McKinney National Airport

[itsjrd1964]

McKinney Airport gets $15 million to extend runway

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/air ... nd-runway/

[Tnexster]

I wonder where McKinney is on their desire to bring in passenger service?

[Alex Rodriguez]

I predict that after the 5 party agreement expires in 2025, WN will announce service out of TKI. The metro can easily support 3 airports.

[tamtagon]

Meacham in fort Worth is making a run at becoming a commercial airport right now...

[I45Tex]

I predict that after the 5 party agreement expires in 2025, WN will announce service out of TKI. The metro can easily support 3 airports.

That was true when you posted it. AA is now pulling back Los Angeles service, so that customers west of the Rockies will either codeshare to fly to Asia or else fly east to DFW before they can fly west, and forumer TNWE says that that primarily reflects shrinking national demand for international flights. Even for short budget flights I'm not sure what the real benefit would be to the Metroplex of having Meacham, McKinney, Love Field, and DFW all running in separate lanes now. But would like to know!

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=Afw-ftw-df ... =wls&DU=mi

[MC_ScattCat]

I see something like Allegiant going there. With all the growth in Collin County, especially families, destinations to places like FL or others that Allegiant serves would be ideal.

[TNWE]

I see something like Allegiant going there. With all the growth in Collin County, especially families, destinations to places like FL or others that Allegiant serves would be ideal.

Yeah, they're the only major (in the sense they serve airports nationwide) airline that doesn't have a footprint in the region. Anyone else would be cannibalizing their existing flights at DAL/DFW.

Additionally, they typically sell flights as part of a package and fly most routes less than daily (e.g. 1-2 times a week) meaning their usual customers are traveling for a week or more and the potentially longer drive to TKI from Dallas or Fort Worth proper is less of a concern, compared to AA/Southwest whose flight schedules allow for day or short overnight trips.

[Alex Rodriguez]

I see the Pandemic as even more of a reason why WN or others will look to TKI. Its opening a new market. WN just announced service to MIA simply due to chasing new business. Having an airport close enough to capture passengers from the NE DFW Metro or Southern Oklahoma, people who might fly in to stay at Choctaw, the existing and future lakes, I just think the area is ripe for a commercial airport. Pandemic or no. Plus 2025, provided we get past this, is probably when things are back to pre-2020 numbers...

[TNWE]

I see the Pandemic as even more of a reason why WN or others will look to TKI. Its opening a new market. WN just announced service to MIA simply due to chasing new business. Having an airport close enough to capture passengers from the NE DFW Metro or Southern Oklahoma, people who might fly in to stay at Choctaw, the existing and future lakes, I just think the area is ripe for a commercial airport. Pandemic or no. Plus 2025, provided we get past this, is probably when things are back to pre-2020 numbers...

Maybe, but the circumstances are different in a couple ways:
1) MIA is an established airport, and closer to the "core" of South Florida demand. MIA has parking garages, transit, rental cars, PreCheck/Clear, hundreds of shops & restaurants - all the amenities someone would expect of an airport that a major air carrier serves. TKI has basically none of that. You're fighting an uphill battle to convince people to use TKI over DAL/DFW, particularly when it's less convenient for all but a tiny slice of the metroplex.
2) Southwest has planes to spare at the moment, with the drop in business travel and some US states continuing to restrict travel (against all rational logic). I'm sure Southwest route planners looked at overall demand to South Florida along with the addresses of their customers who live there and which hotels passengers booked on the Southwest website and found that there were enough people traveling to/from Miami proper to justify flights to MIA. FLL of course will still have more flights to more places (including a lot of Caribbean destinations which are generally opening back up for tourism), but given that Florida is one of the few major tourist destinations that's still generating demand, it makes sense for Southwest to jump on this opportunity to get into MIA. They did something similar a decade or so ago when they got the opportunity to serve LGA after only serving the NYC area via Islip for so long.

[tamtagon]

Seems like the McKinney airport will build on the corporate travelers in Frisco/West Plano; that's the second largest employment center in North Texas and the greatest advantage over competitor-upstart Meacham.

[MC_ScattCat]

Without a doubt the corporate/private jet hangers terminals etc. will grow at TKI, but keep in mind Addison is just down the road as well. Like I said before the only real possibility I see for commercial is Allegiant. They love these small out of the way airports just outside major cities. Think Rockford instead of ORD or Phoenix/Mesa instead of PHX. Their demo is families or low budget travelers going to destinations like Vegas or Orlando.