It’s not necessary, but who would stop them from trying? Best case would be either Allegiant or Avelo adding a flight or two to Manassas. There is zero chance of one of the big three adding flights from Manassas.
Maybe it will be more convenient than DCA or IAD if you live in Manassas/PWC, but is that going to be enough to sustain it as a commercial-service airport? It certainly won’t have any United or AA flights, since both have significant hubs nearby.
They want money from airlines from landing fees and other services they can provide. They've got a small terminal that's just sitting empty. They've got to pay for that somehow.
LA has a multiple small airports spread out across the area. Long Beach and Santa Ana are 21 minutes apart by road right now. There's also LAX, Ontario, and Burbank. The idea of another small airport isn't necessarily insane for an area with a growing population and a lot of sprawl (for better or for worse).
LAX is also somewhat capacity constrained where Dulles isn't, and the sprawl is so much worse that LA's outer airports are still 1/4 to 1/3 as busy as Dulles while LAX almost as busy as Dulles, National, and BWI combined.
It also protects them from the eventual NIMBY crusade that befalls all GA airports, if they run commercial services it’s a a lot harder to shut them down over noise concerns after idiots build houses right off the perimeter.
It also is right next to a VRE station. Once the Long Bridge project is complete and they move the VRE schedule to every 20 minutes in peak directions and every 30 minutes in the reverse direction, it'll be useful as a way to get around and could drive some traffic to the airport.
That said, my understanding from the cagey releases that I've seen about this airport are focused moreso on short-haul vacation flights over typical DCA/IAD, which they hope will be its niche.
Will they change the VRE to be a regular train. As for now it only runs for 2-3 hours in the morning direction DC and a few hours back in the afternoon
It’s already a fairly large airport with various cargo flights etc. Also fully supports private aircraft/jets. They want to add ‘commercial’ flights, like Delta, United etc
It's a towered airport with significant upgrades and FAA required systems for drone detection.
Also, Virginia National Guard does fly out of Manassas..
Lastly, it would be a hub for smaller , un-towered airports. There are 63 regional airports in all of Virginia. This will suck a bit for PWC residents, but overall will help with the extreme air traffic over IAD.
Towered vs untowered makes zero difference to try and attract airline service. Particularly at a small airport.
One of those things that airport managers think will drive up demand but airlines and pilots couldn't care less. You don't need a control tower to land a plane. They separate traffic in the 5 mile vicinity of the airport and perform some administration duties for the pilots flight plans. The pilots can handle that themselves if they need to.
Many smaller airports control towers close in the evening too while there is still inbound scheduled service and sometimes don't reopen until after several have already left too in the morning.
Not my point. Many of the 63 regional airports in Virginia are un-towered in Virginia. Manassas is very large in comparison to Stafford, Leesburg and many others.
Most of these airports have no money for towered operations, their budgets are very tight, and it's not in their plans. It's bloody difficult for me to get airport directors to upgrade their Internet.
Manassas makes a good consolidation hub for regional airports and an offload of short haul routes from IAD.
Manassas airport probably has the space to handle 1-2 commercial jets in the terminal area at any given time. It's not that large and the terminal building itself is fairly small. The airport space is pretty comparable to Leesburg. And Stafford isn't as small as you'd imagine.
Again towered vs non towered don't matter to virtually anyone but airport managers that think it does when it doesn't. Most airports don't have control towers because they simply don't need them. Their traffic count is very low. And again, pilots don't need towers to take off and land.
The next nearest regional airports with passenger service are Lynchburg, Harrisonburg, Charlottesville, Richmond, and Roanoke. They won't be offloading anyone to an airport 20 minutes from the hub (Dulles and DCA) they already serve. People aren't going to drive from Roanoke to Manassas. Airports like Roanoke, serving that populous and area are not going to shutter multi million dollar facilities with 6-12 gates to serve a terminal hours away that doesn't even have a jet bridge.
So, Stafford is small, they have a barely functional coffee pot in the main lobby and a snack vending machine near the pilots lounge. They flight school is on the left side hallway, bathrooms on the right side hallway.
I know most airports don't need towers. Stafford functions well without one.
I'm not expecting Roanoke to shut down, that would be asinine. I doubt anyone thinks any regional airport is going to shut down if Manassas gets some short haul routes, nor would I expect anyone to drive from Roanoke to Manassas. I hate driving to Roanoke. If I lived there, I would hate driving to Occoquan.
If any airline at all actually bites this apple it'll be like Allegiant or Avelo. However they already serve IAD.
I'd say airline service coming here is less than 5% happening. United has a hub at IAD. American at DCA and Delta doesn't do this sort of thing. Spirit is in no room for risks and Frontier and JetBlue plus Southwest don't either play the secondary airport game.
Airlines want to fly to IAD and DCA to get prime traffic from DC, not to try and poach a few people from western Virginia. Manassas in my opinion needs to fund subsidies to get this even remotely interesting to an airline. Given its DC suburbs they won't get it no matter who the administration is.
There is a lot of airports around the country right now begging for service, doesn't mean they're getting it. At the end of the day, can an airline turn a profit there? Thats 100% the concern. With Manassas their ideal passenger is someone so unwilling to drive the extra 20 minutes or so to Dulles. Will that fill an airplane 2-3 times a day, 5/7 days a week? Again in my opinion unlikely. The fares too would likely be extraordinary given the lack of competition and small demand.
I mean, if they do get service, it would likely be extremely limited and for the bulk of passengers require a connection. As I said above, United has a hub 20 minutes away. They wont do it. Neither will American and Delta, JetBlue Southwest, Frontier and Spirit. That's not how those airlines operate.
It would likely be attracting people trying to get to New Haven CT on Avelo. Which is already being operated from IAD.
Dulles wouldn't be losing tens of thousands of people to a less convenient alternative. Gary Indiana figured they could do the same thing multiple times and it never worked out. People from northwest Indiana would rather drive to Midway and Ohare and even South Bend for better prices and more options. Rockford IL has the same issues.
No I agree with you fully, I was just explaining to the guy I replied to why (in theory, saying the airport for some reason opened) it would pull people from western va
Those are all primary airports for those communities. They're not as big as Atlanta but they aren't secondary airports either. All of which were and continue to be served by major carriers like United and Delta
Manassas is truly a secondary airport. It has no commercial service. It serves the DC metro area and is secondary to DCA and IAD. Its primary function is to relieve DCA and IAD of private jet traffic. They instead have decided they want to get into the airline game despite it being unneeded. The people that fly from DCA will continue to do so. At best they're trying to poach Dulles traffic which is a fools errand. It's far from over capacity.
Is this in conflict with the Dulles flight paths? Will be very crowded skies over PWC and LC.
I wonder how much of this is being driven by the tech companies and data center providers? Land values out there have skyrocketed. More growth is on the horizon and this airport is trying to get ahead of it. In 20 years, it will be dense sprawl from Arlington all the way to Manassas. I expect parts of PWC and LC will eventually look like Tysons/Silver Line corridor.
My sister lives outside Front Royal, and they will drive to Charlottesville if they can get a flight that avoids them having to go to DCA or IAD. They would gladly use Manassas.
It’d increase volume due to the commercial traffic. The NCR air space already has a lot going on with additional attention due to the SFRA. Then consider the deconfliction of approach traffic.
It’s not too bad right now because mannasas is mostly general aviation, but if they get a large increase in traffic from the addition of airlines running revenue flights it spells more work for controls at Potomac approach.
It’s not necessary, but who would stop them from trying? Best case would be either Allegiant or Avelo adding a flight or two to Manassas. There is zero chance of one of the big three adding flights from Manassas.
No can stop them from trying. But, it would be like fishing in barrel, but forgetting to add the fish to the barrel imo
Maybe it will be more convenient than DCA or IAD if you live in Manassas/PWC, but is that going to be enough to sustain it as a commercial-service airport? It certainly won’t have any United or AA flights, since both have significant hubs nearby.
Dulles is like 25 minutes from Manassas it doesn’t make sense why this is something they’re interested in
$$$ that's why.
They want money from airlines from landing fees and other services they can provide. They've got a small terminal that's just sitting empty. They've got to pay for that somehow.
It's a Hail Mary trying to get an airline here.
And they’ll probably need to offer decent incentives to get an airline there. It’ll cost them a fair bit of $$$.
LA has a multiple small airports spread out across the area. Long Beach and Santa Ana are 21 minutes apart by road right now. There's also LAX, Ontario, and Burbank. The idea of another small airport isn't necessarily insane for an area with a growing population and a lot of sprawl (for better or for worse).
LAX is also somewhat capacity constrained where Dulles isn't, and the sprawl is so much worse that LA's outer airports are still 1/4 to 1/3 as busy as Dulles while LAX almost as busy as Dulles, National, and BWI combined.
The difference is, Ontario, Burbank, Long Beach and Santa Ana are significantly more populated than Manassas Virginia and that surrounding area.
It's a city of 105,000 plus other major areas to a town of 40,000.
It also protects them from the eventual NIMBY crusade that befalls all GA airports, if they run commercial services it’s a a lot harder to shut them down over noise concerns after idiots build houses right off the perimeter.
Tell that to Santa Monica lol
It also is right next to a VRE station. Once the Long Bridge project is complete and they move the VRE schedule to every 20 minutes in peak directions and every 30 minutes in the reverse direction, it'll be useful as a way to get around and could drive some traffic to the airport.
That said, my understanding from the cagey releases that I've seen about this airport are focused moreso on short-haul vacation flights over typical DCA/IAD, which they hope will be its niche.
Will they change the VRE to be a regular train. As for now it only runs for 2-3 hours in the morning direction DC and a few hours back in the afternoon
I think we need flights every five minutes from Manassas to DCA to unclog the roads
It’s already a fairly large airport with various cargo flights etc. Also fully supports private aircraft/jets. They want to add ‘commercial’ flights, like Delta, United etc
It's a towered airport with significant upgrades and FAA required systems for drone detection.
Also, Virginia National Guard does fly out of Manassas..
Lastly, it would be a hub for smaller , un-towered airports. There are 63 regional airports in all of Virginia. This will suck a bit for PWC residents, but overall will help with the extreme air traffic over IAD.
Towered vs untowered makes zero difference to try and attract airline service. Particularly at a small airport.
One of those things that airport managers think will drive up demand but airlines and pilots couldn't care less. You don't need a control tower to land a plane. They separate traffic in the 5 mile vicinity of the airport and perform some administration duties for the pilots flight plans. The pilots can handle that themselves if they need to.
Many smaller airports control towers close in the evening too while there is still inbound scheduled service and sometimes don't reopen until after several have already left too in the morning.
Not my point. Many of the 63 regional airports in Virginia are un-towered in Virginia. Manassas is very large in comparison to Stafford, Leesburg and many others.
Most of these airports have no money for towered operations, their budgets are very tight, and it's not in their plans. It's bloody difficult for me to get airport directors to upgrade their Internet.
Manassas makes a good consolidation hub for regional airports and an offload of short haul routes from IAD.
Manassas airport probably has the space to handle 1-2 commercial jets in the terminal area at any given time. It's not that large and the terminal building itself is fairly small. The airport space is pretty comparable to Leesburg. And Stafford isn't as small as you'd imagine.
Again towered vs non towered don't matter to virtually anyone but airport managers that think it does when it doesn't. Most airports don't have control towers because they simply don't need them. Their traffic count is very low. And again, pilots don't need towers to take off and land.
The next nearest regional airports with passenger service are Lynchburg, Harrisonburg, Charlottesville, Richmond, and Roanoke. They won't be offloading anyone to an airport 20 minutes from the hub (Dulles and DCA) they already serve. People aren't going to drive from Roanoke to Manassas. Airports like Roanoke, serving that populous and area are not going to shutter multi million dollar facilities with 6-12 gates to serve a terminal hours away that doesn't even have a jet bridge.
So, Stafford is small, they have a barely functional coffee pot in the main lobby and a snack vending machine near the pilots lounge. They flight school is on the left side hallway, bathrooms on the right side hallway.
I know most airports don't need towers. Stafford functions well without one.
I'm not expecting Roanoke to shut down, that would be asinine. I doubt anyone thinks any regional airport is going to shut down if Manassas gets some short haul routes, nor would I expect anyone to drive from Roanoke to Manassas. I hate driving to Roanoke. If I lived there, I would hate driving to Occoquan.
They should have consulted with you before paying for that 40 year lease I guess. Either way, Manassas City residents win.
Or most likely lose depending on the flight path noise
Flight path lines up over PWC residents
If any airline at all actually bites this apple it'll be like Allegiant or Avelo. However they already serve IAD.
I'd say airline service coming here is less than 5% happening. United has a hub at IAD. American at DCA and Delta doesn't do this sort of thing. Spirit is in no room for risks and Frontier and JetBlue plus Southwest don't either play the secondary airport game.
Airlines want to fly to IAD and DCA to get prime traffic from DC, not to try and poach a few people from western Virginia. Manassas in my opinion needs to fund subsidies to get this even remotely interesting to an airline. Given its DC suburbs they won't get it no matter who the administration is.
There is a lot of airports around the country right now begging for service, doesn't mean they're getting it. At the end of the day, can an airline turn a profit there? Thats 100% the concern. With Manassas their ideal passenger is someone so unwilling to drive the extra 20 minutes or so to Dulles. Will that fill an airplane 2-3 times a day, 5/7 days a week? Again in my opinion unlikely. The fares too would likely be extraordinary given the lack of competition and small demand.
-airline pilot
Manassas is western va?
Western northern VA I suppose
I mean the people in western Va that would typically fly out of dulles would now fly out of manassas instead
I mean, if they do get service, it would likely be extremely limited and for the bulk of passengers require a connection. As I said above, United has a hub 20 minutes away. They wont do it. Neither will American and Delta, JetBlue Southwest, Frontier and Spirit. That's not how those airlines operate.
It would likely be attracting people trying to get to New Haven CT on Avelo. Which is already being operated from IAD.
Dulles wouldn't be losing tens of thousands of people to a less convenient alternative. Gary Indiana figured they could do the same thing multiple times and it never worked out. People from northwest Indiana would rather drive to Midway and Ohare and even South Bend for better prices and more options. Rockford IL has the same issues.
No I agree with you fully, I was just explaining to the guy I replied to why (in theory, saying the airport for some reason opened) it would pull people from western va
Southwest made its name in the northeast serving secondary airports (PVD, MHT, BWI, Islip, etc.).
Those are all primary airports for those communities. They're not as big as Atlanta but they aren't secondary airports either. All of which were and continue to be served by major carriers like United and Delta
Manassas is truly a secondary airport. It has no commercial service. It serves the DC metro area and is secondary to DCA and IAD. Its primary function is to relieve DCA and IAD of private jet traffic. They instead have decided they want to get into the airline game despite it being unneeded. The people that fly from DCA will continue to do so. At best they're trying to poach Dulles traffic which is a fools errand. It's far from over capacity.
Just keep the parking for free for those who take the train daily. Please.
Is this in conflict with the Dulles flight paths? Will be very crowded skies over PWC and LC.
I wonder how much of this is being driven by the tech companies and data center providers? Land values out there have skyrocketed. More growth is on the horizon and this airport is trying to get ahead of it. In 20 years, it will be dense sprawl from Arlington all the way to Manassas. I expect parts of PWC and LC will eventually look like Tysons/Silver Line corridor.
Manassas airport already exists. If it conflicted with Dulles it wouldn't.
Manassas ops also are relatively limited.
How much tax money is going to this waste of a project?
why tf would anyone want to fly into Manassas? is this yet anothet grift attempt by Manassass, the city of payday loans and pawn shops?
This is a win for western nova residents
My sister lives outside Front Royal, and they will drive to Charlottesville if they can get a flight that avoids them having to go to DCA or IAD. They would gladly use Manassas.
Isn’t Manassas like 20 minutes from IAD?
Yes, it’s closer for them.
Adding the variable of needing a connection outweighs the cheaper parking and easier path through security.
Yes. What that persons family does is peculiar at best.
Bless her heart ❤️ makes no sense, but good on her 😂
I think people will be surprised by this, DCA is way over scheduled, some airlines may shift here
They’ll never give up the slots at DCA, they’re too valuable.
Yea no airline aren’t going to leave prime DC airport with all that enchantment for premium traffic to cater to the local Manassas population.
Uh, ok. Where are you going to be able to fly to from Manassas? If it hooks to major hubs, ok. If it doesn’t, 🤷♂️
This feels unsafe for the airspace that’s already incredibly taxing to control
What is your source on this claim? Are you an air traffic controller with Potomac Approach?
It’d increase volume due to the commercial traffic. The NCR air space already has a lot going on with additional attention due to the SFRA. Then consider the deconfliction of approach traffic.
It’s not too bad right now because mannasas is mostly general aviation, but if they get a large increase in traffic from the addition of airlines running revenue flights it spells more work for controls at Potomac approach.
Residents should get discounted flights to compensate us for the increased noise
Sounds like a good thing. The airports are already busy, building up one of the small airports should help