Las Vegas airport

Quote: Wizard

Huge building for only 15 gates. I guess I stand corrected.

It might be 14, come to think of it, because it would be possible for there not to be a gate 13. Besides, the terminal is divided in two halves.

Quote:

I also didn't know there was a way to get from the D gates to Terminal 3 without using a bus. Actually, I've suspected it before, but have never actually seen such a passage or even signage for it.

At T3 there's a big sign saying "To D Gates" right after you pass security. I suppose the reverse sign isn't prominent.

Quote: Nareed

It might be 14, come to think of it, because it would be possible for there not to be a gate 13. Besides, the terminal is divided in two halves.



At T3 there's a big sign saying "To D Gates" right after you pass security. I suppose the reverse sign isn't prominent.

When going from the "D" gates in terminal one, as soon as you get off the tram you make a left before going up the escalator.

Quote: Nareed

It might be 14, come to think of it, because it would be possible for there not to be a gate 13. Besides, the terminal is divided in two halves.

Correct, no gate 13.

Quote: AZDuffman

Is LAS any kind of hub?

LAS is not a hub
Closest hubs are LAX PHX

Quote: terapined

LAS is not a hub

What defines a hub?

Quote: Wizard

What defines a hub?

The FAA will not define which airlines are hubs and which are not. In fact they use the term Large hub, medium hub, small hub, to classify airports by size. But they don't classify them by ratio of transferring passengers to origin and destination passengers.

We all have an intuitive notion of a hub, and clearly some airports are certainly hubs.


United defines their Hub Cities

Domestic
Chicago O’Hare International Airport
Denver International Airport
Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport
Los Angeles International Airport
Newark Liberty International Airport
San Francisco International Airport
Washington Dulles International Airport
Guam A. B. Won Pat International Airport

International
Narita International Airport (Tokyo, Japan)

But many airlines prefer to call them "focus cities" in part because it is better publicity. Newark is commonly thought of as a "fortress hub" for United airline, and the term usually brings congressmen armed for action.

Southwest doesn't have hubs per se, but a lot more people transfer airplanes in Las Vegas than in San Diego. I think the number is about 20% of the
passengers based on some survey information.

I saw a ranking of 33,256,610 O&D passengers at Las Vegas area and another for 42,869,517 passengers are the airport which would imply about 9.5 million transfers. But the study did not provide an official percentage so I am leaving 20% as an estimate.

It does bring up an interesting question, as the authority that runs Las Vegas airport is only interested in the origin and destination passengers. If there were hard statistics easily available, the authority may want to discourage transfer passengers or prohibit them if possible. The concept would be to preserve the capacity of the airport for the more valuable O&D passenger.

Quote: Wizard

What defines a hub?

Position, frequency and spokes :)

Quote: Nareed

Position, frequency and spokes :)

You should know by now that Mike is always looking for precise definitions.

Quote: Pacomartin

You should know by now that Mike is always looking for precise definitions.

I'm sorry: Location, frequency of departing flights, and number of routes.

In the late 80s, amid a fierce fare war and the meteoric rise and fall of low-cost airlines, I recall rather vividly a commentary on NBC News concerning an innovation called the "Wayport."

The idea was to build large airports in empty areas away from cities or even towns. People would fly there only to change into another plane that would then fly to where they actually want to go. Example, you fly from JFK to Utopia, Nebraska. From there you take a plane to, say, Seattle. The idea is that many more people wanting to go to Seattle from many more places (NYC, Miami, Chicago, Dallas, etc.) would all congregate at Utopia, Nebraska (fake city name) instead of flying to actual destination hubs, thereby easing traffic.

I'm sure you can see the myriad problems.

But funny enough that's what UPS and FedEx actually do! Every day lots of cargo planes fly from all over the world to Memphis and Kentucky. Their cargo is unloaded and sorted by region, then the planes are reloaded and leave for their one destination.

So if you send something from Utah to Nevada, it first goes to Kentucky and then to Nevada.

This works because 1) it's all cargo and 2) there's one flight to/from all destinations.

At Toluca and Mex City one often sees a FedEx DC-10 or MD-11, or a UPS 767 waiting all day long for their cargo.

Quote: Nareed

In the late 80s, amid a fierce fare war and the meteoric rise and fall of low-cost airlines, I recall rather vividly a commentary on NBC News concerning an innovation called the "Wayport."

Partly because in the late 80s Southwest Airlines was still making two intermediate stops to fly across the country. It's difficult to believe that Southwest did not fly transcontinental until 9-15-2002 when they began Baltimore-Washington International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport.

But the airports in the moderate climate regions where Charlotte, Atlanta, Dallas Fort Worth, Houston International, and to some ext Phoenix. These airports get way more traffic than the origin and destination traffic coming into the cities would suggest. Charlotte is ranked #22 Metropolitan Statistical Areas , but the airport is 8th ranked. But costs are low and it functions as an overflow airport. When travel to europe picks up in the summer, there are a lot of connections via Charlotte.