Wow. I figured India would have been substantially higher.
1 Like
Astonished to read today that San Antonio TX is getting their first regularly scheduled nonstop service to Europe! Condor Airlines will start a seasonal flight from San Antonio to Frankfurt in May 2024. San Antonio has a population of 1.4 million, so I’m wondering why an airline has not launched service from there to Europe before now. Calling former Texas residents to chime in.
Big driving culture, Dallas and Houston are closeish and huge hubs.
Frankfurt makes sense for the first stop, SA’s a huge military city and Germany has so many bases.
3 Likes
For a city that large, the San Antonio airport is surprisingly small, even smaller than RDU (9.5m passengers in 2022 compared to 11m+). Still, a bit shocked there wasn’t already nonstop international flights here.
2 Likes
Austin, which has nonstops to London Heathrow (BA/VS), Frankfurt (LH), and Amsterdam (KL), is only 75 miles away from San Antonio. Austin also has service to Central America and Canada which SAT lacks thought SAT does have a healthy amount of Mexican LCC service.
3 Likes
That probably because of their close proximity to Dallas and their American Airlines hub. They’re actually closer to Houston with there United Anilines hub. So there kinda sandwiched.
1 Like
Funny how they did that on the existing runway.
Actual construction, which could start next year, is expected to take five years. Converting the current runway into a taxiway will take another two.
Wow.
4 Likes
Yep. Massively complex project, both for permitting and construction. Before any paving happens, there’s a huge amount of earthwork, with multiple borrow sites. The paving itself is different from a typical roadway — it has to absorb the impact of a fully-loaded 777 bearing down on it. And hundreds of lights, signs and other infrastructure. Then operational readiness, testing, training, etc.
5 Likes
It would take 5 months in China or India
Apparently because it is airport construction, they wont be working with as many personnel since anyone coming onsite has to get authorization. That is just through the grapevine of reddit, but makes sense.
1 Like
I wonder how they pull that off?
There is no private “freehold” land ownership in China. All urban land in China is owned by the Chinese government and is commonly referred to as “state-owned land.” All rural and suburban land is owned by rural collectives (i.e., local groups of farmers) and is commonly referred to as “collective land.”
Real Estate Law | China | Global Corporate Real Estate Guide | Baker McKenzie Resource Hub
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/06/india/india-bihar-bridge-collapse-intl-hnk/index.html
3 Likes
Another reason I don’t want to travel there…
2 Likes
Yeah that’s called slave labor, homie…
2 Likes
I worked as an engineer for US Gov projects the past +10 years and my point was that the US used to be an infrastructure power house but nowadays is falling behind. Bureaucracy, excessive oversights permits and red tape cost time and money. Should a new runway really take 5 years to build?
You may not like the China example but just to give some perspective they built the largest and arguably most impressive airport in the world in <5 years with capacity up to 200m passengers a year.
But instead of comparing it to China let’s compare current US to former US:
The Golden Gate bridge cost 35M in 1932, ~700M in today’s dollar. The suicide nets will cost 400-500M
SF might be an extreme example but I wish we could get back to efficient and safe construction.
8 Likes
That is true we use to have our own manufacturing.
I found this interesting video from a kid on YouTube about RDU’s history. It is worth a watch!
4 Likes
I think all saw that I liked it they pointed at how they’ve gone through though times. I think Raleigh airport is a good low cost airlines hub, however regaining hub status im starting to rethink it.
2 Likes
https://x.com/rduairport/status/1719125506434470285?s=46
AF inaugural flight is tonight!
19 Likes