Tag Archives for austin.
Austin plans to eliminate its nearly new second terminal to make way for growth of the 1999-era main terminal. One of the fastest growing airports in the country for several years running, they’re figuring out how to accommodate the flights passengers want and airlines want to offer. But in the process they risk what makes the airport so attractive to fly out of in the first place.
American Airlines is launching service between Austin and Washington Dulles in August. This flight is absolutely ideal for me. I live in Austin and in the Before Times my most frequent destination was Washington DC – a minimum of once a month, and often twice.
But the flight times are terrible – scheduled to allow a single plan to operate the route, rather than being scheduled for the business travelers who would actually take the flight.
For years Austin has been one of the fastest-growing aviation markets in the country, tracking the city’s growth more generally. Before the pandemic American Airlines was looking at three new routes to augment its flights to hubs.
Earlier this year they announced 10 new routes. The ones that have launched are doing well. Now they’re announcing 14 new routes, 5 of which are international. They’re converting seasonal service to year-round. And adding frequencies to existing routes. All in all they’re quadrupling their destinations in a little over a year.
American Airlines passengers have built Austin into a make-your-own connecting hub, using the ramp-up in Austin destinations and the run-up in prices for flights they’d traditionally take as an excuse to use this smaller, friendlier airport for easy connections and savings. That’s helped achieve record-high load factors for Austin flights, even for the airline’s new routes.
American Airlines is launching 7 new year-round routes out of Austin and 3 seasonal routes. American is the second largest carrier at the Austin airport, behind Southwest, and historically it has produced some of their highest non-hub yields. With these additions, together with their partners they’ll service 26 destinations from Austin.
The Hilton Austin is owned by the City of Austin. Or, technically, by a separate entity created by the city. The city appoints the company’s board, and can amend its bylaws. But because it is a ‘private’ entity owned by the city, it is able to apply for a federal Paycheck Protection Loan to cover payroll costs it is going to be incurring anyway. Cities themselves cannot apply for these forgivable loans.
When applying for the PPP loan was discussed at the City Council meeting, other dirty laundry about the Austin Hilton got aired.
Delta’s President reported told investors at Monday’s Raymond James conference that the airline will maintain Austin and Raleigh-Durham as focus cities, but will drop that status for Cincinnati, Nashville, and San Jose.
Texas is experiencing a weather event it hasn’t seen in a generation. We don’t do single digit temperatures, negative wind chills, and significant snow. The problem compounded when the state’s electric grid couldn’t handle demand. Freezing temperatures took some power generation offline (due to frozen natural gas pipes) at a time when everyone cranked up their heat.
Local residents without power are complaining about hotel price gouging.
Anthony Michael Hall was Rusty in National Lampoon’s Vacation. He starred in Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Weird Science – a John Hughes trifecta. When 2001’s Not Another Teen Movie sought to honor him, all the characters in high school ate at the Anthony Michael Dining Hall.
Now though he’s having to apologize for obnoxious behavior at the South Congress Hotel pool
When you see a novel warning sign, it’s almost always in response to something a person actually did. No one thought to warn anyone before some idiot came along. Occasionally these sorts of signs make you really wonder about people, like “this motorcycle contains no edible parts” and cartons of eggs that warn “this product may contain eggs” (or jars of peanut butter that flag, “may contain nuts or nut products”). Who are the people who need to be told “this electric drill is not intended for dental use” anyway? Austin’s South Terminal is a separate structure from the main terminal, less than three quarters of a mile away but a 7 mile drive. It currently serves Frontier and Allegiant. This sign was just spotted in the men’s room there: What in gods name was…
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
