International O&D IAH traffic
 

Would you say that there's a lot of O&D international traffic in IAH? With the exception of Mexico, I don't think there's much.

IAH doesn't strike me as an O&D place unless it's oil-related business. Or am I wrong?

These are my guesses:
* NRT: Handles a lot of GRU/GIG connecting traffic; connecting traffic from the southeast US
* South America: Lot of connecting traffic around the US.
* Europe: Mostly connections from the west coast to LGW and CDG.

Why do others think?

- Pat

Look at non-alliance, non-partner flights into IAH. From Asia, China Airlines fly TPE-SEA-IAH 4x a week. Pakistan International flies here, via MAN, but is down to once a week right now. From Europe, LH has daily 340 ex-FRA, and BA flies twice daily from London (non-stop from LGW, & one-stop LHR-ORD-IAH). None of those are particularly oil-related, in my opinion.

Technically it's three times on certain days. Many days (I forget exactly which) BA has three flights out of IAH -- two nonstops to LGW and one one-stop to LHR. With CO and BA, that means that there are several days a week where IAH-LGW is flown by four 777s on two airlines, with a fifth flying to LHR.

And then there are the partner/alliance carriers -- AF and KL. AF alternates somewhat between an A-340 and a 777 on the IAH-CDG route, with constant rumors of a second daily flight being started. KL flies a 744 nonstop IAH-AMS, plus contracts with PrivatAir for a nonstop BBJ outfitted in all business class on the route. Both of these flights existed long before AF and KL were alliance partners of CO's.

As for the OP's comments, IAH has a ton of non-Mexico origin/destination international traffic. BA was only flying one IAH-LGW daily flight just a few years ago, and it hasn't been all that long since LH's FRA flight was not a nonstop. CO also carries a lot of O/D international traffic. I've arrived on an international CO flight before when most of the passengers on the flight cleared immigration and customs and walked right out of the building, not stopping at the baggage re-check and then going back upstairs to clear security for a connecting flight. For all of these people their destination was the Houston area. And with Houston's extremely large Asian, European, and Middle Eastern populations, there are hundreds of thousands of people who live in the Houston metro area who have strong international ties to places other than Central and South America. The city is quite diverse, and we have a lot of international business that is not oil-related.

What makes you think otherwise?

Hrmm. Forgot about IT. I know TX has a lot of IT-related businesses. I know Houston is ethnically diverse but was wondering if it warrants a lot of international routes. I know EWR has a lot of routes because they're gougable, since of course, it's NYC and there are a lot of businesses there.

Thanks for your posts so far. Would like to know more about IAH. I know NW's DTW is good because of the O&D automotive-related businesses and serves a lot of connecting traffic from cities in the midwest to Europe and Asia. However, DTW isn't that big of an O&D international market outside of that.

- Pat

YYC/EZE/GIG/CCS are heavy oil routes.

AF already has the second flight published in its summer schedule! The early flight (4pm) will be a 777 and the late flight (10pm) will be a 340. ^

^ Thanks for your reply. Trying to figure out CO's strategy so I can launch my low-cost business class carrier and take you CO FT'ers to my future airline. :D

Didn't know those cities were oil-heavy!

- Pat

Wow...that is late. Here is the schedule:

AF031 IAH 2200 CDG 1440+1
AF038 CDG 1555 IAH 1935

Don't forget that brazilians need a full visa to transit through the USA, ie. they have to go to the consulate and be interviewed and pay $100 for the privlege. Though the GRU-NRT connection used to be a reliable cash cow, it's dropped off because of the hassles. Brazilians are flying GRU-YYZ-NRT (which is right on the great circle route), and air canada is making a killing.