Updates about Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport (NWFBIA)

[DuneAHH]

My husband and I drove by the new airport while in town last week. He commented that it looked more like the airports we fly into in the Caribbean.

you saw chicken coops and free range piglets???

 

[beachmouse]

There actually are likely to be a number of giant insane wild boars in any large piece of undeveloped land wherever you go in the Panhandle. New airport and all the buffer lands surround it would be no exception.

 

[GoodWitch58]

There actually are likely to be a number of giant insane wild boars in any large piece of undeveloped land wherever you go in the Panhandle. New airport and all the buffer lands surround it would be no exception.

as a matter of fact, I saw one of those huge wild boars very near the entrance just two weeks ago!

 

[Lake View Too]

as a matter of fact, I saw one of those huge wild boars very near the entrance just two weeks ago!

"huge wild bore"...that was probably Karl Rove...

 

[Matt J]

Anyone want to take bets on how long before we see the following headline?

"International Airport with name to long for headline shut down due to pig on runway!"

 

[beachmouse]

"International Airport with name to long for headline shut down due to pig on runway!"

It really doesn't take much to manage wildlife on runways at low to moderate volume airports. I've got a cousin who used to be an airport cop Up North at a moderate volume airport and wildlife management there didn't have to be much more than a guy with a golf cart chasing deer off the runway.

 

[Will B]

Oh, to have had a crystal ball...

I bet St. Joe is not a real happy camper right now...

Part of the enticement that they offered Southwest to fly into the new airport was to offset any operational losses that SW might have on the routes into Panama City for the next three years. I seriously doubt that the economic impact that the oil spill is likley to have on the area was ever a consideration. Hopefully, there is language in the agreement that allows the parties to back away if mutually agreed upon.

 

[ChillPill]

Any new info on the new airport? Any advice in general? I'll likely be flying out of SoWal two or three times over the next several weeks. I just want to fly safely and non-stop to New England (Boston or Manchester). How's Southwest, I've never flown with them...how's Delta these days?

 

[Matt J]

Any new info on the new airport? Any advice in general? I'll likely be flying out of SoWal two or three times over the next several weeks. I just want to fly safely and non-stop to New England (Boston or Manchester). How's Southwest, I've never flown with them...how's Delta these days?

Get a ride, parking is apparently a nightmare with all of the new passengers. They are working on it, but right now it's hit or miss. I'd suggest getting a ride.

There are no direct flights to Boston or Manchester, but you should be able to do it with only one stop. Southwest has bigger jets, no puddle jumpers. I believe Delta flies one actual Delta flight a day, no ASA, but the remainder are ASA.

 

[Kurt]

Randy Curtis, executive director of the new Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport, told board members that the airport?s passenger numbers continued to outpace the old airport by a large margin.

?I think we have been able to accomplish some remarkable things,? Curtis said. Commercial passengers moving through the airport totaled 67,967 in September this year compared to 24,850 passengers at the old airport in 2009, an increase of 173 percent.


Curtis said a drop-off in passengers on Delta Air Lines, anticipated because of the opening of low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines, has not occurred, and the airport is also picking up more local passengers


When the airport opened near West Bay in May 23, ?we went to capacity in the parking lot almost immediately,? Curtis said, even though the lot was more than three times larger than the parking lot at the old airport in Panama City.


Curtis said the airport is moving forward to expand the parking, add another bathroom for the terminal and purchase another loading bridge for passenger transfer from the terminal to the planes.

Pat Kelly, News Herald