development manager for ABIA, referring to the airport’s ability to handle travelers.
It is certainly possible, and I encourage Delta with all my effort, to turn AUS into its TX hub, it most definitely has its sights set on the young, affluent demographic here, and the GAs tell me that AUS is up there with JAX and MKE as one of the outstations with the highest Medallion populations.
Originally Posted by
WWads
This is why DL needs a Texas hub.
While it's possible AUS could grow quite a bit, DL won't be turning it into a hub. Nor will they establish a Texas hub. The reason is because they just commited to the partnership with AM, and are realigning to use AM for connecting traffic. While Texas could still be used for domestic connections, if you take away a lot of the traffic heading to central and south america, the business case falls away. especially with SLC and ATL straddling it.