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http://www.ibj.com/airport-wan...p-flights/PARAMS/article/33978

I had previously heard about the meeting with United for a SFO flight but who knew they were talking to Nippon and Cathay Pacific about cargo operations? They also made it a point to express the importance of making good use of the soon to be vacant USPS hub.

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Hey Fit2Fly where did you here about this information?

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The IBJ Indianapolis Business Journal

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Fit2Fly when will the USPS hub be vacant?

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End of the year as per news articles.

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Fit2Fly is united adding SFO offical or did you just hear about this?

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Fit2Fly is united adding SFO offical or did you just hear about this?

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No, the article states that airport officials are meeting with United executives to explore the possibitly of adding a flight to SFO. I'm sure we'll know a little more in the next few weeks.

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This was in a recent Indy Star report.

"United and other airlines are weighing the profit in starting some non-stop passenger flights between Indianapolis and California or beyond to Asia."

Source: http://www.indystar.com/apps/p....dll/article?AID=2012204210317

To Asia? I find it highly unlikely but you never know. Get some great cargo contracts and some subsidies and you might be able to land nonstop service to Asia (NRT?).

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Indy,

I read that article and was thinking the same thing. Maybe our economic growth can support the possibilty of a nonstop flight to Asia? Perhaps Honda may have a hand in it with the announcement of them building a new plant in Southern Indiana. An Asian flight would do wonders for the airport and the city. If the execs can convince Cathay Pacific or Nippon Cargo to move into the old USPS hub, you never know what may happen. I would imagine the initial flights would be to SFO, SAN, SEA, PDX and an additional flight to LAX.

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I wish Delta would restart the focus city to get more feed for a NRT flight what aircrafts can make the trip?

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I believe an A330 could make the trip. I think Delta does DTW-NRT and MSP-NRT on their A330s.

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I think it is the A330-200 that has the legs for it. I'm thinking for some reason that it has the greater range than the 300 series but I could be wrong.

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I wonder what the daily passenger count is from IND-NRT that would support that flight. Maybe if Honda, Subaru, or another Asian based company with Indiana ties possible subsidizes a certain amount of seat, then maybe it can work. Then again, we'd be talking in the neighborhood of 200 daily seats to NRT backed by corporations and I'm not quite sure if that is viable for them. I guess we will know more once these meetings take place. I still would've be money that IND would have seen European flights before Asian flights.

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Fit2Fly,

What about the Honda Plant in Greensburg, IN would that tie into this conversation.

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On the surface IND-Europe over IND-Asia would make sense but when you look at it a bit deeper perhaps the Asian route makes more sense. Indianapolis and Indiana has a larger Asian business influence than European. While tourism leans more in favor of Europe I think it is pretty clear that business leans more in favor of Asia. And money talks. You are probably going to fill F to NRT faster than F to AMS. Plus you likely will get better cargo contracts to Asia.

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Very good point, Indy. I was talking to a guy in my office who was telling me that Indiana has in excess of over 200 Asian businesses here in the state. Most of which happen to be Japanese. If DL were to use an A330 on this route, I would imagine they would need to restructure the IND route system somewhat to feed other passengers into here who are connecting to NRT. I figure that way, they'd have a better chance of filling more seats. Time will tell.

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Could IND support a daily flight or would it be 3-4 times weekly?

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If I were a bettin man, I'd say it would be 3-4 days per week at the most. Daily nonstop service to NRT would be a little far fetched.

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Thats what i figured i noticed Delta doesnt even have SLC-NRT that surprised me