Austin has also become an extremely busy airport and will continue to grow. There just isn't enough business travel out of Waco for it to grow much more than it is already. For flights I am taking soon it is about $100 more to fly out of Waco. To me that is worth it since parking and driving to DFW is about that much for a week trip

CorsicanaBear said:

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Its not a question of getting a second airline, the issue is can we hang on the one we have. Easterwood in BCS used to have United to Houston as well as American to Dallas, but no more, just American now. Tyler Pounds only has American. Abiline only American. We are too close to DFW and too small to really even justify one airline.

Waco and Temple should have joint ventured an airport between the two towns and maybe there could be 2-3 airlines there. Far enough away from DFW with ~500k people in its service area.

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Beaumont/PA used to have united to Houston and for a while it had that and AA to DFW. Now it's just AA to DFW.

For most those puddle jumpers are either early or late and have a really good chance to get canceled or delayed on the return trip.

I just drive to Houston and sit in the United club.

I wish they had a national airport near the temple/belton/Killeen area. You would have it used for that area plus Bryan/College Station and Waco. Instead of having to go all the way to Austin or Dallas. I think Texas is going to be big enough soon for something like that for the smaller cities.

CorsicanaBear said:

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Its not a question of getting a second airline, the issue is can we hang on the one we have. Easterwood in BCS used to have United to Houston as well as American to Dallas, but no more, just American now. Tyler Pounds only has American. Abiline only American. We are too close to DFW and too small to really even justify one airline.

Waco and Temple should have joint ventured an airport between the two towns and maybe there could be 2-3 airlines there. Far enough away from DFW with ~500k people in its service area.

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United retrenched from all those markets because they couldn't or wouldn't compete with AA.

And no, Waco and Temple are never going to JV on an airport when Killeen basically has a airport for free (army terminal is on one side of the runway, commercial terminal is on the other side). Gray AAF used to be a reasonable alternative to Waco when they still had United to Houston and Delta to Atlanta, even though it was 68 miles from Waco. But both of those pulled out before/during the pandemic and all they have is the same DFW shuttle.

It's now a question of spending 2-3 hours on the road and $100-150 in parking at Love/DFW/AUS, or spending $150-200 more in airfare and 2-3 hours waiting in the terminal for a 17 minute flight.

I think Waco will keep American because they are the closest airport to DFW. As a result, they get used for a lot of diversion flights when DFW weather is bad.

It's a lot of money to spend on a one-gate airport. I know it won't happen but some direct flights to farther places would make it a lot more appealing.

As a family of four, there is no cost savings. The flights are usually $200-300 RT and with four of us that equals $900-1200 in additional cost. Sure, there is drive time and, sure, there are parking fees but I can save $800+ by not flying out of ACT compared to DFW or Austin.

Then throw in the limitations on flight times. They usually have a really early AM flight time (I think around 5:30A) that gives you flex but if you are trying to catch a flight out of DFW between late morning to noon, you are forced into waking up at 4AM to leave ACT at 5:30 and then spending 5+ hours at DFW. Or...you could wake up at 7AM, leave Waco at 8AM and be at DFW in time for a noon flight. Easier that way.

Making sure you make the connecting flight on the way back to ACT can be a challenge at times as well if there are delays.

Why would I pay $800+ for the inconvenience?

Now, if I were a couple or a single traveling, that might change things. Waco needs it for those that regularly travel for business and don't want to constantly make the drive but it just doesn't make much sense for the average Wacoan.

That said, I think I would spend the extra money if there were a direct flight from ACT to, say, Denver but I can't imagine there is any demand for a regularly scheduled leg like that.

whitetrash said:

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CorsicanaBear said:

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Its not a question of getting a second airline, the issue is can we hang on the one we have. Easterwood in BCS used to have United to Houston as well as American to Dallas, but no more, just American now. Tyler Pounds only has American. Abiline only American. We are too close to DFW and too small to really even justify one airline.

Waco and Temple should have joint ventured an airport between the two towns and maybe there could be 2-3 airlines there. Far enough away from DFW with ~500k people in its service area.

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United retrenched from all those markets because they couldn't or wouldn't compete with AA.

And no, Waco and Temple are never going to JV on an airport when Killeen basically has a airport for free (army terminal is on one side of the runway, commercial terminal is on the other side). Gray AAF used to be a reasonable alternative to Waco when they still had United to Houston and Delta to Atlanta, even though it was 68 miles from Waco. But both of those pulled out before/during the pandemic and all they have is the same DFW shuttle.

It's now a question of spending 2-3 hours on the road and $100-150 in parking at Love/DFW/AUS, or spending $150-200 more in airfare and 2-3 hours waiting in the terminal for a 17 minute flight.

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3hrs to DFW/Love/AUS? Do you go 45 in the left lane?

BaylorHistory said:

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whitetrash said:

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CorsicanaBear said:

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Its not a question of getting a second airline, the issue is can we hang on the one we have. Easterwood in BCS used to have United to Houston as well as American to Dallas, but no more, just American now. Tyler Pounds only has American. Abiline only American. We are too close to DFW and too small to really even justify one airline.

Waco and Temple should have joint ventured an airport between the two towns and maybe there could be 2-3 airlines there. Far enough away from DFW with ~500k people in its service area.

---

United retrenched from all those markets because they couldn't or wouldn't compete with AA.

And no, Waco and Temple are never going to JV on an airport when Killeen basically has a airport for free (army terminal is on one side of the runway, commercial terminal is on the other side). Gray AAF used to be a reasonable alternative to Waco when they still had United to Houston and Delta to Atlanta, even though it was 68 miles from Waco. But both of those pulled out before/during the pandemic and all they have is the same DFW shuttle.

It's now a question of spending 2-3 hours on the road and $100-150 in parking at Love/DFW/AUS, or spending $150-200 more in airfare and 2-3 hours waiting in the terminal for a 17 minute flight.

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3hrs to DFW/Love/AUS? Do you go 45 in the left lane?

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lol yea Waco to dfw airport takes about 1.5 hours or less

BaylorHistory said:

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whitetrash said:

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CorsicanaBear said:

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Its not a question of getting a second airline, the issue is can we hang on the one we have. Easterwood in BCS used to have United to Houston as well as American to Dallas, but no more, just American now. Tyler Pounds only has American. Abiline only American. We are too close to DFW and too small to really even justify one airline.

Waco and Temple should have joint ventured an airport between the two towns and maybe there could be 2-3 airlines there. Far enough away from DFW with ~500k people in its service area.

---

United retrenched from all those markets because they couldn't or wouldn't compete with AA.

And no, Waco and Temple are never going to JV on an airport when Killeen basically has a airport for free (army terminal is on one side of the runway, commercial terminal is on the other side). Gray AAF used to be a reasonable alternative to Waco when they still had United to Houston and Delta to Atlanta, even though it was 68 miles from Waco. But both of those pulled out before/during the pandemic and all they have is the same DFW shuttle.

It's now a question of spending 2-3 hours on the road and $100-150 in parking at Love/DFW/AUS, or spending $150-200 more in airfare and 2-3 hours waiting in the terminal for a 17 minute flight.

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3hrs to DFW/Love/AUS? Do you go 45 in the left lane?

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I assume he was talking about round-trip drive.

BaylorGuy314 said:

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BaylorHistory said:

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whitetrash said:

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CorsicanaBear said:

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Its not a question of getting a second airline, the issue is can we hang on the one we have. Easterwood in BCS used to have United to Houston as well as American to Dallas, but no more, just American now. Tyler Pounds only has American. Abiline only American. We are too close to DFW and too small to really even justify one airline.

Waco and Temple should have joint ventured an airport between the two towns and maybe there could be 2-3 airlines there. Far enough away from DFW with ~500k people in its service area.

---

United retrenched from all those markets because they couldn't or wouldn't compete with AA.

And no, Waco and Temple are never going to JV on an airport when Killeen basically has a airport for free (army terminal is on one side of the runway, commercial terminal is on the other side). Gray AAF used to be a reasonable alternative to Waco when they still had United to Houston and Delta to Atlanta, even though it was 68 miles from Waco. But both of those pulled out before/during the pandemic and all they have is the same DFW shuttle.

It's now a question of spending 2-3 hours on the road and $100-150 in parking at Love/DFW/AUS, or spending $150-200 more in airfare and 2-3 hours waiting in the terminal for a 17 minute flight.

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3hrs to DFW/Love/AUS? Do you go 45 in the left lane?

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I assume he was talking about round-trip drive.

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I was figuring in both traffic delays and the 20-30 min to find a parking place, wait for the shuttle bus and slowly ride to the terminal.

BUbearinARK said:

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forza orsi said:

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Localbear said:

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Austin has also become an extremely busy airport and will continue to grow. There just isn't enough business travel out of Waco for it to grow much more than it is already. For flights I am taking soon it is about $100 more to fly out of Waco. To me that is worth it since parking and driving to DFW is about that much for a week trip

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It also depends on where and how you fly. I have fair amount of international travel and usually try to wrangle a reasonable business class fare. For the last couple of years it's been $1,000 cheaper to fly to Rome on business class out of Waco than Dallas. Same plane from Dallas. If I drive to Dallas it costs $1,000 more than if I fly there and they'll give me the ticket to fly there for nothing. Add on the cost of parking at DFW (near $200 for a couple weeks in remote vs free in Waco) and Waco is a whole lot cheaper for what we're doing.

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And forza is flying to his olive farm that produces amazing olive oil! I've purchased the heck out of it.


https://www.facebook.com/BeliceValleyImporting

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And you just outed Forza as my distant cousin, although we had known each other 12-15 years before we discovered we were related. Not on his Italian side though; on his rural NE Texas side.

It's pretty impressive…. And when they tried to incentivize me to flex my flight the next opportunity was Thursday (flying out on Sunday). Fiber art is cool but Waco deserves better flight service.

Waco needs to add back the flight to IAH

I'm surely largely paid for with federal pork, but agree not sure how $9M update will have any sort of ROI.

As consolidation has occurred in the industry, airlines are more rational with capacity.

Waco should have teamed up with Temple for an airport in between the two. It probably never would have happened or worked. More realistically they should have teamed up with TSTC and put the airport there with a longer runway. It would have saved money and been a good opportunity to make a school/city airport with businesses all around.

Flying out of Waco just doesn't make sense for the majority of flights when it is cheaper in dfw. And parking is never an issue for me. I always seem to find parking in the parking garage at the terminal and just walk right in.

I always search out of Waco first but rarely find anything and am always worried about the large number of cancellations I hear about. Not sure artwork is what the airport needed to focus on.