Kno wrote:

Man you must have a serious reason to arrive on your original date if you were willing to go through all that fuss for a minor delay!!!!

24 hours is not a “minor delay”.

Thank you for the thoughtful responses. The intransigence of the airline, coupled with the insane lack of any kind of customer communication, really frightens me. Anytime I have ever had an issue with a flight schedule change, I offer an alternative, and it gets taken care of.

Not here. Three days to get anyone on the phone. An hour working with them only to be thwarted at every attempt by a computer system that can't handle schedule changes of ANY sort more than four months out. And that's without a major disruption caused by weather or other outside events - this was someone in management who not only made the decision to disrupt schedules but further made the decision that dealing with it would be next to impossible.

We have made the decision to instead go with United, as we will do the train/shuttle thing to LAX (or have someone drive us), fly the 787 to LHR, and come back on a 777-200 (my husband's first time on this type!), connecting at SFO. We'll get on a Lufthansa A350 next year when we return to Germany.

New Route Announcement: G4 will re-start SAN-PVU on Aug 18. Part of their designation of Provo, UT as a base with service also to PDX, LAS & SFB (Sanford, Fl.)

SAN-PVU was flown by G4 back in late 2016 - early 2017. (Breeze also announced PVU service today but is still not interested in serving SAN.)

bb

The "New Processing Building" at Tijuana airport that works with the CBX opened yesterday. Here's a good explanation by the San Diego Tourism Authority of how we benefit: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b9zuL7-MYdM

I can tell you it was sorely needed. CBX was being punished by its success. It took me an hour fifteen minutes to get across going south on Saturday. It was crazy packed on a non-holiday weekend. The parking lots were about 90% full.

The first two or three years CBX operated I could get across in 20 minutes from arriving on the US side to being at the boarding gate on the Mexico side.

I'll only get to experience going northbound into the US on Wednesday. I'll let you know how it went compared to times before.

From what I could tell from this video, the in-transit part is still behind some drywall (narration in Spanish): https://youtu.be/ofQ67vgh4JU but the facility looks state-of-the-art.

I'm hoping a youtuber posts a better video in the following days.

Here's a news segment in English about the expansion and showing some inside shots of the facility: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kN0Qn9kG1dc

A couple of notes on SDIA.

The Allegiant summer shuffle is underway. They are starting SAN-PVU in August -- SAN.org has gotten around to publicizing that new route announced last week -- but apparently SAN-ELP has been suspended for some period of time. Since the route was only to be served, I believe, for only about 2 months or so, and since I think WN has also dropped SAN-ELP, my guess is we'll have little to no service to West Texas this year. I guess that route is just not a big priority with any cx. I can't imagine there isn't a good enough level of traffic in that market, but service seems to have been very spotty over the years. (My gut keeps yelling for AS as the perfect one to best fit the market with a daily EMJ r/t, rather than WN's much larger jets or G4's infrequent twice-a-week flights, but AS did give it a try and surrendered quickly to the competition.)

Anybody planning a trip to the airport and parking there, heads up! I just finished watching last week's SDCRAA Board Meeting and when the report was presented reminding everyone that the T1 parking lot, already greatly reduced in size, will be permanently shut down soon -- right in time for summer?! -- there was at least one board member who was rather amazed by that news! So, they reviewed for her, there will be limited Valet parking (at $40/day I believe), the relatively few spaces available in the T2 parking areas, and lots of of off-property lots all over the place. (Remember that the cell phone lot has been moved and has taken a large chunk of the ground-level parking at the far west end of the T2W lot.)

So there are some ground level spaces left in front of T2W plus the parking structure and that, AFAIK, will be about it for on-site, self-parking at SDIA for a few years! Kind of hard to believe, especially as SAN is fighting and clawing to get air traffic back to 2019 levels. Yikes! There are going to be letters!!!!!!!! (BTW, you can make reservations for SDIA parking on line at SAN.org and I sure would try to do that if I needed to park-and-fly from SAN for the next several years!)

NT1 will be so nice once it opens but Boy Howdie, it's gonna be a rough ride getting there! I just hope that not too many people get royally screwed over by the construction and mess and give up on using SDIA unless absolutely necessary. SAN is certainly not the first airport to have major construction projects but I do see our parking situation as being one horrible nightmare for locals and visitors alike, over the next few years.

bb

This post is just to drive SANfan just a little crazy. Browsing alaskaair.jobs for nuggets of information and saw their were hiring a senior manager station operations for SEA. One of the job qualification was as follows
7 years of airport operations experience, with at least 1 year of this operations experience in a hub station (SEA, ANC, PDX, LAX, SFO, SAN).

It maybe a mistake but while not officially a hub it appears that internally someone at AS thinks it is.

gmcc wrote:

This post is just to drive SANfan just a little crazy. Browsing alaskaair.jobs for nuggets of information and saw their were hiring a senior manager station operations for SEA. One of the job qualification was as follows
7 years of airport operations experience, with at least 1 year of this operations experience in a hub station (SEA, ANC, PDX, LAX, SFO, SAN).

It maybe a mistake but while not officially a hub it appears that internally someone at AS thinks it is.

I have, over the last year or two, seen random inclusions of SAN as one of AS's hubs, on such things as internet references to AS. Yours is the first reference to anything that is even remotely part of Alaska Airlines.

Yes, I agree with you, gmcc, that it is certainly not anything official but, hey, I'll take it! I do keep looking at investor notes and documentation with high hopes, remembering how thrilled I was when I first saw SAN officially categorized as a focus city!

Thanx for finding, noticing and sharing that!

bb

Wanted to mention that had family that live in OC utilize the CBX for a Mexico beach trip and returned on Tuesday. Largely quite positive comments, especially since they saved north of $150 per person in airfrare by using TIJ airport versus driving up to LAX.

San Diego (and broader Southern California) is lucky to have such an option nearby and hopefully, with the TIJ expansion, it will see increased use from the U.S. side which can also help provide relief for growth at SAN.

UPlog wrote:

Wanted to mention that had family that live in OC utilize the CBX for a Mexico beach trip and returned on Tuesday. Largely quite positive comments, especially since they saved north of $150 per person in airfrare by using TIJ airport versus driving up to LAX.

San Diego (and broader Southern California) is lucky to have such an option nearby and hopefully, with the TIJ expansion, it will see increased use from the U.S. side which can also help provide relief for growth at SAN.

Thank you for pointing this out.

Every once in a while I mention the CBX and the new international terminal at TIJ in this forum. These are clearly built for San Diego and Southern California's benefit. (Of course the private companies who run both will make a tidy profit in tolls, but that's OK.)

There was a grand opening event with dignitaries this past Monday, May 9th. The entire presentation was a facebook live event done in Spanish. The video quality is kind of grainy. But there was a slick marketing video with English subtitles starting at the 18minute 15 seconds mark to the 22 minute mark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUMI3JBF5UI .

Here's a cleaner version of just the marketing video but it doesn't have the English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU9IOqpBonU (in Spanish)

The next time your relatives use the bridge and terminal, they'll likely use the new building and it should be a smoother process going southbound (which is critical).

The long term goal is to have an in-transit area at TIJ for flights coming in from Asia. That part should be up and running by around October.

Here's the clearest video so far of the inside of the new terminal at TIJ (in Spanish, but some posters in the background are in English). The waiting area inside the "rings" is the in-transit component for international flights that's not fully ready: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN-ljC52VhQ

At at about the 24 minute mark of the grand opening event video, the airport director mentions (in Spanish, sorry folks), that they're already working on an expansion as they finish this construction. I believe that will be a third branch with gates placed to the east of this new building as you face north.

Here's a Union-Tribune article about this from an hour ago (may be behind a paywall): https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/ne ... passengers

In that article, SANDAG proposes a "subway" (haha) there in five years. This is coming from an organization that can't figure out how to modify the existing bus 905 route from Iris Avenue trolley station a mile or so to reach the bridge.

Here's an existing bus stop that could be used: https://www.google.com/maps/@32.5534115 ... 384!8i8192 They can't figure out to change the sign to read 905 instead of 909 and tell the drivers to stop there.

In short, I'll believe the "subway" when I'm riding it.

Another news segment showing the inside of the new, international terminal at Tijuana (which is connected to south San Diego): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odtNJL1aTYo

Yesterday 5/20, San operated on runway 9 pretty much all day. Marine layer was pretty stubborn and wind was consistent out of the south. It’s been a while since I remember hearing departures in little italy from morning all the way to early evening. Usually it’s just for a few hours in the am

Air Canada starts service today from SAN-Montreal!

SANMAN66 wrote:

Air Canada starts service today from SAN-Montreal!

Yup, and WS begins SAN-YVR as well! Twice weekly for the summer, thru Sept. So far, they apparently don't see any market for SAN-YVR in the winter...

Speaking of Canada, I just noticed on the Swoop route map that there's now a line connecting SAN and YYZ (along with the route to YEG.) Anyone seen any talk about that? So far, all of our Canadian routes are all non-competitive with the exception of YVR (both AC/Jazz and now WS.) Maybe Toronto is destined to become the next competitive one?

Speaking of Canada routes, we can now fly nonstop from SAN to: YVR, YYC, YEG, YYZ and YUL! On one of 3 Canadian airlines! Pretty nice! That's actually more destinations to our northern neighbor than to our southern one, which is a whole lot closer.

My guess for our next Canadian destination? YWG. I would also guess we'll see at least one more Canadian carrier start service to SAN in 2023.

Seems to me things are definitely moving in the right direction for SDIA! I say wait for the momentum to really catch hold and prepare for lift off!

bb

ajlombardi2 wrote:

Yesterday 5/20, San operated on runway 9 pretty much all day. Marine layer was pretty stubborn and wind was consistent out of the south. It’s been a while since I remember hearing departures in little italy from morning all the way to early evening. Usually it’s just for a few hours in the am

Was in town for the weekend and noticed the same. Walking up Market St last evening we were surprised to still see departures coming over the city.

SANFan wrote:

SANMAN66 wrote:

Air Canada starts service today from SAN-Montreal!

Yup, and WS begins SAN-YVR as well! Twice weekly for the summer, thru Sept. So far, they apparently don't see any market for SAN-YVR in the winter...

Speaking of Canada, I just noticed on the Swoop route map that there's now a line connecting SAN and YYZ (along with the route to YEG.) Anyone seen any talk about that? So far, all of our Canadian routes are all non-competitive with the exception of YVR (both AC/Jazz and now WS.) Maybe Toronto is destined to become the next competitive one?

Speaking of Canada routes, we can now fly nonstop from SAN to: YVR, YYC, YEG, YYZ and YUL! On one of 3 Canadian airlines! Pretty nice! That's actually more destinations to our northern neighbor than to our southern one, which is a whole lot closer.

My guess for our next Canadian destination? YWG. I would also guess we'll see at least one more Canadian carrier start service to SAN in 2023.

Seems to me things are definitely moving in the right direction for SDIA! I say wait for the momentum to really catch hold and prepare for lift off!

bb

A flight to Winnipeg would be great!

I wonder how many passengers to Montreal and Toronto are really connecting to fights to Europe? I remember Air Canada marketing the connection at Toronto before the pandemic and border closure.

I recommend everyone visit Canada if you haven't already. You might also enjoy being lulled into thinking it's just like the US until you see the bag milk or malt vinegar.

Montreal and nearby Quebec City are wonderful. But learn a few words in French before going. They're very sensitive on that topic.

vedatil4 wrote:

A flight to Winnipeg would be great!

I wonder how many passengers to Montreal and Toronto are really connecting to fights to Europe? I remember Air Canada marketing the connection at Toronto before the pandemic and border closure.

I recommend everyone visit Canada if you haven't already. You might also enjoy being lulled into thinking it's just like the US until you see the bag milk or malt vinegar.

Montreal and nearby Quebec City are wonderful. But learn a few words in French before going. They're very sensitive on that topic.

The timing of the YUL & YYZ flights might help answer your question. The SAN-Montreal flight is a 9am departure, arriving in Canada about 5-5:30p - probably pretty good for int'l connections -- while the YYZ flight departs SAN at ~11:30am arriving in Toronto after 7pm -- maybe kind of late for connections beyond Canada? The return flights back to SAN also, IMO, favor YUL as the major intercontinental connecting point. (YYZ-SAN departs YYZ ~8am.)

The one imbalance in the routes is that YUL, being a new route, is oping only 3x weekly while YYZ is Daily. If the recovery of int'l travel continues, I expect YUL will be Daily pretty quickly while YYZ could go daily-double as it has for short periods in the past.

SAN-YVR, with 2 daily r/t, also offers good int'l connections, as well as good cruise connections. Hopefully we'll see a 3rd r/t in the market by next year.

bb

SANFan wrote:

vedatil4 wrote:

A flight to Winnipeg would be great!

I wonder how many passengers to Montreal and Toronto are really connecting to fights to Europe? I remember Air Canada marketing the connection at Toronto before the pandemic and border closure.

I recommend everyone visit Canada if you haven't already. You might also enjoy being lulled into thinking it's just like the US until you see the bag milk or malt vinegar.

Montreal and nearby Quebec City are wonderful. But learn a few words in French before going. They're very sensitive on that topic.

The timing of the YUL & YYZ flights might help answer your question. The SAN-Montreal flight is a 9am departure, arriving in Canada about 5-5:30p - probably pretty good for int'l connections -- while the YYZ flight departs SAN at ~11:30am arriving in Toronto after 7pm -- maybe kind of late for connections beyond Canada? The return flights back to SAN also, IMO, favor YUL as the major intercontinental connecting point. (YYZ-SAN departs YYZ ~8am.)

The one imbalance in the routes is that YUL, being a new route, is oping only 3x weekly while YYZ is Daily. If the recovery of int'l travel continues, I expect YUL will be Daily pretty quickly while YYZ could go daily-double as it has for short periods in the past.

SAN-YVR, with 2 daily r/t, also offers good int'l connections, as well as good cruise connections. Hopefully we'll see a 3rd r/t in the market by next year.

bb

Thanks for clarifying.

I remember Westjet also getting into the connecting-via Canada game with flights to Calgary. From there they'd fly people to Dublin and London on their 787.

I'm tempted by that 9am departure to Montreal which favors San Diego passengers. But I'll hold off for a Winnipeg flight if it ever happens. I may even consider going there in dead of winter for just to experience sub-feeezing temperatures just once.

vedatil4 wrote:

SANFan wrote:

The timing of the YUL & YYZ flights might help answer your question. The SAN-Montreal flight is a 9am departure, arriving in Canada about 5-5:30p - probably pretty good for int'l connections -- while the YYZ flight departs SAN at ~11:30am arriving in Toronto after 7pm -- maybe kind of late for connections beyond Canada? The return flights back to SAN also, IMO, favor YUL as the major intercontinental connecting point. (YYZ-SAN departs YYZ ~8am.)
bb

Thanks for clarifying.

I remember Westjet also getting into the connecting-via Canada game with flights to Calgary. From there they'd fly people to Dublin and London on their 787.

I'm tempted by that 9am departure to Montreal which favors San Diego passengers. But I'll hold off for a Winnipeg flight if it ever happens. I may even consider going there in dead of winter for just to experience sub-feeezing temperatures just once.

And YWG would be a great place to view the Northern Lights, during those sub-freezing months! (I've flown to FAI a few times over the years in Dec/Jan for the same purpose. Incredible!)

Yes, I remember seeing ads by both AC & WS soliciting travelers in SAN to use them to get to Europe, etc.

AC's timing of their long-haul flights from SAN keeps me guessing. The YYZ r/t historically has been an early morning YYZ-departure, turning in SAN midday and heading back for an evening arrival in Canada; obviously timed for Eastern Canadians. Occasionally (seasonally?) they change the timing.

Now with YUL, at least to start out, they seem to be timing it more for us here on the w/c, and for European connections, with an evening westbound return to SAN. (They are currently RONing both the YUL flight and a YVR Jazz a/c here.) Maybe the plan is to leave things this way for the foreseeable future?

That reminds me, has anyone out there gotten any shots of the A220 with the Maple Leaf here at SAN? Maybe DL also flies the new AirBus here? (I'm sure not holding my breath to see a Breeze A220 here anytime soon...) I'm not aware of any other 220s flying in or out of SDIA.

bb

SANFan wrote:

vedatil4 wrote:

A flight to Winnipeg would be great!

I wonder how many passengers to Montreal and Toronto are really connecting to fights to Europe? I remember Air Canada marketing the connection at Toronto before the pandemic and border closure.

I recommend everyone visit Canada if you haven't already. You might also enjoy being lulled into thinking it's just like the US until you see the bag milk or malt vinegar.

Montreal and nearby Quebec City are wonderful. But learn a few words in French before going. They're very sensitive on that topic.

The timing of the YUL & YYZ flights might help answer your question. The SAN-Montreal flight is a 9am departure, arriving in Canada about 5-5:30p - probably pretty good for int'l connections -- while the YYZ flight departs SAN at ~11:30am arriving in Toronto after 7pm -- maybe kind of late for connections beyond Canada? The return flights back to SAN also, IMO, favor YUL as the major intercontinental connecting point. (YYZ-SAN departs YYZ ~8am.)

The one imbalance in the routes is that YUL, being a new route, is oping only 3x weekly while YYZ is Daily. If the recovery of int'l travel continues, I expect YUL will be Daily pretty quickly while YYZ could go daily-double as it has for short periods in the past.

SAN-YVR, with 2 daily r/t, also offers good int'l connections, as well as good cruise connections. Hopefully we'll see a 3rd r/t in the market by next year.

bb

AC has already loaded YUL into the system for winter 2022/23.

Service will also increase to 5 weekly on the 7M8, for September and October. Then back to 3 weekly November onward on the A220.

I have a question for this group. When are all those eateries in the Food Court in T2 going to reopen?

Not sure if anyone follows this poster on Twitter, AS is suspending the following routes

https://aeroroutes.com/eng/220523-as2h22

San Diego – Bozeman (Suspended from 04SEP22)
San Diego – Fort Lauderdale
San Diego – Santa Barbara (Suspended from 06SEP22)

BA744PHX wrote:

Not sure if anyone follows this poster on Twitter, AS is suspending the following routes

https://aeroroutes.com/eng/220523-as2h22

San Diego – Bozeman (Suspended from 04SEP22)
San Diego – Fort Lauderdale
San Diego – Santa Barbara (Suspended from 06SEP22)

BZN is gradually being removed as AS works on revised end-of-the-year schedules so it's hard to say what is to become of the MT adds of a year or 2 ago. FCA, MSO, as well as JAC, also keep appearing and disappearing for periods of time. The future of all those routes is unclear, and not just from SAN, and not just with AS. (I also saw a report that AA is suspending some BZN-routes at the end of the year.)

FLL-SAN is (currently) on AS's skeds beginning Nov 18 (daily) and remaining on all their advanced skeds! (I've noticed that Blue is suspending SAN-FLL in the fall so I'm watching that market carefully to see what the 2 cx do going forward.) I'm sure that market is healthy enough that at least one carrier should be able to make it work year-round. Competition, with varied timing, would certainly be nice.

SBA, unfortunately, was added right as covid was taking over everything, so it's had a rough go of getting started. I can say that it reappears on AS's skeds on 3-16-23, daily, and that's not a placeholder-thing. I get the feeling that AS is intent on making that route work starting next spring, or at least making real effort at it!

SAN-CUN is the biggest unknown to me. It's currently not on any AS skeds, all the way into April. I expect it will return at some point, but maybe not until late in 2023?

bb

Minor, but cool news! According to the following-

https://aeroroutes.com/eng/220519-jl3q22na

NRT-SAN is supposed to be upgraded from the 787-8 to the 787-9 on August 2nd! After almost a decade, our only flight to Asia is finally getting an upgauge!

san747 wrote:

Minor, but cool news! According to the following-

https://aeroroutes.com/eng/220519-jl3q22na

NRT-SAN is supposed to be upgraded from the 787-8 to the 787-9 on August 2nd! After almost a decade, our only flight to Asia is finally getting an upgauge!

When the Dreamliners had the smoking battery issues, JL was flying 777-200ER's to SAN.

I noticed that Spirit, which I rank down there with F9 and SY as the least important airlines to serve SAN, has made "some adjustments" to their August schedule for SAN! Get this. What they will offer the travelers of SAN for that month will be one daily r/t to OAK, and 6 daily r/t to Vegas! That's it. That's the best they can do from SAN in August... No IAH, DTW service. Nothing to ORD or DFW. Or anywhere else, besides OAK and LAS! Remember, this is August we're talking about.

The thing is, I wonder if they have some sort of minimum-service requirement with the airport, or as part of the airline's agreement with employees here, or what? As they've done in the past, when they drop their "real airline routes", they seem to bump up their bus trips to Vegas. This is the most extreme case I've seen - 6 daily r/t to LAS!

I guess I should be happy that Spirit has found a way to keep flying their taxi-cab airplanes in and out of SAN 7 times a day, offering lots of connections to their network (with a change of plane in LAS of course) rather than just fly a couple times a day.... And who needs real destinations anyway -- just fly 1 plane back and forth all day long on one short route and make it look like you offer lots of service at SDIA! I look forward to some sort of buyout or takeover of this air carrier by someone, and soon.

BTW, I notice that WN has added another flight to their LAS schedule - they'll now be at 13 r/t a day in August! Coincidence? (And let's not forget, WN will also fly 14 r/t a day between SAN and OAK this summer.)

Good luck Spirit...

Rant over. Now back to your regular programming.

bb

san747 wrote:

Minor, but cool news! According to the following-
https://aeroroutes.com/eng/220519-jl3q22na
NRT-SAN is supposed to be upgraded from the 787-8 to the 787-9 on August 2nd! After almost a decade, our only flight to Asia is finally getting an upgauge!

That is good to hear. (Wasn't that upgrade supposed to happen in the past? Back when JL was daily? Probably spoiled by covid...) I wonder if the upgrade is more for cargo capacity than pax traffic increases? Either way counts for me!

I'm glad to see the extra seats being offered via the 789 but I a bit bummed that the frequency is not returning toward daily very quickly. I notice that many of the other JL routes to other U.S. airports (such as BOS, HNL & SEA) are returning to daily service.

I guess if I had my choice, I'd rather see a daily JL flight here than a slightly larger aircraft still only 4 days a week. But I'm sure it will happen eventually!

Thanks for finding and sharing that news, san'. (Sorry but I appear to be in a bitchy mode today, eh?)

bb

SANFan wrote:

BTW, I notice that WN has added another flight to their LAS schedule - they'll now be at 13 r/t a day in August! Coincidence? (And let's not forget, WN will also fly 14 r/t a day between SAN and OAK this summer.)

Good luck Spirit...

Rant over. Now back to your regular programming.

bb

If that's all Spirit has to offer from SAN, they'll get slaughtered by WN!
Maybe they're being conservative on adding more flights because of the
possible merger with Frontier?

wedgetail737 wrote:

san747 wrote:

Minor, but cool news! According to the following-

https://aeroroutes.com/eng/220519-jl3q22na

NRT-SAN is supposed to be upgraded from the 787-8 to the 787-9 on August 2nd! After almost a decade, our only flight to Asia is finally getting an upgauge!

When the Dreamliners had the smoking battery issues, JL was flying 777-200ER's to SAN.

Yes, but the 777-200ERs operated here with an altered configuration to accommodate the same number of passengers as the 787-8s that were flying to SAN prior to the grounding.

SANFan wrote:

I noticed that Spirit, which I rank down there with F9 and SY as the least important airlines to serve SAN, has made "some adjustments" to their August schedule for SAN! Get this. What they will offer the travelers of SAN for that month will be one daily r/t to OAK, and 6 daily r/t to Vegas! That's it. That's the best they can do from SAN in August... No IAH, DTW service. Nothing to ORD or DFW. Or anywhere else, besides OAK and LAS! Remember, this is August we're talking about.

The thing is, I wonder if they have some sort of minimum-service requirement with the airport, or as part of the airline's agreement with employees here, or what? As they've done in the past, when they drop their "real airline routes", they seem to bump up their bus trips to Vegas. This is the most extreme case I've seen - 6 daily r/t to LAS!

I guess I should be happy that Spirit has found a way to keep flying their taxi-cab airplanes in and out of SAN 7 times a day, offering lots of connections to their network (with a change of plane in LAS of course) rather than just fly a couple times a day.... And who needs real destinations anyway -- just fly 1 plane back and forth all day long on one short route and make it look like you offer lots of service at SDIA! I look forward to some sort of buyout or takeover of this air carrier by someone, and soon.

BTW, I notice that WN has added another flight to their LAS schedule - they'll now be at 13 r/t a day in August! Coincidence? (And let's not forget, WN will also fly 14 r/t a day between SAN and OAK this summer.)

Good luck Spirit...

Rant over. Now back to your regular programming.

bb

Devil's advocate to this...every airline has struggled to meet demand. This might actually open up more destinations to people given that LAS is one of Spirit's major hub. I've connected on NK quite a few times through LAS and having more flights would actually drop some of the lengthy connection times that it once offered while still maintaining bargain basement pricing. I'm certainly not excited about losing non-stops to places where I used to fly on Spirit, but it seems they're leaning harder on a page out of the legacies (looking at you AA via DFW).

Here's a slick promotional video the CBX bridge folks showed off at a recent tourism convention. One of the points emphasized is the quick and easy crossing of tourists into the US for shopping and visiting attractions in southern California.

I remember being on a flight from Leon and there were about 20 ladies behind us talking non-stop about all the stuff they were going to buy at Fashion Valley Mall. So I think that's a draw for people who live deep in Mexico. I have to say that, just with that angle, San Diego benefits by having this bridge.

The video is in Spanish but it has English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiITr6Y9Ncc

They showed a few seconds of newer renderings of the international terminal. But the video must've been made before its completion. They didn't really talk about it much. There's only a brief mention.

But once that in-transit area is fully operational, I wonder if an ESTA or covid test will be required for someone arriving from Australia, via TIJ (without Mexican immigration and customs approval), then entering into the USA (for example). That would give the new international area an advantage over LAX. We'll find out those operational details in the coming months.

vedatil4 wrote:

Here's a slick promotional video the CBX bridge folks showed off at a recent tourism convention. One of the points emphasized is the quick and easy crossing of tourists into the US for shopping and visiting attractions in southern California.

I remember being on a flight from Leon and there were about 20 ladies behind us talking non-stop about all the stuff they were going to buy at Fashion Valley Mall. So I think that's a draw for people who live deep in Mexico. I have to say that, just with that angle, San Diego benefits by having this bridge.

The video is in Spanish but it has English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiITr6Y9Ncc

They showed a few seconds of newer renderings of the international terminal. But the video must've been made before its completion. They didn't really talk about it much. There's only a brief mention.

But once that in-transit area is fully operational, I wonder if an ESTA or covid test will be required for someone arriving from Australia, via TIJ (without Mexican immigration and customs approval), then entering into the USA (for example). That would give the new international area an advantage over LAX. We'll find out those operational details in the coming months.

My apologies that might've been my relatives...

Anyway, having this bridge has been one of the biggest lifesavers ever, living in San Diego but having family in Leon, prior to the bridge, our 2 options were connecting in IAH/DFW, or driving across the border (sometimes waits could be 2-3 hours long) and taking a nonstop, but this bridge has made it so much simpler (and cheaper) to do the latter, especially for my family who even though they could afford confirmed first through Texas, prefer the convenience and time saved by using CBX and taking a nonstop volaris/viva.

itripreport wrote:

vedatil4 wrote:

Here's a slick promotional video the CBX bridge folks showed off at a recent tourism convention. One of the points emphasized is the quick and easy crossing of tourists into the US for shopping and visiting attractions in southern California.

I remember being on a flight from Leon and there were about 20 ladies behind us talking non-stop about all the stuff they were going to buy at Fashion Valley Mall. So I think that's a draw for people who live deep in Mexico. I have to say that, just with that angle, San Diego benefits by having this bridge.

The video is in Spanish but it has English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiITr6Y9Ncc

They showed a few seconds of newer renderings of the international terminal. But the video must've been made before its completion. They didn't really talk about it much. There's only a brief mention.

But once that in-transit area is fully operational, I wonder if an ESTA or covid test will be required for someone arriving from Australia, via TIJ (without Mexican immigration and customs approval), then entering into the USA (for example). That would give the new international area an advantage over LAX. We'll find out those operational details in the coming months.

My apologies that might've been my relatives...

Anyway, having this bridge has been one of the biggest lifesavers ever, living in San Diego but having family in Leon, prior to the bridge, our 2 options were connecting in IAH/DFW, or driving across the border (sometimes waits could be 2-3 hours long) and taking a nonstop, but this bridge has made it so much simpler (and cheaper) to do the latter, especially for my family who even though they could afford confirmed first through Texas, prefer the convenience and time saved by using CBX and taking a nonstop volaris/viva.

I have relatives that go nuts for our stores when they come over too. So I understood their excitement. Their conversation was like "gobble gobble, Fashion Valley, gobble gobble, Burlington" and on and on.

I remember a time when a shopping center was proposed about a mile northeast of the CBX. That would've done great business (for the San Diego tax collector, have to point that out). People would've flown in, loaded up with stuff, and headed back south on the same day (after taking the tags off the clothes of course). It was going to be like the current Las Americas shopping center in San Ysidro but with flyers instead of pedestrians.

I believe I've seen some of your youtube videos. I hope you get a chance to film the new international terminal at TIJ on your next trip going south.

Also, if it was you, thanks for the video about Jet Blue to Vegas. We had an elderly person that needed to fly San Diego to Boston on the exact same aircraft. It was helpful to see the insde, and more importantly, what kind of legroom was provided. "Chavo del Ocho" on that JetBlue Entertainment system bought them mad street cred south of the border. Obviously, they did their homework.

SANMAN66 wrote:

SANFan wrote:

BTW, I notice that WN has added another flight to their LAS schedule - they'll now be at 13 r/t a day in August! Coincidence? (And let's not forget, WN will also fly 14 r/t a day between SAN and OAK this summer.)

Good luck Spirit...

Rant over. Now back to your regular programming.

bb

If that's all Spirit has to offer from SAN, they'll get slaughtered by WN!
Maybe they're being conservative on adding more flights because of the
possible merger with Frontier?

NK's customer base is not goingnto be making decisions based on frequency or number of destinations. If there is an LAS flight at a time that works and is cheaper they will buy.

Here are the Q4 2021 PDEW's of the top contiguous U.S. markets traveled to from SAN that don't currently have WN nonstop service out of SAN:
SAN-NYC - 1220 (WN previously served EWR nonstop from SAN, EWR no longer served by WN)
SAN-SEA - 1125 (WN previously served SEA nonstop from SAN)
SAN-BOS/PVD/MHT - 584
SAN-PDX - 521 (WN previously served PDX nonstop from SAN)
SAN-MSP - 400 (WN previously served MSP nonstop from SAN)
SAN-MIA/FLL - 348
SAN-MCO - 287 (WN previously served MCO nonstop from SAN)
SAN-DTW - 275
SAN-PHL - 259
SAN-CLT - 198
SAN-ORF - 158 (WN previously served ORF nonstop from SAN)
SAN-TPA - 143 (WN previously served TPA nonstop from SAN)
SAN-RDU - 125
SAN-IND - 122 (WN previously served IND nonstop from SAN)
SAN-MSY - 116 (WN planning on resuming SAN-MSY nonstop service on a weekend-only basis in September 2022)

Is WN likely to add nonstop service out of SAN to any of the above markets? If so, which of the above markets are likely to see nonstop service out of SAN added by WN?

There is a new post over on the Condor thread referencing an article about how the carrier is planning growth in fleet and network (to compete with Eurowings and LH.)
Link: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1470353&start=100 (See post #109.)

Naturally, my mind jumps to something that's been mentioned up-thread briefly when LH announced that they were changing from FRA to MUC for their SAN service. There was some wondering about whether it seemed possible that Condor might jump on SAN-FRA in response?

Since Condor has already announced new service from LA and SFO, etc., and with this new news about Condor's plans for expansion, and since Condor did already announce (and serve!) SAN briefly in 2017 just before LH announced their plans here, is the topic again ripe for discussion?

Some questions: is there enough traffic for both cx between SAN and Germany? How does DE feel about SAN after their failed attempt at service here once just a few years ago? Would LH mount some sort of action in response if Condor did make a move here?

What do you think? I feel like it's a real possibility but of course I don't want to see LH's presence here in danger. (But of course SAN couldn't actually prevent DE from announcing SAN anyway even if they -- the airport -- wanted to.)

I think the bottom line is, might DE try it and if they do, what will LH do?

bb

SANFan wrote:

san747 wrote:

Minor, but cool news! According to the following-
https://aeroroutes.com/eng/220519-jl3q22na
NRT-SAN is supposed to be upgraded from the 787-8 to the 787-9 on August 2nd! After almost a decade, our only flight to Asia is finally getting an upgauge!

That is good to hear. (Wasn't that upgrade supposed to happen in the past? Back when JL was daily? Probably spoiled by covid...) I wonder if the upgrade is more for cargo capacity than pax traffic increases? Either way counts for me!

I'm glad to see the extra seats being offered via the 789 but I a bit bummed that the frequency is not returning toward daily very quickly. I notice that many of the other JL routes to other U.S. airports (such as BOS, HNL & SEA) are returning to daily service.

I guess if I had my choice, I'd rather see a daily JL flight here than a slightly larger aircraft still only 4 days a week. But I'm sure it will happen eventually!

Thanks for finding and sharing that news, san'. (Sorry but I appear to be in a bitchy mode today, eh?)

bb

They can flow passengers via LAS. They are cutting over 60 routes temporarily due to pilot shortages, while increasing frequency on certain other markets that can better flow passengers. In Miami they are cutting some routes for a few months while going 4x to MCO and 3x to DFW where connectivity flows are good.

SANFan wrote:

There is a new post over on the Condor thread referencing an article about how the carrier is planning growth in fleet and network (to compete with Eurowings and LH.)
Link: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1470353&start=100 (See post #109.)
Naturally, my mind jumps to something that's been mentioned up-thread briefly when LH announced that they were changing from FRA to MUC for their SAN service. There was some wondering about whether it seemed possible that Condor might jump on SAN-FRA in response?

Since Condor has already announced new service from LA and SFO, etc., and with this new news about Condor's plans for expansion, and since Condor did already announce (and serve!) SAN briefly in 2017 just before LH announced their plans here, is the topic again ripe for discussion?

Some questions: is there enough traffic for both cx between SAN and Germany? How does DE feel about SAN after their failed attempt at service here once just a few years ago? Would LH mount some sort of action in response if Condor did make a move here?

What do you think? I feel like it's a real possibility but of course I don't want to see LH's presence here in danger. (But of course SAN couldn't actually prevent DE from announcing SAN anyway even if they -- the airport -- wanted to.)
I think the bottom line is, might DE try it and if they do, what will LH do?

I was reminded -- over on the other thread -- that DE has a great working relationship with AS so that certainly doesn't hurt us here in SAN (the largest AS focus city...)

I'll be keeping an eye on this situation. (BTW, thanks to BangersAndMash over on the Condor-thread, and occasional visitor to this thread.)

bb

I don’t know if Condor’s previous SAN-FRA service can be considered a failure. If memory serves they flew it for one season, the Lufthansa announced the route and Condor likely felt it wasn’t worth trying to compete head on with Lufthansa, which certainly has better name recognition in the US. Whether they come back likely depends on how much O&D demand there is for SAN-FRA on its own; I don’t know what beyond-FRA connection opportunities Condor offers but they would be competing with Lufthansa via MUC, BA via LHR, and US airlines via US hubs.

hawaiian717 wrote:

I don’t know if Condor’s previous SAN-FRA service can be considered a failure. If memory serves they flew it for one season, the Lufthansa announced the route and Condor likely felt it wasn’t worth trying to compete head on with Lufthansa, which certainly has better name recognition in the US. Whether they come back likely depends on how much O&D demand there is for SAN-FRA on its own; I don’t know what beyond-FRA connection opportunities Condor offers but they would be competing with Lufthansa via MUC, BA via LHR, and US airlines via US hubs.

I concur. It was announced as "seasonal" immediately, at the same time as the equally-seasonal Edelweiss Air, with a scheduled termination date. And it was also available for sale via lufthansa.com, so the LH group was definitely looking at the numbers, most especially the premium numbers, which proved positive. No significant leakage from LAX, a premium/cargo demand, and an incentive package to ease the start-up costs. Even up-gauges were considered and occasionally swapped in.

The complexities of an airline in a wealthy country WITHOUT a primate city, however, are tough to deal with. Sorry, the geography teacher in me is coming out, but it is relevant to the situation: a primate city is a city that completely dominates the country or region culturally and economically. As an example, I point out that if you can only name one city in a country, then it is probably a primate city. For example, The United Kingdom. My students all say, "London!" right away. Then I ask if they can name another, and they think. And nothing comes up. Same with France - "Paris!". But others? Nope. That's because these are primate cities. Latin America is like this too, as the Spanish set up their colonies like this: Buenos Aires, Argentina, Havana, Cuba, etc.

Germany does not have a primate city. Until the 1860's, it was a confederation of independent kingdoms and such, with each region having a powerful trading city. Upon first unification in 1871, it was the most powerful Prussia that determined the capital city (Berlin), but even through all the history of Germany, each city has retained its identity and economic clout. Frankfurt, only the fifth-largest city in the federal republic, is sometimes referred to as "Bankfurt", given the vast amount of banking & related business found in the area. And it doesn't hurt, either, that this area has always been at the forefront of German aviation, so naturally it just evolved into Germany's aviation hub.

But the demand for travel in Germany is such that one hub alone cannot sustain the growth. Munich, thankfully, replaced the tiny airport in 1992, and with the new airport came the availability of access by Bavarians (and other Germans) to a second German aviation hub. Strong O&D traffic coupled with a less-complicated operating set-up has taken pressure off of FRA and allowed connecting traffic two options instead of one. And given the reputation LH has with many passengers who fly from country A to country B only transiting through Germany, two hubs are better than one!

I have also been told that it is a German law that all airfares into Germany must be the same price for any airport. Meaning you cannot charge cheaper for arriving at FRA alone versus adding a connecting flight, say to Stuttgart. It has to be the same price INTO the country. Exiting, however, the law doesn't apply, as we found out returning from Germany in 2017: we saved $600 per person on our airfare, but only by STARTING our return to San Diego from FRA. Go figure.

Personally, I'm delighted with MUC as SAN's destination into Europe. Most connecting cities in Europe are served by both, but does anyone know how many or which cities are FRA only destinations? How about MUC-only cities?

Oh, that concludes today's lesson on primate cities. Thank you for reading - class dismissed.

hawaiian717 wrote:

I don’t know if Condor’s previous SAN-FRA service can be considered a failure. If memory serves they flew it for one season, the Lufthansa announced the route and Condor likely felt it wasn’t worth trying to compete head on with Lufthansa, which certainly has better name recognition in the US. Whether they come back likely depends on how much O&D demand there is for SAN-FRA on its own; I don’t know what beyond-FRA connection opportunities Condor offers but they would be competing with Lufthansa via MUC, BA via LHR, and US airlines via US hubs.

Did someone call DE's service from SAN a "failure"? I don't recall that term being used and I totally agree with you that it was not a failure.

It was a smart business decision on the part of Condor to announce the relocation of the SAN-service to PHX for the 2018 season, shortly after LH announced (in June of 2017) their plans to start flying FRA-SAN in March 2018. According to my records, DE did complete their entire 2017 season here, ending tri-weekly service at SAN in early October.

This is why I am wondering if DE might decide to try SAN again now that there (again) is no service to FRA? I assume they did pretty well on their inaugural season at SAN and might take advantage of the situations I outlined in my previous post on the topic. I see no reason why they should have a sour taste in their mouths about SAN or their numbers here.

Thanks to you who have commented on the topic of Condor perhaps returning to SAN.

bb

SANFan wrote:

Did someone call DE's service from SAN a "failure"? I don't recall that term being used and I totally agree with you that it was not a failure.

You did:

SANFan wrote:

How does DE feel about SAN after their failed attempt at service here once just a few years ago?

Though reading it again, I suppose that you could have been meaning it was a failure for Condor in the sense that they went to the effort to establish the market, then Lufthansa walked in and took it over.

hawaiian717 wrote:

SANFan wrote:

Did someone call DE's service from SAN a "failure"? I don't recall that term being used and I totally agree with you that it was not a failure.

You did:

SANFan wrote:

How does DE feel about SAN after their failed attempt at service here once just a few years ago?

Though reading it again, I suppose that you could have been meaning it was a failure for Condor in the sense that they went to the effort to establish the market, then Lufthansa walked in and took it over.

Condor left due to LH arrival, in another article when PHX started and EW announced it would also fly PHX-FRA, DE said they can’t keep running from LH, since LH has went after DE when AUS, SAN & PHX started, granted this was under Thomas Cook. I’m addition EW didn’t start PHX since start date was May 20220.

Their most recent article stated they will now go after LH high cost routes which is why they now fly JFK LAX SFO & BOS.

I wouldn’t personally considering SAN a high cost route. If anything EW could make a run at SAN on the FRA route,

hawaiian717 wrote:

SANFan wrote:

Did someone call DE's service from SAN a "failure"? I don't recall that term being used and I totally agree with you that it was not a failure.

You did.

SANFan wrote:

How does DE feel about SAN after their failed attempt at service here once just a few years ago?

Though reading it again, I suppose that you could have been meaning it was a failure for Condor in the sense that they went to the effort to establish the market, then Lufthansa walked in and took it over.

Somehow, deep down inside, I suspected that you would point out that it was me... LOL! I certainly regret using that term and that I didn't even catch it when I read over my recent post.... Ugghh.

In my defense, I didn't mean to say that Condor, the route, or SAN was a failure, just that it "failed", as in, it "ended"; if LH hadn't made a move, I'm sure we would still have Condor here, prolly year-round and perhaps daily after 5 years! Poor choice of words by me.

So I guess we'll see if anyone, DE, EW, or ??, feels like taking on LH's solid grasp on SAN-Germany service, as well as its well-tuned worldwide network beyond. And I will say I'm certainly not hoping to see LH leave SAN. I simply wonder if the FRA market is attractive enough to lure some competition to town?

bb

BA744PHX wrote:

Condor left due to LH arrival,

That's the way I always looked at it, that LH scared condor away from SAN.
(bad blood between both airlines?) My prediction proved right that Condor
showed up in PHX after flying the coop from SAN.

SANFan wrote:

So I guess we'll see if anyone, DE, EW, or ??, feels like taking on LH's solid grasp on SAN-Germany service, as well as its well-tuned worldwide network beyond. And I will say I'm certainly not hoping to see LH leave SAN. I simply wonder if the FRA market is attractive enough to lure some competition to town?

bb

EW has intrigued me. I'm wondering if they would consider SAN-FRA as a destination? Aren't they an affiliate of
LH? DE might even return, since they are no longer affiliated with Thomas Cook? DE seems a little more aggressive
nowadays, would they decide to go into heavy competition with LH?

SANMAN66 wrote:

SANFan wrote:

So I guess we'll see if anyone, DE, EW, or ??, feels like taking on LH's solid grasp on SAN-Germany service, as well as its well-tuned worldwide network beyond. And I will say I'm certainly not hoping to see LH leave SAN. I simply wonder if the FRA market is attractive enough to lure some competition to town?

bb

EW has intrigued me. I'm wondering if they would consider SAN-FRA as a destination? Aren't they an affiliate of
LH? DE might even return, since they are no longer affiliated with Thomas Cook? DE seems a little more aggressive
nowadays, would they decide to go into heavy competition with LH?

I doubt DE will return to SAN, EW is more likely, however LH move from FRA to MUC shows it’s more about connections then O&D which SAN-FRA was barely low 40’a pre COVID and MUC is low 20’s

Just thought I'd offer an update on AS's schedule update of last Saturday night (the OAG load.) Their skeds are now "active" thru Jan. 4, 2023; Jan 5 and beyond are placeholders.

Essentially the holiday skeds are now updated to more realistic ones with the Thanksgiving block operating ~11/17 thru 11/2; the Christmas dates are ~12/15 thru 1/4/23.

I haven't gotten thru everything but here are some already-observed highlights:
> MCO goes dbl-dly for both of the holiday blocks, with the added flight a red-eye out of SAN;
> FLL (daily) service still begins (as of now) with the Thanksgiving block and continues at least thru 1/4, and probably beyond;
> CUN now shows as operating 1 weekend day only (mid-day Saturdays o/b & Sunday morning return) beginning 11/20 and continuing at least into January.
> JAC, BZN & HDN service begin (for the ski season) on 12/17, JAC op'ing Sat only, Steamboat & BZN will be tri-weekly;
> it doesn't appear there will be any extra Hawaii service beyond 1 daily flight to each island.

bb

As JAL is changing their equipment, BA is doing the same. Starting July 1, BA will be back with the Boeing 777 6x weekly for the remainder of the summer schedule (winter still has the daily 787-9 on the schedule). From a quick check, some flights seem to be operated by a Boeing 777-200ER in a three-class configuration with Club Suites (48J) and some by a Boeing 777-300ER with the old First/Club World configuration (14F/56J) but with First not available to book. I’m curious as to what prompted the change in the midst of the summer schedule — I assumed the flight to be doing well but seeing first the reduction in frequency and then the equipment change does not necessarily instill confidence.

santam wrote:

As JAL is changing their equipment, BA is doing the same. Starting July 1, BA will be back with the Boeing 777 6x weekly for the remainder of the summer schedule (winter still has the daily 787-9 on the schedule). From a quick check, some flights seem to be operated by a Boeing 777-200ER in a three-class configuration with Club Suites (48J) and some by a Boeing 777-300ER with the old First/Club World configuration (14F/56J) but with First not available to book. I’m curious as to what prompted the change in the midst of the summer schedule — I assumed the flight to be doing well but seeing first the reduction in frequency and then the equipment change does not necessarily instill confidence.

BA seem to be moving around their equipment a LOT. BA283 to LAX has had a 777-200ER, 777-300ER, A350-1000, and A380 in the last two months. I'm not sure why BA is so indecisive but I wouldn't say that seeing them go back to a 777 for SAN is an immediate cause for concern.