Margaritaville

He's suggesting that the next base will be Austin Texas. And in a page out of the regional airline management playbook, he's suggesting you should stick around because "good things are happening, you'll be sorry if you leave". He's also been wrong about every prediction he's made in his 12 posts here. There has been a rumor of an AUS base as long as anyone can remember. Lots of people would want it, and it could immediately become the most senior base, which is probably why they would never do it. High seniority means high individual base costs on paper, which the bean counters who are running this place hate. Look for new bases to be in places few people want to live. That's the ongoing pattern. The few top spots go senior, and the rest super junior. Established bases continue to lose flying to the new base. Zero sum game. I'd say top contenders are BLV, LCK, MEM, RFD, ATW, FNT.

KC135

I'm always spot on at predicting the next new base incorrectly but I would bet money it won't be AUS. Maybe next year or the year after since they are saying 3 new bases a year for the foreseeable future. My guess is the third one down on that list in the post directly above.

captnate702

I don't know if AUS will be the next base, but I think it is on the short list now more than before. Frontier has pulled back quite a bit from AUS and so that south terminal should be more available. I would say BNA is high, but it is congested and will be more difficult to find gates. Management is going to have to expand into bigger markets for their bases. The aggressive growth will be about connecting city pairs as opposed to traditional leisure markets. We added Key West, but how many more traditional domestic markets are out there that don't have competing service?

I think the new bases will be larger airports/markets like AUS, BNA, BLV, MEM and LCK as opposed to ATW, RFD and FNT. But all of this is just me reading tea leaves so its probably all wrong.

Jim Rockford

BNA is already a base.

trvsmrtn

Have you guys brought back any of the new hire classes that were sent home?

DiamondDriver

They aren’t scheduled to be back until mid-late May

SladeTin

Considering BNA is already a base, then yes I’d say the chances are high!!

Flightaware

Ask anyone who was at the IWA base meeting and they’ll tell you a certain SVP let it slip... it’s a known commodity. I never said what it was but you can find out if you put in the work.

KC135

This is subjective but the only other highly desirable place to live that currently meets the min number of routes for a base besides AUS would be SAN. With that said, I don't think a vacancy bid of 10-12 CA's would really "shake things up" on a 1,000 pilot list.

Margaritaville

I don't feel like calling everyone I know at IWA, and asking if they went to the meeting. If you know something why not quit playing games and come out with it? You can send me a pm if you're afraid.