Ellington Field EFD
 

Well it's been several months since Ellington Field has closed. I have hardly flown Continental at all since that happened. Luckily I qualified for Platinum before they closed EFD.

Has anyone heard about the fate of EFD? Will it ever be reopened? Has anyone been near Ellington to see what happened to Continental's Terminal (Trailer)?

Next year if Ellington does not reopen, I will never make Platinum. If I don't think I'll make Platinum, then I will not have any reason to spend more money to stay on Continental. I'll just fly the cheapest airline....if it happends to be Continental then great....otherwise Continental will not get my money.

Any news on EFD?

Sail a Nacra

There were several stories in Houston Chronicle as well as local TV news.

There will be NO regularly scheduled airline service from EFD. Texas National Air Guard will get several new neighbours, as military services scattered around Houston will be based there when the consolidation is done.

I feel your pain :mad: . Still kicking around AA and thinking of HOU-DFW as an extra long EFD-IAH, though someone posted that many of the perks that AA had are going away - one in particular, the extra legroom.

AND, AA (or any of its partners) does not fly to YYJ :td: , which would make it very inconvenient for me, since I end up in lovely Victoria a couple of times per year. And the SEA-YYJ or YVR-YYJ is very costly for a short hop when booked separately. Though there's always AC via YYC, but then I'd have to look to *A. Then again, Singapore Airlines :D :D :D

EmailKid

The lack of EFD still stings. CO is still using it for training I believe. I live very close and just the other evening and saw a CO 737 (I believe..definitely not an RJ) take off from there. It was way too loud to have taken off from HOU.

I haven't bought a ticket on CO since I heard that it was being closed. I had only made gold by then for 2005...down from plat... but it matters little because I have no intention at this time of going back to CO. I'm on UA now...was comped to Prem Exec status and will earn 1K status by the end of the month. I don't miss CO but I do miss CO and EFD. I figured if I would be driving to IAH I would be earning 100 percent EQM on every flight, no matter how I bought it. Now of course CO is the lone ranger out there in penalizing low fare flyers with regards to elite status.

EFD. Free Parking & the President's Corner.
 

If CO returns to the black, is there any chance, a flicker of hope even, that they might consider returning to EFD?

I miss that short flight. :(

F-16s might be gone too
 

The radio this morning was talking about EFD for use as a base for a bunch of F-16s that keep us safe in Houston. Since I work in a chemical plant, I want them to stay.

Currently the base is slated for closure and they are discussing its fate in San Antonio today. If the Fighter Wing leaves, then you can kiss EFD goodbye forever with CO. (Not that it would come back anyway).

I have stayed true to my original post. I have flown only about 50% this year with CO than last due to EFD. I would have payed more to fly from EFD, but I won't pay more (well as least much more) to fly CO from IAH. I may still make Plat though as NW and Delta give me CO miles.

Don't think Kellner has any intentions of returning to EFD. Since his not official "deal" with WN to move out of HOU, I doubt he will reopen service to a place he considered with disdain (my impression of his answer to my question during the DO in April). Thank God I am allowed to Limo up to IAH or I would have serious problems, since most of my travel in int'l, I am not losing that much on EQPs or EQMs.

I don't miss CO at all after defecting after the closure of EFD. I was 100K+ a year plat when EFD was open....it dropped to gold for this year because of my midyear defection....dropping to CO Nonepass "nothing" after this year .... and not missing CO at all. :) I'll have two flights total this year on CO...both using up a voucher from a scrapped trip to the caymans from last fall due to ivan.

I am finding the grass greener on the other side of the fence and am flying an airline with better and more consistently responsive customer/inflight service. (of course I saw good customer service on CO...but there were also some glaringly bad incidents too. ) I'm sure that they don't miss me...because I was the type of bottom-feeder riff-raff fare plat that CO disdains. ;) But hey I didn't price'em-they did.

I'll only fly CO if they are the dirt cheap alternative.....which of course here in Houston we don't need to worry too much about...it happens so rarely.

I'm with you, dude. I don't see any activity coming out of EFD for a while, if ever again. Maybe if the proposed new funding for NASA goes through, that will increase the government and contractor business in Clear Lake, and this increase the demand for something like the old service.

I doubt it'll happen, but I sure do miss EFD when I'm driving back home, and after 40-odd minutes from IAH I pass HOU, and wonder why the heck I'm still doing this!

So how'd you fly out of EFD?

might be C.O.O.L. if CO had 'expressjet' bus service... EFD-IAH like EWR-ABE.

I don't know if they ever did explicitly tried to charge an extra $25 or so for an EFD ticket, but if they did, it might justify the expense to CO.

What goes around?
 

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/n...n-airport.html

Ellington Airport is changing its name — but that’s only the first step in a long line of high-dollar improvements coming to the airfield.

The airport is becoming Ellington International Airport, with plans to bring in domestic and noncommercial international flights. The new name comes as Houston Airport System has begun construction on a new terminal, tower and inspection station at Ellington, costing more than $10 million and slated for completion in a year to 18 months.

With a lot of the smaller, non-commercial airports in the area having a lot of private international traffic, this is a way for EFD to stay relevant. The demise of the Shuttle program probably has something to do with it as well.

I really don't see this pulling a ton of domestic commercial traffic. Since the perks of EFD will more than likely go away with these changes (free parking, etc.) what's the reason to fly domestically into EFD over HOU?

I wonder what will happen with the Wings Over Houston airshow.

Well, it is closer to Galveston @:-) And Clear Lake and NASA for that matter.

Of course this does me no good as I'm stuck in DAL :mad: And so far haven't been able to catch one of those UACO hub strikes from DFW :(

EmailKid

I wonder if Allegiant is talking with Houston Airport System concerning EFD (or v.v.).....

I heard on the radio this week that Allegiant has begun twice-weekly flights from LFT.